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The New Yorker’s architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, takes a brief look back at the buildings that made us gasp in 2008.  He predicts 2009 and 2010 will be slim years for new buildings, so now is the time to cherish what’ve we got.

In time for the 2008 Olympics, the world saw the fruits of China’s decision to put aside nationalism, hire the greatest architects from around the world, and let them do the kind of things they could never afford to do at home. That brought us two of the greatest buildings of the year, Herzog and de Meuron’s extraordinary Olympic Stadium, the stunning steel latticework structure widely known as the Bird’s Nest; and Norman Foster’s Beijing Airport, a project that was not only bigger than any other airport in the world, but more beautiful, more logically laid out, and more quickly built. And the headquarters of CCTV, the Chinese television network, by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren, of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture—a building which I had thought was going to be a pretentious piece of structural exhibitionism—turned out to be a compelling and exciting piece of structural exhibitionism.

He goes on to list these other buildings:  The California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco, by Renzo Piano (pic); The New Museum, on the Bowery in New York, by SANAA Architecture (pic); the Art Gallery of Ontario expansion, in Toronto, by Frank Gehry (pic); the new Cathedral of Christ the Light, in Oakland, by Skidmore partner Craig Hartman (pic); Paul Rudolph’s Art and Architecture Building, at Yale (now renamed Paul Rudolph Hall), by Gwathmey Siegel (pic); The Eldridge Street Synagogue, on the Lower East Side, by Walter Sedovic (pic); and finally, Olafur Eliasson’s extraordinary New York Waterfalls Project (pic).

My biggest complaint?  No photos with the article.  Not sure how you can have an article about architectural design and not include a slideshow or photos.

Anytime I come across a story about pandas, I think of Ed Norton in Fight Club. He goes, “I wanted to put a bullet in every panda that wouldn’t have sex to save itself.”  Or something like that.

And then there are the pandas who bite people in China.

He said the student was bitten in the arms and legs. Two foreign visitors who saw the attack ran to get help from workers at a nearby refreshment stand, who notified park officials, the employee said.

The student was pale as he was taken away by medics but appeared clear-headed, he said.

“Yang Yang was so cute and I just wanted to cuddle him. I didn’t expect he would attack,” the 20-year-old student, surnamed Liu, said in a local hospital, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Liu underwent surgery Friday evening and was out of danger, but will remain in the hospital for several days, Xinhua said.

Yang Yang, who was flown to Guilin last year from Sichuan province, was behaving normally on Saturday and did not seem to suffer any negative psychological effects, the park employee said.

Seriously?  I just wanted to cuddle with the panda?  What is wrong with people?

Fresh off the success of the Olympics China has announced that it plans to have the fastest rail lines in the world within four years.? The trains will reach top speeds of 380 kmh (236 mph).? Currently Japan’s Shinkansen “bullet train” and Siemens’s ICE train average around 300km/h, but a new version of the Japanese train is expected to operate at 360km/h when it enters service.

“It is possible that we can start to manufacture 380km/h trains in two years time, and put them into service on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway,” Mr Zhang told the state-owned China Daily.

These are different from maglev trains, which can reach speeds in excess of 561 kmh (361 mph) on test tracks.? China’s maglev, which runs from Shanghai to Pudong International Airport reaches actual speeds of 430 kmh.? I’ve never understood why Amtrak or the American government has not invested in high speed railways similar to what they have in Europe, and now more prominently in China and Japan.? I’m firmly on record that America would be wise to convert existing rail lines into maglev trains, having dedicated lines from major city to major city.

So one on the East Coast running from Portland, ME to Miami, Fla. stopping only in Boston, New York, Philly, DC, etc.? One line on the West Coast running from San Diego to Seattle and another for the midwest, et cetera.? This could work and alleviate the herded cow mentality of the airways by providing a legitimate alternative when travelling short distances between proximate cities.

But america doesn’t invest in infrastructure the way other countries do and that’s a debate for another day.