News
Date: April 13 2004 Project: 2008 Summer Games
Premier Peter Beattie today announced that the Queensland office of HOK Sport has secured a significant contract as sports architecture advisor for Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Games Main Stadium.
The contract is with the National Stadium Limited Liability Company, the consortium which is financing, constructing and operating the $400 million Beijing National Stadium - the main stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games.
“It is just the best news for a Queensland firm, which will do all the substantive work from its Queensland office,” he said
The contract was signed late last month between HOK Senior Principal Paul Henry and Mr Li Aiqing, the chairman of the National Stadium Company.
“HOK Sport was the firm behind our new Suncorp Stadium, which it designed in association with local firm PDT architects.
“HOK Sport is also designing the new Wembley Stadium in London, the new Centre Court for Wimbledon, which I inspected on last month’s trade mission, and the new Ascot Racecourse in the United Kingdom.”
HOK Sport worked with the National Stadium Company throughout the tender process in 2003, and this success follows four years of planning work in Beijing by a team led by Mr Henry.
The contract will involve HOK Sport providing sports specialist architectural advice and reviews to the National Stadium Company over the next year to ensure that the stadium design meets world’s best practice.
Mr Paul Henry paid special tribute to the Premier and his Trade Division as well as the Australian Embassy in Beijing and Austrade for their help over the years the firm has been working in China.
“The Australian Government and in particular the Queensland Government under Premier Beattie has encouraged us and consistently been available to help our marketing endeavours in China.
“This is a great strategic win for Queensland and will provide exposure around the globe because the Beijing Olympics is such a high profile event,” said Mr Henry.
HOK Sport’s involvement in Beijing began in December 2000 when Paul Henry was invited by the Chinese Government to help Beijing in the preparation for the 2008 Olympic Bid. HOK Sport subsequently conducted a strategic review of all venue development.
The firm was then appointed on the masterplan design review team and later carried out benchmark studies for each of the major facilities. This set both the Olympic and Overlay standards for all the venues and was the key information used to write the briefs for all of the venues tenders.
HOK is working on a number of other projects in China, including the design of the Nanjing Sports Park in Jiangsu Province, which will host the 2005 China National Games and includes a 60,000-seat stadium, an arena, swimming centre and tennis centre.
For further information please contact
Michele Fleming at HOK Sport (Brisbane)
Telephone +61 (0)7 3839 9155
Facsimilie +61 (0)7 3839 9188
Email media@hok.com.au