Zaha Hadid isn't walking away from the Tokyo Olympic Stadium just yet, according to a report from the Japan Times, even after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe publicly canceled construction of the stadium she designed and announced the effort would start from scratch. Keisuke Yoshio, an executive with the Japan Sports Council, which is overseeing construction for the 2020 Olympic effort, said that Jim Heverin, an executive with Zaha Hadid Architects, expressed the architect's wishes to remain involved in planning for the new stadium She hoped they could find a way to make use of the work done so far.
Despite the abrupt cancellation of the so-called "bike helmet" design, Hadid's firm is expected to collect 1.47 billion yen ($11.8 million) for its work thus far. That's just part of the estimated 5.9 billion yen ($47.6 million) in fees the Olympic committee is expected to shell out for finished work connected to the cancelled stadium, including significant payments to other design firms. On top of those expenses, a portion of the 3.29 billion yen ($26.5 million) commitment the committee made to material suppliers will need to be recouped, and its unknown if Hadid may decide to take legal action over the scrapped project.
The additional expenses, potential litigation and public pressure over mounting costs will certainly make the international competition for a new stadium design, set to begin this fall, a lot more interesting. Whichever plan is chosen will need to be finished by spring 2020 to open in time for the Olympics.
・Architect Hadid 'hopes to remain involved' in stadium [Japan Times]
・Japan Bails on Zaha's $2B Olympic Stadium, Will "Start Over" [Curbed]
・Apparently, Japan Is Not Really Into Zaha Hadid's Tokyo Olympic Stadium