London Olympics 2012 | These Knock-Down, Shrinkable Games | By Hugh Pearman - WSJ.com

London Olympics 2012 | These Knock-Down, Shrinkable Games | By Hugh Pearman - WSJ.com: Today things are different. Recession or no recession, national pride is at stake. But while there are a few architectural showpieces, London has not tried to compete with Beijing. Compare the main stadiums for the two Games and that is very apparent: Beijing's lavishly overengineered "Bird's Nest" stadium, designed by the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron with artist Ai Weiwei, was built purely to impress and with no long-term role in mind. In contrast, the skeletal-white Olympic Stadium in London was designed—by sports specialist Populous with architect Sir Peter Cook—as a minimal structure. Its circling 'crown' of ring beams is actually made of sections of ready-made steel gas pipe bolted together.