The other Olympic buildings and how you can get to see them

Update (Sep 3, 11am): According to today's Beijing News, all the additional tickets to Paralympic events at the Water Cube that were made available yesterday, sold out in about 40 minutes. Tickets to events at the Bird's Nest are still available. The report also details the journalists failed attempts to book tickets online and how they were repeatedly met with "system error" messages. The official ticketing agency announced that of the 1.65 million tickets made available to the public (this number does not include the recently released extra tickets), 1.19 million, or 72%, have already been sold. There was no announcement as to how many extra tickets to the Water Cube went on sale yesterday.

As we mentioned last week, the Paralympic ticketing center has announced that they've discovered more tickets to events taking place at the popular Bird's Nest and Water Cube venues. The extra tickets go on sale today and you can purchase them via the official ticketing website or at various Bank of China branches around town. They've also announced that some tickets will be sold on the day of events at ticket booths outside the venues. As during the Olympics, if you have tickets to events at the Bird's Nest, Water Cube or any other venue in the Olympic Green (the Tennis Center, Fencing Hall, Hockey Stadium, Archery Field and the National Indoor Stadium) you also have same-day access to the Olympic Green and Olympic Park. For an idea of what to expect from a trip to the Olympic Green, keep reading Alex Pasternack's introduction to the sponsors pavilions that line the Green below. This is an edited version of an article that will appear in the upcoming issue of Urbane.

If Beijing's Olympic Games were as much about the city as about the athletes, one of the main venues of competition was the Olympic Green, a gargantuan moonscape of a public space that makes Tiananmen Square feel like a cozy courtyard. Here the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube and Digital Beijing and the freakishly long Convention Center commanded as much attention for their awesome physiques and showmanship as Jamaican world record setter Usain Bolt.

But what about the little guys, the underdogs, the forgotten architecture? As usual, the Olympic Green isn't just dotted with stadiums and media centers but an array of temporary pavilions erected by the Games sponsors. Like most architecture, they're essentially large advertisements for their clients, built at a cost of millions of dollars. And they're about as fun (or about as boring) as an advertisement too. With the Olympics and the environment predominant themes, some pavilions were standouts - even if they won't take home any medals. The pavilions are scheduled to stay open at least until the end of the Paralympics, on Sep 17. Although you can no longer access the Green - though you can take a look at some pretty cool "flyby" videos over at the BBC -, come the Paralympics (only 4 days to go) you'll be able to enter the Green with a ticket to any events taking place within the neighboring venues. Authorities have also announced that the Olympic Park, along with the Bird's Nest and Water Cube will be open to the ticket-buying public during the upcoming October National Day Holidays.

GE

A cubist assemblage of boxes for one of the world's biggest conglomerates appropriately resembles refrigerators piled on their sides. Inside, a collection of impressive multimedia exhibits centered around the five elements pushes forward GE's message of innovation and sustainability, or what they call "ecomagination." The building manages to take GE's industrial projects and environmental commitment and make it digestible and even fun. The last exhibit for instance allows visitors to turn virtual wind turbines by spinning their arms in front of a screen. It's a nifty combination of environmental education, athletics and slapstick comedy.

Coca-Cola Entering the Coke pavilion, or "Shuang Experience Center," was a relief. After a long, hot and smoggy march across the Green, it had the best air conditioning system of the day, which for Olympic corporate pavilions, is saying a lot. Then again, this is all about Coke, which we learn must be served at -4 degrees (a bottle of the stuff awaits each visitor at the end of their tour). After climbing a Willy-Wonka-esque ramp towards a power stone-esque logo at the center, visitors are ushered into a screening room for a panoramic film about New Beijing, the Olympics and of course "shuang" 爽 (in case you don't know, that's the feeling you get when you gulp down an ice cold Coca-Cola after a long workout, we're told). Aside from exhibits that contain vintage Olympics souvenirs and supersized Coke bottles designed by artists from each province, the pavilion features an exhibition on Coke's sustainability efforts. There's a t-shirt made of recycled Coke bottles that was handed out to each athlete, and a wall featuring a pledge from every athlete to recycle their bottles during the Olympics.

Adidas

The most remarkable aspect here isn't the building but the three story glass showroom at one end, featuring a three story circular ramp the inside of which doubles as a ribbon-like LED screen. Designed by Creative Technology Group, the company that made the opening ceremony's 43,000 square-foot scroll screen, the "three stripes" display shows images of Olympics past along with the celebrated Adidas ads for the 2008 Games.

China National Petroleum Group (CNPC)
It may come as no surprise that the company with the least appealing environmental profile would be the one most eager to appear green. But how CNPC has done it -- by cladding the building in thick, bright green grass - is a refreshing reminder that some companies think consumers are downright dumb. Or that some companies are just dumb themselves. Inside, a panoramic poster shows an oil field atop a grassy hill, beneath the inexplicable slogan, "Green Olympics, Green Oil Field," without any explanation as to what that means. Another slogan might have been better: "Green Olympics, Green Washing!"

Bank of China
To bank executives, their headquarters designed by IM Pei and located in Beijing's Xidan area, is a hard building to beat. So the designers simply copied it's conservative lines and late '90s glassy touches. The bastardized miniature version has a pathetic, comical element to it, like a set piece in a Michel Gondry music video: the central atrium, topped by Pei's famous pyramidal glass design, looks measly if you've seen the real thing, making the whole building look even more flimsy than it actually is. For a company that prides itself on seriousness and dependability, those are not characteristics you want in architecture, even if it's made to be torn down in two months.

Runners-Up
Johnson & Johnson
The American company that helped provide the chemical used to protect the Terracotta Warriors has brought a couple of the warriors to their pavilion. Located north of the GE pavilion, it can be hard to find, especially because it's hidden by the hundreds of bamboo stalks that symbolize the company's green concerns.

China Moblie
A completely un-notable modernist slab facade covered in horizontal blue bars is punctuated by an oversize statue of Jay Chou (Zhou Jielun), bursting through one side of the building and actor Ge You's smiling face erupting from the other.

Volkswagon
A partially open air pavilion covered by curved glass on one side, providing a good view of the black government VW-made Audi A6s driving past.

Links and Sources

Flickr: Andy Miah
Beijing Paralympics 2008: More Beijing Paralympic tickets available
Boston.com Olympics Blog: One last lap around the Olympic green
BBS.163.com: 中国移动奥运村展厅演绎梦幻，却不如代言人吸引人——中移动展馆图片
BBC: The BBC Sport's Olympic Maps
BBC: Olympic Flyby: Olympic Green
BBC: Olympic Flyby: Olympic Green