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Hadid concedes her $2 billion Japan National Stadium bid is dead

Hadid concedes her $2 billion Japan National Stadium bid is dead

Despite months of refusing to admit the case, Zaha Hadid has finally conceded that her bid for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Stadium is dead in the water.

After Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the country was scrapping Hadid’s plans in June earlier this year, the British-Iraqi architect has only now come out and said that the plans are indeed finished and that the project will go no further.

Since day one the project was steeped in controversy amid the backlash from critics denouncing the stadium for displacing residents of public housing while also burning a deep hole in Japanese pocketbooks. Hadid’s proposal would have cost a hefty $2 billion.

Another reason the project failed was due to the fact that Hadid’s company was also unsuccessful in finding a construction company. The Tokyo 2020 authority has made sure this issue will not rise again as conditions now stipulate that a construction firm must be in place for projects submitted in the new competition for the design.

In a statement, a spokesman on behalf of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) said: “It is disappointing that the two years of work and investment in the existing design for a new national stadium for Japan cannot be further developed to meet the new brief through the new design competition.”

In 2012, Hadid’s design topped 45 other submissions to claim the prize. She most recently released a 20 minute video pitch arguing its financial viability.

[h/t The Guardian.]

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