Beijing to build offices, fun park at "Water Cube"

Beijing to build offices, fun park at "Water Cube"

BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - Beijing's Olympic swimming venue, the National Aquatic Center or "Water Cube," will mix white-collar workers with thrill-seekers as part of plans to erect an office building next to a water-themed fun park.
The distinctive bubble-wrapped building has been left largely intact since hosting the swimming, diving and synchronized swimming events at August's Beijing Games, but developers are due to start major renovations within the next few months, the Beijing News said on Friday
"Work (on the office building) is forecast to take 10 months, and be finished by the end of the year at the earliest," the paper paraphrased Wang Chun, a senior official in the Olympic Green Management Committee, as saying.
Developers would build "Beijing's largest water amusement park" on the south side of the $143 million venue, complete with a fake beach and a wave machine. A "high-class" members-only swimming club would round out the north and west sides, Wang said.