Updated: Aug 02, 2011 Reviews (1)
The National Center for Performing Arts, which opened in 2007, was one of the most controversial of Beijing's modern architectural projects. When the designs were released, many Beijingers were horrified by the elongated dome-like structure, referring to it derisively as ''the egg,'' and complaining that its design was out of keeping with its historic location just west of Tiananmen Square. Its defenders countered that all great buildings were controversial at one time, and that people should wait to see the finished structure.
Many of the doubters were silenced when the building opened and its magnificent interior was revealed. The exterior is a shell in the shape of a half ellipsoid covered by titanium panels, and broken in the middle by a curtain of glass that opens gradually from top to bottom. It is surrounded by an artificial lake in a new urban park. The entrance and other passages are under the lake. The complex consists of a 2,416-seat opera hall, a 2,017-seat concert hall, a theater and a lobby joined under a titanium and glass shell that covers the public area,
