Londons Demountable Olympic Stadium

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Londons Demountable Olympic Stadium; 2012
Topic Started: Nov 8 2007, 03:05 AM (77 Views)
galahs	Nov 8 2007, 03:05 AM Post #1
Four of a Kind Posts: 36,457 Group: Admin Member #2 Joined: 27 September 2005	London 2012 organisers have unveiled the most complex stadium that has ever been designed for an Olympic Games. The Olympic Stadium has been designed to be practical rather than spectacular, given the need for 55,000 of the 80,000 seats to be removed immediately after the Games. Olympics chiefs also admitted they will be able to raid the Games' contingency fund if the cost spirals above the new $1.1 billion budget. The stadium in Stratford, east London, will have the 55,000 'demountable' seats contained in a temporary layer that will be removed after the Games and the venue scaled down to a 25,000-seat stadium to be used for major athletics events and other sports including football and rugby. Posted Image Chief architect Rod Sheard, of HoK Sport, conceded it was not as visually stunning as the new Wembley stadium. "Olympic stadiums tended to get a reputation as white elephants so we had to come up with some different answers," he said. "While it does not have a spectacular arch like in north London it is an unbelievably complex stadium that is resolved in a simple and elegant way." "This is not a stadium that's going to be screaming from the rooftops that it's bigger and more spectacular. This is just a cleverer building. This is a cleverer solution." Based around a sunken bowl built into the ground, the stadium will have a cable-supported roof providing cover for two-thirds of spectators and a fabric curtain that will wrap around the stadium structure. "The atmosphere inside this bowl, we think, will be pretty special," added Sheard. The budget for the stadium has jumped in price from the $631 million estimated in 2004 when London launched its bid for the Games, but Armitt said the increase was due almost entirely to inflation and VAT being added. Certainly, with the design of the stadium there can be little room for error by the builders Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd. Olympic Delivery Authority chairman John Armitt said: "Nearly 500 million pounds is a lot of money in anyone's terms but it is the budget and we are determined to work within that." "If there is a requirement for any extra, we have a contingency within the scheme covering this as a whole and we will use some of that, but that is not the plan." London mayor Ken Livingstone said that major football clubs such as West Ham would not be able to become tenants of the stadium, though a smaller club such as Leyton Orient could. "We make a commitment that there would be a permanent athletics facility and we have honoured that commitment," he said. "For West Ham we have identified a site much better-suited to their needs." "It is really inconceivable that anyone would have signed up to occupy a stadium before they could see it." "Now that we have this design, I think we will move very rapidly on negotiations for people to come in and sign up for the ongoing legacy use." Building work on the facility is set to begin up to three months ahead of schedule in April or May, with completion in 2011 to allow for test events, the ODA said. So far, 20 out of 33 buildings on the site have been demolished and 600,000 tonnes of soil taken away in preparing the ground for building. London 2012 chairman Seb Coe said: "We talk a lot about milestones, but few will be more exciting than this, the unveiling of the Olympic stadium, which will be the centrepiece of our Olympic park." "The stadium will stand for everything we talked about in the bid: it will be inspiring, innovative and sustainable." be more exciting than this, the unveiling of the Olympic stadium, which will be the centrepiece of our Olympic park." "The stadium will stand for everything we talked about in the bid: it will be inspiring, innovative and sustainable."



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