QUARRYHOUSE MAKES IT TO THE WINTER OLYMPICS!

Hornberger + Worstell’s Master Plan and Main Village Model of the Secret Garden

Now that we have your attention, QuarryHouse was figuratively at the Olympics. They collaborated with Burton Miller of San Francisco's Hornberger + Worstell Architects and Planners on one of the three 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics venues. Located in Taizicheng, Chongli District, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, the wood and stone Secret Garden Genting Resort references historical Chinese building typologies and contemporary alpine design. QuarryHouse consulted on stone sourcing, design, detailing, and engineering. The stonemasons found Chinese granite and created mockups, while their Chinese partners Wenbiao Chen and Charles Ragen brought the structures to life.

Bronze sitting dragon from the Taizicheng Ruins. Photo: Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology

Secret Garden and the remote nature reserve in the Dama Mountains are also home to a ruined Jin Dynasty (1115–1234) imperial summer palace. Taizicheng means "City of the Crown Prince," and villagers always believed in the myth of a royal inhabitant. They were right; during the area's development as an Olympic skiing venue, archeologists unearthed building materials, including bricks, roof tiles, ridge tiles, and roof ornaments in the shapes of dragons, phoenixes, and Kalaviṅka. Fifteen white porcelain bowls exhibiting impressed dragon and fish patterns marked with characters meaning "Bureau of Imperial Cuisine' along with two fragments of a gilt bronze dragon head ornament were some of the princely artifacts discovered.

Secret Garden Genting Resort