With London 2012 nearly here, you’re going to see a lot of the Olympic Park and its amazing venues. And today, in our final tumblr, we look at the star attraction itself – the Olympic Stadium.
It will be the focus of the world’s attention for the next fortnight, but the aim is for the Olympic Stadium to be the premiere home for British athletes for decades ahead.
It’s already hosting the 2017 World Athletics Championships, and there are strong tenancy bids in place – ranging from football to Formula 1 – that leave it well-placed to be one of our most important sporting and entertainment venues beyond 2012.
Remember, Britain’s first ever purpose-built Olympic stadium – White City – remained a major national sporting venue for nearly a century after being built in 1908.
The omens are good that our new Olympic Stadium will make a similar contribution to the nation’s sporting life.
And it all starts from tonight …
With London 2012 nearly here, you’re going to see a lot of the Olympic Park and its amazing venues. Each day this week, find out how the venues will be used after the Games are over. Today, we look at the temporary venues: are they here today, gone tomorrow? Not according to our plans…
Temporary venues
The king of the temporary venues on the Park is the extraordinary 12,000 seat Basketball Arena.
Made of 1,000 tonnes of steel and covered in 20,000 square metres of a recyclable white PVC fabric, the Basketball Arena is one of the biggest temporary venues ever built – standing as tall as the Tate Modern.
Other temporary venues include the Water Polo Arena on the Park, Hadleigh Farm in Essex, for the mountain biking, and the Royal Artillery Barracks where the shooting competition will take place.
Throughout the Olympic building project, the idea was to build permanent venues only when absolutely necessary. Wherever possible the temporary venues will be dismantled and used elsewhere in the UK, enabling other communities to benefit.
There’s even more to the Olympic Park than the new world-class sporting venues we’ve been highlighting this week. After the Games, the parkland will be open for all to enjoy: a beautiful 250 acre park full of plants and animals.
One of the biggest urban parks created in over a century, the Olympic Park includes more than eight kilometres of waterway, more than 4,000 new trees, 300,000 wetland plants and over 650 bird and bat boxes.
It’s great new for visitors, and even better for local wildlife, which is already making itself at home there. Plus, the parkland will help London cope with changing weather patterns, acting as a giant sponge to soak up rainwater and prevent flooding.
Watch the film to find out more about how the park was created.
Olympic and Paralympic Village
“The Village is the heart and soul of everything, where you rest your head at night and it’s a vital part of your preparation. You need to come back to a place that you feel comfortable, where you feel there’s a sense of belonging and I think London has certainly managed to get that right for 2012.” Colin Jackson, Olympian & sports commentator
With London 2012 nearly here, you’re going to see a lot of the Olympic Park and its amazing venues. Today, we look at arguably the most important venue of all – the Athletes Village where the world’s top talent will rest their head.
In fact, 16,000 athletes and team officials will stay at the Olympic Village during the Olympics, with a further 6,200 during the Paralympics. They will get home-from-home comforts mixed with some five-star services to make sure they’re 100% ready for action. Facilities include a 24-hour dining area, a state-of-the-art gym, an extensive entertainment room and a multi-faith centre.
After the Games, the Olympic and Paralympic Village will be a lasting legacy of essential new housing for east London. It will be transformed into 2,818 new homes, including 1,379 affordable homes and houses for sale and rent. They will create a new residential quarter to be known as East Village.
Communities will be supported by new parklands, open space, new transport links and public services, including Chobham Academy – a world-class new education campus – and a new health centre.
