8/08/12
Landscaped walks around the Olympic Stadium
While the showcase venues have attracted most attention, it is the landscaping and spaces between that are the real triumph at the Olympic Park. By focussing the masterplan on a central ‘street’, broad enough to accommodate the ebb and flow of large crowds, with softer landscaped areas near the ‘river’, people are made the priority. The overall degree of care that has gone into making sure spaces work well, whether for eating, sitting, walking or watching, surpasses all recent Olympics, and this contributes enormously to visitors’ experience. Temporary outdoor ‘food courts’ are planned as urban piazzas, each with a different character, while the central green ‘lung’ with its meandering pathways cleverly sets an informal, arcadian character that belies its relatively small area.
Olympic Park credits: The Olympic Development Authority has been responsible for the Olympic Park infrastructure, delivery of the permanent competition venues, building the Olympic Village, International Broadcast Centre and Main Press Centre, the ‘overlay’ (relocatable and temporary arenas, works to existing venues and infrastructure), and the Olympic Park venue legacy conversion. ODA architecture team: Kay Hughes, Jerome Frost, Selina Mason; ODA landscape: John Hopkins, Phil Askew.
Sitewide Masterplanners: AECOM, Allies & Morrison; engineering contracts lead designers: Atkins (North Park), Arup (South Park); client design advisors: Allies and Morrison (handrailing and lighting supply items), Speirs & Major Associates (lighting), City ID (signage and wayfinding), Buro Happold (inclusive design and accessibility).
Park and public realm Landscape architects: LDA Design, Hargreaves Associates; garden design: Sarah Price; lighting strategy: Sutton-Vane Associates; ecologist: LDA Ecology; soil scientist: Fulcrum; sustainability: CAE; accessibility: Atkins.
Overlay Design services provider: Team Populous (Populous, Allies & Morrison, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands); engineering design service provider: Atkins; construction programme management provider: Drivers Jonas Deloitte. The Olympic overlay projects include 250,000 temporary seats, 165,000 square metres of tents, 2,500 cabins, 140km of fencing, and 250km of crowd barriers.
Central street with Aquatics Centre and Orbit
August 10th, 2012 at 11:34 am
I have been there only to see the Olympic park, and it was a windy day.
The gravel used for pavement in the large areas was sending dust into my eyes and I had a memory of the Sahara. It was also quite sunny and there were no cool areas with shadows, to sit and rest, since all the trees are small and not close to the trafficated area.
The overall impression is a desolated village, where the pedonal traffic and the landscape are at different levels, not well integrated.
After being there for three hours, I was pleased to leave. I give my top choice to the Coca-cola pavilion, even if I had to wait 1 hour to get in. Finally I found a human dimension integrated in the architecture, and fun.
All of this absent in the village.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:36 am
Thanks for this – I’d prefer my email address not published:
Please could you possibly publish a decent size map of the Olympics site AND it’s surrounds i.e. at least as far north as Lea Bridge Road (& the site where Prince Philip originally opened the Lee Valley Regional Park)& a similar distance south, east & west of the Stadium – to help everyone appreciate what’s been done & not done in the all important context of precisely where the Olympics are currently
coming to the end of their active phase, with just the Para Olympics to come, before it’s Legacy time!
I write as a former E5 resident (now living near the Weymouth Sailing!), Chair of Lee Valley Association & joint founder member of Hackney Lee Valley Forum & the related public walks we organised in 1984 around & nearby what’s now the Olympic site – somwhere we collaborated on in “Green & Pleasant” our published submission to the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority’s Review + similarly ref Freedom to Wander, the LVA submission to the same Review & the result of our LVA Picketts Lock conference.
In the Forum, quite naturally we went into some
important detail on the need for links across this Valley, as well N/S factors & too the vital issues concerning wildlife habitat.
In the LVA the detail was not quite so necessary, but
we did look at the importance of this area back before & via Abercrombies seminal 1944 Plan as well as all the varied engineering & other fascinating factors that have made the area what it is – but don’t quite seem to have been recognised let alone celebrated in the ODA scheme of things?!
Meanwhile, I must look into making an application for the most recent Ecotec as I’ve lost it inc the all important Autonomous Housing Article!