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Construction of the China National Grand Theatre, which once provoked wide arguement for its bold design and thus drew more public attention, has achieved a stage result by basically completing the theater hall, a sub-project of the whole theatre by a company under the Beijing Urban Construction Co., Ltd.
The Grand Theatre has draw wide attention, because, first, it is located behind the Great Hall of the People, west side of Tiananmen, the political center of China. Secondly, it consumes a huge investment, at least 3 billion-yuan. Besides, the entertainment establishment by a famous French designer, Paul Andreu, has been criticized by Chinese experts as not matching with surrounding buildings and of unreasonable structure. For one reason or another, the egg-shaped design along the Chang'an Avenue has also met joint opposition from many experts and scholars.
Among voices of support and protest, the theatre has begun to take shape.
The State Council officially approved the project in April, 1998. As China's top art performance center, it covers a total floor space of around 180,000 square meters, including 130,000 square meters for the main building and 50,000 square meters underground facilities. It is composed of opera hall, music hall, drama hall, small theater and corresponding facilities to meet the needs of various art styles. The opera hall, with 2500 seats for audience, mainly serves for performances of opera, dance drama and ballet. The music hall is for symphony and folk music with 2000 seats. The drama hall has a stage for Peking Opera, local operas, drama, national singing and dancing, with 1200 seats. The small theater with 500 seats serves for experiment modern drama and small-scale drama.
Construction of the Grand Theatre is conducted in accordance with international practice and standards. The design and stage mechanical equipment are decided through international bidding, and construction and supervision through domestic bidding, with the construction period expected to last for three years. The design draft was selected out of 69 candidate designs from 10 countries after two rounds of competition and three times of modification. Finally the French design by ADP Company, supported by Qinghua University, stood out the first.
The modern and special French design displays characters of the 21-century architecture. The central building is ellipse-shaped, surrounded by ponds and lawns. The project was kicked off on December 13, 2001, and is to be completed by 2004.
(People's Daily February 27, 2003)
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