After scrapping the original architectural plan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic stadium due to a ballooning cost estimate and ridicule over its resemblance to a bicycle helmet, officials selected a new design on Tuesday.
Toshiaki Endo, the minister in charge of the 2020 Games, said the wood-latticed structure was in “harmony with the surrounding environment” and exhibited “Japaneseness.”
The original proposal by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid won the design competition in 2012 and it was praised by a panel of judges for its futuristic conception.
However, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the executive decision in July to rescind the deal when public uproar. . .
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