Tokyo Breaks Ground On $1.5B National Stadium To Be Completed In '19

Tokyo "held a groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday" for a $1.5B National Stadium to host the 2020 Olympic Games, according to the AP. Japan PM Shinzo Abe, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and other dignitaries "launched the construction at the site of the demolished National Stadium, which was used during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics." The ceremony "ended with a video replete with computer graphics showing how the stadium is expected to look and function" once completed by Nov. '19. Work on the stadium in the center of the city "fell behind schedule because the government abandoned the original design amid spiraling costs." Kengo Kuma, the architect of the new, open-air stadium, "chose a wooden lattice design that echoes traditional styles seen in Japanese shrines and pagodas." It is intended "to blend in with surrounding parkland and will be structured to minimize costs for heating and cooling" (AP, 12/11).