LONDON | 2012 Olympics Park Development News

[acc521]

In an example of awesome analysis, it has been concluded that most of the economic benefits of the London Olympics were felt in London. Amazing.

[PortoNuts]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgeezer/8203414529/



http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgeezer/8204504888/



http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgeezer/8203415041/

[PortoNuts]

London Olympic Park gets $468 million post-Games makeover

London's Olympic Park has taken on the air of a construction site again, with work under way on a 292 million pound transformation before Britons can use facilities like the swimming pool and cycle trails.

Builders in hard hats were on Tuesday dismantling temporary seats towering above the pool where American Michael Phelps won a record 18th Olympic gold in August. However, the failure to settle on a tenant for the centrepiece Olympic Stadium, built at a cost of some 430 million pounds, has taken some of the gloss of a successful Games that silenced the sceptics.

Premier League club West Ham United remain the most likely tenant but wrangling over the division of the costs of turning the stadium into one also suited for top-flight football has slowed the process.

The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), the public body responsible for the site, is scheduled to discuss the stadium issue again next week and there are hopes that a decision will be announced before the end of the year.

However, the LLDC has warned the stadium will not open before 2015, prompting a frustrated UK Athletics Chairman Ed Warner to denounce the delay as a farce.

The Olympic Stadium will hold the 2017 World athletics Championships and is on the list of potential venues to host matches during the 2015 rugby World Cup but that deadline is beginning to look tight.

MAJOR EVENTS TARGETED

The Games cost the British public around 9 billion pounds and spending during the Olympics helped to give a one-off boost to Britain's struggling economy.

London has restarted free bus tours around the Olympic Park, keen to maintain the goodwill generated by the Games and show that it will have a viable future as part of plans to regenerate what was long a rundown part of east London.

Workers on the site on a bleak November day were focused on getting it ready to reopen to the public next July - a year on from the Games - with a new name of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

"We want the park to open as quickly and as safely as possible," Colin Naish, director of infrastructure at the LLDC told reporters, adding the target was for a phased reopening to be completed by the middle of 2014.

Contractors Balfour Beatty and BAM Nuttall are expected to employ up 1,000 workers on the conversion. The swimming pool is scheduled to be used as a public leisure centre from 2014, although London has also bid to stage the European swimming championships at the venue in 2016.

Britain is seeking to build on the good publicity generated by the Olympics to attract lucrative international events. It has also applied to stage the 2016 world track cycling championships on the London site. ($1 = 0.6241 British pounds)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/1...8AQ0NZ20121127

[PortoNuts]

West Ham to move into Olympic stadium

West Ham United have been named as the preferred candidate to move into the Olympic stadium but a number of questions remain over the finances of the deal.

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http://www.channel4.com/news/west-ha...adium-decision

[PortoNuts]

£9 billion Olympics 'good value', says spending watchdog

The public sector funding package of just under £9.3 billion was more than three times the £2.4 billion cost estimated during the bid phase. But the total is now expected to come in at just over £8.9 billion, saving £377 million, although the final figure will not be known until 2014.

The National Audit Office said: “By any reasonable measure the Games were a success and the big picture is that they have delivered value for money. LOCOG [the Games organisers] sold 11 million tickets and our athletes excelled. The contribution of the ceremonies and the volunteers was a huge part of the success and we do not underestimate the work involved. Crucially, the Games passed off without major transport disruption or security incident. The scale of the construction programme and the fact that it was completed on time and within budget is impressive.”

Boris Johnson hailed the report, saying: “The doomsters and Olymposceptics have been confounded yet again.” The National Lottery stands to be reimbursed for much of its contribution, which will be available to distribute to good causes. This includes a share in the proceeds of the future sale of the Olympic Park.

Also in the report, the NAO warned that the Cabinet Office would have to show strong leadership in bringing together the various organisations responsible for coordinating the legacy of the Games. The cost of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s programme to build venues and infrastructure is expected to be £6.7 billion, compared to the £8.1 billion that had been made available in the 2007 budget.

The NAO said success of the Games spanned from the opening and closing ceremonies through to the 11 million tickets sold for the Olympics and Paralympics, while meeting the huge challenge of recruiting and deploying 70,000 volunteers. British athletes won 65 medals, including 29 gold, at the Olympics, and 120, including 34 gold, at the Paralympics. Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: “Few could have envisaged how successful the London 2012 Games would turn out to be.”

But the Games had faced an added £514 million bill to cover venue security costs, after contractor G4S fell short in supplying the agreed number of security guards, and extra troops and police were deployed to plug the gap. The NAO’s post-games review said that 135,000 additional days of military personnel time had been provided, at a cost of £36 million, according to figures supplied by the Ministry of Defence. It said the Home Office had calculated that the police service provided 12,000 shifts at an estimated cost of £6 million. Margaret Hodge, chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, said the exception to the smooth build-up and delivery of the Games was G4S's "unacceptable failure" to fulfil its contract.

Boris Johnson said: “This report puts into black and white the scale of the achievement in organising such a successful festival of sport, and pays tribute to the many different players who helped make the Games the greatest show on earth.”

Sports minister Hugh Robertson said the UK can look back with pride “on an outstanding Olympics and a groundbreaking Paralympics, which showed Britain at its best".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oly...-watchdog.html

[Mr_Andersonn]

Green light for retractable seating


Filed: Wednesday, 12th December 2012
By: Staff Writer


The Olympic Stadium will feature four stands of retractable seating around the pitch - should West Ham United agree to move to Stratford.

Fans attending an emergency Supporters' Advisory Board meeting at the Boleyn Ground this evening were shown the first ever artists' impression of how the new stadium will look.

And KUMB.com can reveal that this will include fully retractable seating that brings all four stands in the lower tier - which will replace the existing banks of seats - to within a few metres of the playing area.

The new images, which are set to be released to the public in the new year indicated how the new roof, that will cover the entire seating area, will look. Those present at the three-hour meeting were also shown detailed plans of how the rest of the stadium would take shape following its £200million refit.

Unfortunately we are unable to bring you any further details of the stadium or the Club's plans as all members of the SAB were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) upon entering the meeting room.

However a show of hands requested by co-Chairman David Gold - who gave a short yet passionate speech backing the move - indicated that the vast majority of fans present appeared to support the club's plans for the Olympic Stadium.

Karren Brady, who chaired the meeting also confirmed that a supporters' poll would take place within the next few weeks - although details of exactly what that will entail remain unconfirmed at present.

Former Hammer Tony Cottee also appeared briefly to back the Club's plans.

Read more at http://kumb.com/story.php?id=126606#t5ElzQwHTLY8ra0G.99

[PortoNuts]

[PortoNuts]

Copper Box on Olympic Park could become permanent home of British Lionhearts franchise

The Copper Box on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford could become the permanent home of UK-based World Series of Boxing (WSB) franchise British Lionhearts next year.

The £43 million (€53 million/$70 million) 6,000 capacity Copper Box was completed in 2011 before it hosted handball and the modern pentathlon fencing discipline during the London 2012 Olympics and then goalball during the Paralympics.

The venue is set to reopen next year as a multi-sport arena for community use and Lionhearts general manager Matt Archibald said his franchise is currently in talks with the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) about using the venue as their permanent home when WSB Season Four gets underway at the end of 2013.

"There are plans afoot to go onto the Olympic Park and into the Copper Box next year," Archibald told insidethegames. "We are in negotiations with the Legacy Company and we think that would be a fantastic base for us.

"We are in Season Three right now and our plan is to build up the franchise as much as we can over the next year. Then in WSB Season Four, which starts at the end of next year, hopefully we can be in the Copper Box."

The Lionhearts joined WSB for the start of Season Three last month and have so far won three of their four matches.

They have staged two home bouts with the first coming at Celtic Manor in Newport, Wales last month and the second at Earl's Court in London on Friday (December 14), where the Lionhearts team featuring London 2012 Olympic silver medallist Fred Evans defeated the German Eagles 4-1.

http://www.insidethegames.biz/sports...arts-franchise

[PortoNuts]

Originally Posted by RMB2007

Application for this development now on the PPDT's site:

[PortoNuts]

London to host 2017 IPC World Championships

After staging one of the best and most-talked about Paralympic Games in history this summer, London was announced as the host city of the 2017 IPC Athletics World Championships today.

The Championships will be held in July 2017 at the Olympic Stadium, just a month before the same venue plays host to the IAAF World Athletics Championships. London will become the first city to host the two Championships side-by-side, recreating the summer of sport which transformed the British capital in the summer of 2012.

The Greater London Authority will organise the Championships, partnering with UK Athletics, ParalympicsGB, the London Borough of Newham, the London Legacy Development Corporation and the University of East London.

During the bid process, London Mayor Boris Johnson used the success of London 2012 to argue for the return of international Paralympic competition to the British capital, which receives 26 million overnight visitors annually.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and Chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation, said:

“This year London just staged the best spectacle of sport the world has seen. By bringing the IPC Athletics World Championships to our wonderful Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park just a month before the World Athletics Championships, the capital is poised to recreate the magic of 2012.

“London’s Paralympic Games were the first ever to sell out, and these Championships provide a perfect chance to build on that enthusiasm for disabled sport, bringing back the world’s greatest Paralympians to the Olympic Stadium, and at the same time providing a major economic boost to the capital.”

London’s international accessibility, infrastructure, logistics, expertise and enthusiasm to host global events was honed during the 2012 Games. The city hosted the first-ever sold out Paralympics this summer, staging one of the most accessible Paralympic events ever and establishing the foundation of a legacy for years to come after what IPC President Sir Philip Craven hailed the “best Games” in history.

In total 1,134 athletes took part in track and field events in London this past summer, setting 102 world and 139 Paralympic records. Of the 141 countries that participated in athletics, 75 won at least one medal.

The athletics competition at the Paralympics drew sold-out crowds of 80,000 for every session and attracted more than a billion cumulated television viewers worldwide at what is now one of the world’s most well-known stadiums.

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http://www.londonlegacy.co.uk/london...championships/

[PortoNuts]

Construction Starts On BDPs Tallest Yet



Construction work has begun on the tallest tower yet penned by the Building Design Partnership, a 90 metre tall tower for higher education developer, Unite.

The project is the first building to start construction on the 2012 Olympic Park as the next phase of the redevelopment, popularly dubbed by politicians as "legacy". The site sits to the east of Westfield's Stratford mall on what served as a temporary coach park during the games.

BDP has designed the footprint of the building to be that of a C with the tower element winding around the outside of the site, and stepping down as it goes. The interior of the C will be an internal courtyard with the building orientated to allow maximum solar penetration into this space.

Within, it will contain 951 study bedrooms arranged in both cluster flats, and studio apartments for those who can afford them. There will also be ground floor retail, whilst base of the site will also be dedicated to a new coach station.

As a nod to green technologies the entirety of the building including the water will be heated by CHP that employs sustainable biofuels.

Once completed in time for the 2014-2015 academic year the tower will be the third tallest in Stratford after the Spirit of Stratford and the marginally taller Stratford Plaza.

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/news.php?ref=3224

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Page Facebook - Support Istanbul 2020 Olympic Bid : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Suppo...46920428749411

[LondonFox]

Are there any plans for 'Skyscraper' style buildings in the overall development?

[st_hart]

image hosted on flickr

Olympic Park then and now by st_hart, on Flickr
image hosted on flickr

Olympic Park then and now by st_hart, on Flickr