The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
(BEIJING, April 11) -- As one of the 11 renewed venues for the Beijing Olympic Games, the Workers' Indoor Arena will show its new face while preserving its original advantages in design and construction.
Inaugurated in 1961, the building in Chaoyang District has served as an important place for large-scale sports and cultural activities in Beijing for half a century.
With a construction area of 40,000 sq m, the four-story bowl-typed building has a typical suspended-cable ceiling structure with a span of 94 meters. The workers kept its look and structure intact in the recent renovation, making only some cleaning and whitewashing.
Perhaps the most eye-catching change comes from the double-layer aluminum alloy windows as the old-fashioned windows are not environment-friendly anymore and cannot save energy.
After expansion, the venue can contain 13,000 seats, including 1,000 mobile ones. The workers are enlarging the cross-sectional diameter of the columns by 10cm to increase their carrying capacity and ensure the safe operation of the large-scale activities inside.
The arena will have new ventilation, lighting, and electromechanical facilities, and an additional 240 press seats, 30 VIP seats and a 40 sq m VIP lounge, making it more comfortable, safe and people-oriented.
A venue for the Olympic boxing and Paralympic judo events, it is scheduled to host Good Luck Beijing International Boxing Invitational Tournament in November this year.
