One of Japan's most renowned architects denounced Tokyo's plan to renovate the national Olympic Stadium for the 2020 Games, calling the stadium expensive and so large it would disrupt its surrounding landscape.

Fumihiko Maki leads a group of prominent Japanese architects protesting plans for the New National Stadium designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid scheduled to be built in time to host the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

"I don't criticize the design so much, instead my criticism goes to the program, why such a huge gymnasium is necessary," the 85-year-old said during a news conference Tuesday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.

The new 70-meter-high stadium featuring a retractable roof - its shape likened to a giant bicycle helmet - will accommodate 80,000 spectators and will replace the existing open-air National Stadium that was used for the 1964 Summer Olympics.

But Mr. Maki, a Pritzker Prize laureate known most recently for designing Tower 4 of the new World Trade Center in New York City, has said the building is too big for the planned 11-hectare site.