Photograph by Andy Ryan at
Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, Mass.

As the director of the Planning & Construction Department for Beijing’s winning bid for the 2008 Olympics, Yan Huang helped bring home a prize that China had long coveted. Now, as the deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Planning Commission and deputy director of the Olympic Venue Development Coordination Commission, she has to make sure that the political victory turns into a physical reality and contributes to Beijing’s long-term development as a modern capital with a remarkable historic core. Trained as an architect in China, Belgium, and the U.S., Huang is currently spending a school year at Harvard University as a Loeb Fellow.

Q: What is your biggest challenge in terms of the Olympics?

As a planner, I need to make sure that not only are the Olympic facilities built on time and with the best quality design, but that they work as part of our long-term strategy for the development of Beijing. Like cities in the United States, Beijing needs to balance private and public development pressures, control sprawl, and upgrade our infrastructure. With the Olympics, our goal is to integrate the sports venues with other projects such as housing, hotels, retail, offices, convention facilities, and museums. We want to make really good urban areas, not just for the duration of the games but for the long term.

Were there any particular models you used for your Olympic plans?

For us, one of the most successful Olympic models was Barcelona. They brought in new thinking, the best foreign architects, and made Barcelona a more global city as a result. The long-term impact on the city has been very positive. Sydney, on the other hand, did a great job creating a place for the games, but is having trouble making it work afterward because the site [Homebush Bay] is so far from the rest of the city.

What are some of the key challenges for Beijing as a whole?

We need to create regionwide solutions to urban growth. Just as with American cities, we have many different jurisdictions within the greater municipal area, and each one has its own perspective and needs. Car ownership in Beijing has been growing 25 percent annually in recent years and traffic problems are getting very bad. During the past three to five years, we have made a huge investment in highway construction, but now we need to increase our public transportation system. We have four or five subway lines under construction right now and are building light-rail lines out to the suburban areas.

What has it been like spending a year at Harvard?

It has been great. At home, I always feel like a fireman, dealing with whatever is most urgent at that moment. But here I’ve been able to think about the big picture and what’s really happening in Beijing—what has been successful, what hasn’t, what can we improve. There are a lot of differences between the U.S. and China in terms of economics and politics. But the urban challenges in both countries are actually quite similar.

What are some of the key things you’ve learned this past year?

I’ve learned to look at the whole picture. It can be very dangerous for Chinese cities to copy directly from urban development in America. There are some things we can learn from, but some that we should avoid.