LONDON | 2012 Olympics Park Development News

[ferge]

It would look an utter mess, IMO

[miami305]

Originally Posted by PortoNuts

Nice video....cant wait....London 2012.!!

[PortoNuts]

Time to shine: Copper topping for London 2012 Handball Arena as roof is complete

New images from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) show the roof of the Handball Arena as complete and the progress made in cladding the 7,000-seat venue with sustainably-sourced copper.

The top section of the Arena is being wrapped in 3,000sq m of copper with a high recycled content, of which 65 per cent is from production scraps. Work started after the unique ‘naturally lit’ roof of the venue was recently finished.

Events being staged at the Arena include men’s and women’s preliminary stages and the women’s quarter finals for the Handball competition, the Fencing discipline of the Modern Pentathlon, and, during the Paralympic Games, Goalball.

Construction of the venue is due to be completed next spring, with the copper cladding on track to finish by the end of the year.

Other environmental elements of the venue’s design include a rainwater harvesting system which collects water from the roof, reducing usage by an estimated 40%.

ODA Chairman John Armitt said: 'Sustainability was one of the strengths of London's bid and is integrated into the design of all the venues on the Olympic Park. By building energy-saving measures into the Handball Arena, such as a naturally lit roof and a rainwater-harvesting system, users in legacy will benefit from savings on resources for years to come.'

London 2012 Organising Committee Chair Seb Coe, said: 'London is the first Summer Host City to embed sustainability into its planning and operations. The Handball Arena is an excellent example with an energy efficient design and it also has a sporting legacy because after 2012 it will become a multi-use sports centre capable of being used by all levels from community users up to international competitions. That’s new thinking from London and something we look for future Host Cities to adopt.'

Andrew Altman, Chief Executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, which will manage the venue after the Games, said: 'The Handball Arena is a compact design with the flexibility to host a variety of sports after the Games, along with cultural, entertainment and business events. It will be a great asset for the Olympic Park and the communities living around it.'

Mayor of Hackney Jules Pipe said: 'The Handball Arena will become a community facility after the Games, offering a wide range of sports and other uses, as part of the 2012 legacy. We are working closely with our Olympic partners to secure this legacy on behalf of Hackney’s residents. It is encouraging that the Arena design incorporates sustainable elements.'

The unique roof of the Handball Arena is fitted with 88 rooftop sun-pipes that bounce sunlight onto the field of play in the Arena. The 1.5m-wide devices are designed to switch off when required – such as to allow television broadcasting to film during a live game – and in legacy will provide greater illumination than similar sized conventional lights, achieving annual energy savings of up to 40%. Backup electric lights will only switch on temporarily when photo sensors in the roof detect a sudden loss of sunlight during the day, such as when a dark cloud passes over.

After the Games the Arena will be adapted to become a multi-use venue for community use, athletic training and events. Retractable seating will mean it will have a flexible capacity of up to 7,500 seats, allowing it to be used for activities ranging from international competition to community sports, including basketball, handball, badminton, boxing, martial arts, netball, table tennis and volleyball. A health and fitness club with changing facilities and a cafe for use by the local community are also planned.

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


http://www.london2012.com/press/medi...andball-ar.php

[acc521]

I think that face thing is a great idea.

[jerseyboi]

[Andre_idol]

That Handball arena interior...hmmm...don´t know...

[PortoNuts]

Great video! This was truly a regeneration project and even if all the legacy promises are not fulfilled, it will always have a positive impact in East London.

Originally Posted by jerseyboi

[PortoNuts]

London Cycle Hire to extend east for 2012 Olympics

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has announced that the Cycle Hire scheme will extend into east London with the introduction of 2,000 more bikes before the 2012 Olympic Games in the capital.

The extension of the scheme will enable visitors to the London 2012 Games to use the bikes, as well as providing cycle hire facilities for residents and commuters in the area.

Bethnal Green, Bow, Canary Wharf, Mile End, North Shoreditch, Poplar, Tower Hamlets and the Olympic Park itself will all gain Cycle Hire docking stations. A total of 2,700 docking stations will be created in the new area, and the existing hire area will also gain 1,500 additional stations.

"Londoners have taken to the hire of two wheels with alacrity and it would have been absolutely nonsensical not to expand our scheme," Johnson said.

"Plans are now well advanced that will see the roll-out of thousands more of our gleaming bikes across the capital's legendary East End.

"For as little as 12 pence a day users will soon be able to use our bikes to cross a huge swathe of our city, and it will mean that by 2012 we'll be able to invite the entire world to join London's cycling revolution."

Since its introduction in July, the Cycle Hire scheme has been hailed a success, with over 1.5 million journeys having been made in the capital on the distinctive bikes. Over 100,000 people have now registered for the scheme.

Reacting to the news, Jenny Jones, Green Party member of the London Assembly, pointed out that there are still many areas of London that have yet to be included in the scheme. "This is great news for East London, but a real disappointment for all the other people living and working in Inner London who won't have the scheme coming to their area," said Jones.

"By 2012, the London scheme will still have far fewer bikes and docking stations than Paris, and it's obvious that the expansion of this scheme lacks ambition.

"If the Mayor is serious about his target of having a million extra journeys made by bike every day, then a bike hire scheme which only generates an extra 40,000 journeys a day is well short of what London needs."

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/...-olympics.html

[PortoNuts]

Gold-medal job on the 2012 Olympics site

There is an enduring belief in this country that we cannot handle complex projects. The French can build nuclear power stations and high-speed rail links with never a backward glance. But we beat ourselves up even before the cost overruns come through, and convince ourselves it will be a disaster.

It is time to lighten up. The only occasion Terminal 5 at Heathrow got any publicity was when the baggage-handling system failed in the first few days after British Airways moved in. But the bigger story was that Terminal 5 was the largest single building construction project in Europe and it came in on time and on budget.

Today the big project is the Olympics site at Stratford, and again the tenor of much of the coverage is negative — a succession of niggling stories about how this supplier is in difficulties or that section is over budget.

The reality, however, as was pointed out yesterday by John Armitt, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, is that one of the largest construction projects in Europe is now 75% complete, on time and on budget.

What he perhaps should also have said is that it is a far more difficult build than other Olympic parks. No host country in the past 60 years has attempted to build its stadia in the heart of an existing metropolis. From Montreal to Munich, Atlanta to Athens, Beijing to Barcelona, they all built on the outskirts or where there was an abundance of space.

Choosing as we did to build on derelict land in the densely populated inner city made Stratford massively more complicated, and requires raw materials used every day to come in by canal, rail and road in quite astonishing quantities and in all weathers.

What is unfolding in Stratford is a triumph not just for civil engineering, construction and project management but also for logistics.
We really ought to celebrate it, not knock it.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/market...lympic-site.do

[netrefugee]

what will happen to it after the Olympics are over...?

[PortoNuts]

The Olympic Park? It'll be Queen Elizabeth Legacy Park, with sports facilities to the community, new homes, shops, a transportation hub and Olympic buildings converted to office space.

[PortoNuts]

[PortoNuts]

Olympic boss seeks golden future for London 2012 park

-- Link to BBC article --

The Festival of Britain in 1951 and the Great Exhibition a hundred years earlier are credited with transforming previously underdeveloped areas of London, namely the South Bank and South Kensington. Now the boss of the firm that will oversee the commercial and social legacy of London's 2012 Olympic park is hoping for a similar impact in east London.

"It is about creating a new space in the city of London, in the way that those two previous events brought new spaces into use," says Baroness Ford, chair of the London 2012 Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC). "We are creating a new piece of London with family neighbourhoods, open space and events, inspired by the 2012 venues that surround them."

The OPLC has been established to take responsibility for the long-term planning, development, management and maintenance of the park and its facilities after the games. And former banker and management consultant Baroness Ford is determined that the park post-games is "no vanity project" and has a strong commercial sense about whatever it does.

The OPLC plans to build up to 11,000 new homes over the next 25 years, and hopes to generate up to 10,000 jobs. The site will have a mixture of town houses, mews houses, affordable flats and riverside properties which will sit next to the various venues. "Instead of people moving out to Hertfordshire or Kent when they have children, we want them to consider moving into one of these new homes in the park," she says.

There will be some high-rise homes in the park, with the accommodation in the athletes village being turned into 3,000 flats. But she says they want to "complement" that with other types of housing which take inspiration from "the historic best" of London housing designs. At the moment the company is closely watching such issues as whether there will be a recovery in the property sector, and whether mortgages will be made more easily available.

All of which could reduce the ability of the OPLC to sell properties after 2012. Baroness Ford Baroness Ford says there will be two different sectors to the park. "We need to have a strong commercial sense about everything we do," says the baroness. "This is no vanity project, there is a very strong drive to claw back value from the park. We have got to get on and try to make some sense of where we are [economically] today."

New schools and nurseries will be built for the families living in the park along with health centres, community and faith spaces. The site will also include hanging gardens set 30ft above ground, meadows, lawns, shrubs and 4,000 trees.

"These things are never set in stone but give us a clear steer on what we are trying to do in the park," adds Baroness Ford. The intention is to gradually build up the park over a 20 to 25 year period. And according to Baroness Ford there will be two very different sections to the park, which will have extensive waterways going through the site.

The North Park will be more focussed on activities and the outdoors, and as a "great family destination". It is hoped to create an attraction similar to the Skywalk at Kew, and there will also be a BMX track. Meanwhile, the iconic, elegant structure of the velodrome will be run by Lea Valley regional park authority.

The South Park area will be different in character, with three big venues, and "more of a festival or plaza feel about it". This section will also be home to the Arcelor Mittal Orbit tower designed by Anish Kapoor. Visitors will be able to climb on the structure to get panoramic views across the Stratford site in east London.

"The whole south area of the park will have more of a festival feel, a café-culture feel," says Baroness Ford. She adds: "By 2020 this park will be a new venue for London. We want it to be a top notch destination for local people, other Londoners, and visitors to London."
Media and arts

However, she is clear that the development is firstly about the redevelopment of east London, which means that employment is important.
The Royal Festival Hall at the time of the 1951 Festival of Britain with the Dome of Discovery and the Skylon It is hoped the Olympics will do for east London what the Festival of Britain did for the South Bank

It is hoped that jobs will be created in the area through the media and arts, and around a new transport interchange. High on the list of priorities was creating a digital legacy in the park. Intel and McKinsey are among the companies that have committed to invest in this part of the park masterplan. "We believe we will have large companies in the park, as well as new firms coming when they want space to grow," says the baroness.

There are also plans for an artistic area in the north-west of the park, in the area near to Old Street which already boasts a large number of artists. Meanwhile, it is hoped jobs will be created around the Stratford transport hub.

In addition Westfield, responsible for the large mall at Shepherd's Bush in West London, hopes to trump that development with an even bigger shopping centre at the park. They have invested £1.5m in the project already, with Baroness Ford calling them "a phenomenally successful partner". In January 2011 the OPLC will be putting out tenders for estate management and catering across the park.

"We want companies to come to us and tell us how they want us to do that," says the 52-year old. There are a great many opportunities for us all to work together."

[jerseyboi]

New Chobham Academy

[jerseyboi]

Olympic Stadium + Aquatics in fore Ground

[jerseyboi]

Originally Posted by DarJoLe

New aerial images show Olympic Park progress as International Olympic Committee arrives
17 Nov 2010

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) today released new aerial images of the Olympic Park showing the construction progress made on the main venues.

The new images are released on the day the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission for London arrive for one of their regular inspection visits.

The ODA recently announced that the construction project is now 75 per cent complete and the main venues on track to be completed next summer – a year before the Games.

ODA Chairman John Armitt, said: 'This year is the toughest in terms of construction and we are at our busiest. We will enter 2011 with the confidence that more than three quarters of the construction project is complete and that all milestones to date have been achieved.

'We remain on schedule and within budget but are not complacent about the challenge that lies ahead.'

LOCOG Chair Seb Coe said: 'East London is being transformed. Its regeneration is creating a legacy of new communities, new housing, and state-of-the-art sporting facilities that will be used for many years to come. Over the next year, we look forward to seeing the changing London skyline as the Park vision becomes a reality.'

Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson said: 'Good progress has been made on the Olympic Park this year with the main stadia looking fantastic as we approach completion. The whole Park is starting to take shape and it is easy to see what an iconic venue it will be in 2012 and for years thereafter.'

Recent progress made on the main venues includes:

Olympic Stadium: Structurally complete with roof and lighting towers in place. Work close to completion on installing the seats. Ready to start laying grass and the installation of the running track next year.

Aquatics Centre: Permanent structure and wave-shaped roof in place, work underway on the Games-time temporary seating stands, ceiling timber cladding and bespoke concrete dive boards. The dive pool and two 50m pools have been tested and tiling is underway.

Velodrome: Structure is complete and watertight, and the timber track is being installed. On target to be the first Olympic Park sporting venue to be completed in early 2011.

Athletes' Village: More than three-quarters of the residential plots are structurally complete, with the structure of the Chobham Academy school also nearing completion. Work is well underway on the state-of-the-art polyclinic. The first stage of landscaping has started.

International Broadcast Centre/Main Press Centre (IBC/MPC): The structures of the IBC, MPC and Multi-Storey Car Park are all complete. Mechanical works are progressing inside both the IBC and MPC and works have started on the temporary ‘high street’ for journalists and broadcasters during the Games.

Handball Arena: The structure of the Handball Arena is complete and weather-tight, with the unique roof – fitted with natural light-pipes to illuminate the venue - also finished. The top half of the building is now being clad in 3,000sq m of copper cladding.

Basketball Arena: Inside the Arena, the 12,000 seats are being installed, while the lifts, toilets and external external service rooms are under construction.

Parklands: Work is well underway to create around 250 acres of new parklands, on former industrial land, that will provide a colourful and festival atmosphere for the London 2012 Games and afterwards become the largest new urban park in the UK for over a century. Over 500 trees and thousands of wetland plants have been planted and meadows sown around the Olympic Stadium.

The Primary Substation and Sewage Pumping Station are operating and the Energy Centre is ready to enter service shortly, while more than half of the new bridges and underpasses on the site are structurally complete. Angel Lane Bridge in Stratford recently opened in the summer and can now be used by local people as a convenient pass before, during and after the Games.

Latest employment figures show that as the ‘big build’ reaches its peak, more than 10,000 people are working on the Olympic Park and Village.

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

brilliant!

[PortoNuts]

Good stuff! Love the school and all the amount of construction being done around Stratford High Street. It'll be a city withing a city!

[PortoNuts]

Aquatics Centre

london2012.com

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[Parisian Girl]

By Daily Mail Reporter | Last updated at 7:57 AM on 17th November 2010

When Delhi hosted the Commonwealth Games in October, they cut preparations so fine that they were still laying turf in the athletics stadium hours before events were due to start.

Tied in with a bridge collapse and filthy conditions in the athletes’ village the games looked destined to be remembered more for events off the track rather than on it.

But, as these newly released aerial photos of the London 2012 site show, it appears there will be no such panic when the capital hosts the games.

Eighteen months before competiton gets underway, nearly 75 per cent of construction is now complete, with main venues due to be finished next year ahead of test events.

The pictures were released to tie in with another half-yearly inspection by the International Olympic Committee Co-ordination Commission for London.

Already, from the outside at least, buildings including the media centre, handball and basketball arenas are looking complete.

And the athletes’ village, the source of so many problems in Delhi, already appears to be catching up with the Indian capital as the high-rise blocks which will house an estimated 10,500 athletes take shape.

Inside the showpiece stadium in Stratford, east London, seats are already installed in some parts while the outline of the track and field can be seen clearly in the mud.

However the curtain wrap that was expected to encase the stadium will now no longer form part of the construction.

Elsewhere, the curved roofs of the velodrome and aquatics centre stand out on the skyline, although the scaffolding around the pool shows there is still work to be done.

Speaking about the project, Olympic Delivery Authority Chairman John Armitt said: 'This year is the toughest in terms of construction and we are at our busiest.

‘We will enter 2011 with the confidence that more than three quarters of the construction project is complete and that all milestones to date have been achieved.

‘We remain on schedule and within budget but are not complacent about the challenge that lies ahead.’

Despite their still being some way to go with construction on some parts of the Olympic Park, the latest A-Z of the capital has included the 500-acre site in its pages.

The new map of the east end site shows the aquatics centre, velodrome and main stadium as well as updated rail links at Stratford international.

And London 2012 chairman Lord Sebastian Coe said: ‘East London is being transformed. Its regeneration is creating a legacy of new communities, new housing, and state-of-the-art sporting facilities that will be used for many years to come.

‘Over the next year, we look forward to seeing the changing London skyline as the Park vision become a reality.’

The inspectors will be in the capital between Wednesday and Friday, and with the venues in good shape, are expected to concentrate on the huge amount of operational detail such as ticketing, transport, culture and volunteers as well as the test events.

They will also look for reassurances that the changes to the marathon route are now in place and that organisers are trying to patch up relations with East End councils.

The decision to move the end of the marathon from the Olympic Stadium to the Mall in central London was done with the blessing of the IOC, but Tower Hamlets council is seeking a judicial review of the decision to change the route which has led to their borough missing out.

Taking shape: The Olympic stadium, the centre-piece of the park, is nearing completion - with seats installed and the
outline of the track clearly visible


Bird's eye view: The rest of the city stretches into the background as the stadium and aquatics centre dominate the
Stratford skyline


Regeneration: The entire Olympic Park and beyond can be seen here, with the media and broadcast centre in the foreground
and various venues nearing completion


Distinctive: The iconic roof of the aquatics centre may appear complete, but the scaffolding suggests otherwise


Speed freak: Great Britain will hope to build on its cycling success in the velodrome


Slam dunk: The basketball arena, with its squidgy looking exterior, already appears ready for players and officials


Copper load of this: The roof of the handball arena has been made out of the metal


Home to the athletes: Like a small town springing up, the competitors' village will house around 10,500 participants
during the Games


On the map: The new edition of the London A-Z clearly shows the Olympic Park's 500-acre site

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...rly-ready.html

[Theca Winter]

Its good to see everything is on track for the games. The buildings are coming along nicely and as a whole, the complex looks great.