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London 2012 finds a personality
I went to the London 2012 Olympic Park on Monday, and was impressed.
With three years still to go, I really got a feel for the “compactness and intimacy” organisers had promised when cynics last summer had asked “How can you possibly follow Beijing?’
That extravaganza had seemed impossible to compete with. Remember the Cube and the Birds Nest?
London did not seem to have anything to match. In fact, when the design for the main stadium was unveiled, about two years ago, I remember there was palpable disappointment among attending reporters.
Even when I was told the mound of mud I was standing on was to be the 100-metre starting line, it was hard to find a response.
But today, driving over that same line in the main stadium, there was a real sense of exhilaration.
I could see where the royal box will be and imagine where the Olympic flame will flicker. I passed the tunnel from where the marathon runners will emerge for the last few strides of their 26-mile ordeal.
London 2012: Shopping for success
The frame of the 2012 Olympic main stadium stands out from among the piles of mud.
The skeletal metal structure, which will hold up the roof, rises above the construction site, three years ahead of the Games.
The only thing to challenge it is three concrete blocks – the shell of a massive shopping centre planned for the Olympic Park.
The Westfield centre may not be the centrepiece of the park in Stratford, east London, but it will be the main gateway.
Most visitors will have to walk through it to get to the venues. Organisers had once promoted the 242 million pound aquatics centre as the eye-catching gateway. Designed by the internationally renowned Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid, it will feature a wave-like roof that is so complicated extra money was needed for its construction.
Now it appears it will only be seen after going past rows of shop window fronts.
Westfield will form part of the legacy, providing shops, restaurants and cafes for residents living in the 3,000 flats and apartments after the Games.
An Olympian task trying to please the hacks
After the controversy surrounding the London 2012 Olympic logo, reporters wondered just how wacky the design for the main stadium would be.
The jigsaw-like logo, which is supposed to resemble the date of the Games, was criticised for being too abstract, while its animated flashing version was said to pose a health hazard.
But when the press, sponsors and VIPs sat down on a pile of mud at the building site in Stratford in east London, you could feel the muted disappointment among the hacks. After all, hadn’t the cost of the stadium shot up by 77 percent to 496 million pounds?
Where were the towers or the arches? Where were the wings or the sails?
Not even being told we were sitting on the finishing line seemed to lift the spirits.
The designer tried to convince us, saying the wrap around the stadium may feature a mosaic, with pixelated images of athletes which will come into focus from afar.
Athletes attending did their best when they said they had goose pimples just seeing the warm-up area. And there was clapping among the VIPs.
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The Wall
