Olympic Park 2012

Local daily paper, The Evening Standard, has taken to covering the Olympic development in practically every issue, not surprising given the size and costs of the venture. There are also weighty expectations on the project to deliver benefits of “regeneration” to this part of town, which has some of the lowest socio-economic indices in the UK and suffered WWII bombings.

Yesterday’s article on on the Fish Island and Hackney Wick areas which border the Olympic park describes the ‘other side’ to this story – the existing wealth and culture of the localities. It describes the art community and existing architectural legacy which can be built on and enhanced with by the Olympic project.

The question is what future for the olympic fringes and this article suggests they should look to other examples of thriving artists quarters such as Shoreditch. The area sits between Victoria Park and the Olympic Village – see the maps in the Tower Hamlets Masterplan document

This particular part of the east end contains many historic buildings from past times when the area was the heart of industrial development, such as the Bryant & May Match factory pictured above, with the Docklands Financial District in the background. The factory was famous for the invention of the safety match and the first working girls strike, which Annie Besant helped promote, and is now converted into flats. The area was mainly served by canals, which are still green and beautiful as you can see in the photos in this blog, but not used for transport so much anymore.

Here are some photos of the area, taken late last year

Looking north up the canal running east of Hackney Wick

Fish Island Area August 2009

Canal around Fish Island and Hackney Wick August 2009

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On a park tour at the end of 2009, I took the following shot of the frame of the velodrome, which looks a bit like a roller coaster.

Olympic 2012 Velodrome

It will be part of the Olympic Velopark containing track cycling for Para-Olympians and Olympians plus BMX cycling facilities. Situated at the north end of the site where the former Eastway circuit used to be, this building will have an unusual shape and a lot to live up to. Former Eastway track users have left a lot of skin on the site since 1975 when it was first built:

“Eastway is used, on a regular basis for Road Racing, Time Trials, Cyclo Cross, Mountain Bike Racing, B M X Racing, Duathlon events, Road Running, Cross Country Running, Roller Blade & Roller Skating and the occasional Sponsored ride. Sometimes if the winter weather is bad and we have enough snow, Cross Country Skiing is possible at the circuit.”

Having said that, a ‘temporary alternative’ for former Eastway circuit users has been provided at Hog Hill just off the A12 north east London (one of two alternatives, the other being Rammy Marsh in Enfield). There was a “bit of a wait” between the closure of the original circuit in 2006 and the opening of the “Redbridge Circuit“  in August of 2008. This is a boon for Redbridge Borough with the £4.5 million new facility and cyclists are taking to it and sharing the experience (see preview thanks JayCut!) although a bit unhappy to be charged for the pleasure.

And this is what the ODA says about the Legacy:

“The temporary seating for the BMX Circuit will be removed and the track reconfigured. A new mountain bike course and road cycle circuit will be added to create a VeloPark for the local community, sports clubs and elite athletes.

Outreach and sports development programmes will help ensure the new cycling ‘hub’ is suitable for all levels of ability. The facility will be owned, funded and run by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.”

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Two new media facilities, costing £355 from the ODA budget, are emerging. International broadcasts of the Olympic games in 2012 will come from the 60,000 m2 new International Broadcast Centre (IBC) onsite in the 2012 park. The shots below of the IBC were taken during a bus tour of the park and the venue is seen through a metal fence and the bus window.

International Press Centre

International Press Centre

The venue has been designed for games time and legacy facilities. It will contain studio space and offices over 2 floors and these can be converted into smaller units after the Olympic events, in the hope that various media companies might set up some operations in East London longer term.

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British cyclist Paul Manning, Gold medallist in the Team Pursuit at the Beijing 2008 Games, visited the site of the new velodrome in East London this week. He seems enthusiastic and the legacy facilities for cycling make me pretty excited too. The veldrome stadium is a 600o seater (see it coming up at this webcam Velodrome WebCam from ODA) and there will be a BMX track next to it.

This is essentially a public venture with the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) at the head and providing funding together with Sport England, Transport for London (TfL), and the London Marathon Charitable Trust (LMCT). The ODA says that after games time, “a road cycle circuit and mountain bike course will be added to the Velodrome and BMX circuit to create a legacy VeloPark that will combine cycling facilities across all disciplines in one cycling ‘hub’”.

This is a real boost for a sport which we are OK at, but the expectation is that it will also be a classic venue anyway! The London Cycling Campaign reckons this should have been built with or without the Olympics and London Cycle Sport cites the success of the Manchester Velodrome.

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How long does it take to get to Stratford from St Pancras in central London? Right now the answer is 26 minutes (or 38 minutes on the weekend due to ‘planned engineering works’ see TLF for details), but in 2012 the Olympic Shuttle will take only 7 minutes. In fact in the trial of the new ‘Javelin’ service this week, the time achieved was only 6 minutes and 45 seconds.

New Train for Olympic 2012 passengers from Kings Cross St Pancras - Stratford

This will be an important piece in the East London transport network, when is comes to games time. The ODA is aspiring to encourage use of public transport – in fact it would be impossible for all spectators to come by car – witness the gridlock at the Blackwall tunnel at rush hour. Capacity at Stratford station will be trebled, new Dockland Light Rail (DLR) tunnels are being added, there will be a new ticket hall at Kings Cross, a new DLR platform at Stratford, a direct link from City Airport to Stratford, to name but a few improvements. Overall this part of East London will be far better connected in three years.

Olympic 2012 Stadium in 2009 - constuction workers form 3 for 3 years to go!

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Work has begun on the last of the major permanent structures. The Handball Arena will be used for Basketball, Wheelchair Basketball, Boxing, Handball, Badminton, Judo, Netball, Futsal (5-a-side indoor football) and Volleyball.

With (recycled) copper cladding and glazing for a view into the action, I think this building will look distinctive despite the regular shape. It will be sited a little north of the Stadium, and you can see how it will look in this picture from the ODA. The design includes taking natural light and rain water through pipes into the building for use in the facility.

As a legacy venue it should be a flexible space, according to Peter Rogers (CE of the London Development Agency) “With the equivalent space of 12 badminton courts and retractable seating, the venue has been designed for all levels of sports participation and has the potential to accommodate cultural, entertainment and business events.” The promise is also that it will include a health and fitness club with changing facilities and a café for the local public.

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The internet has become such an essential part of our life, that I find it quite hard to believe that only the last 4 Olympics actually had a website – that is Atlanta ‘96, Sydney ‘00, Athens ‘04, and Beijing ‘08 (leaving winter games to one side for the moment). Considering that the first radio broadcast was in 1924 and the first TV coverage was in 1936 (Berlin of Jesse Owens vs Hitler fame), we have waited for a long time for a new medium of coverage.

I hope the ‘Technology Partners’ for the London 2012 Olympic Games (see list below) are ready to go for some really inspirational, efficient and sustainable IT infrastructure.

• Atos origin – Official Worldwide IT Partner to International Olympic and Paralympic Committee
• Samsung – Official Worldwide Wireless Telecommunications Equipment Olympic Partner
• BT – Official Partner to 2012 Olympic Games
• Nortel – Official Partner to 2012 Olympic Games (…but they have fallen prey to the downturn … currently operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection …more on that later)

Atos Origin, an international IT services company will be in charge of the IT system that relays results, events and athlete information to spectators and media around the world. It is estimated that games will use c. 900 servers, 1,000 network and security devices, and 8,000 computers, and all applications and equipment will have to undergo loads of testing.

As FT.com reports the supremo at Atos said:

“We are looking to reduce the amount of hardware, power consumption, air conditioning and space needed,” said Michele Hyron, Atos Origin’s chief integrator for the Olympics. The Beijing Games required some 10,000 computers and 50m sheets of paper. Ms Hyron said she hoped to reduce these levels “dramatically” in London.”

Atos needs to be bold, and to be encouraged to be so. The contract it now holds with the International Olympic Committee is the world’s largest IT-related sports contract covering the Athens 2004, Torino 2006, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. So it clearly has the confidence of the IOC, but apparently they are still not sure about server virtualisation.

“Atos and the Olympic committee are still evaluating, for example, whether or not to use server virtualisation – a fairly established technique for cutting computer power consumption – at the Games.”  FT.com

Server virtualisation uses one physical server across multiple virtual machines, that can run in isolated operating environments and applications. This reduces need for hardware, power cooling etc.  Nice article by someone who knows much much more than me. It is a young technology and not normally used for large scale ops. but perhaps this is the opportunity to take it to the next stage. If they can do it, it would be nice and maybe that could even be one more ‘legacy’ of the UK games.

So far construction crews are using IT applications inside a virtualised environment, and there is the promise to improve on Beijing in other ways.

“The London Games will also make greater use of remote information systems than any previous Olympics, streaming real-time results and coverage to broadcasters around the world and offering a single feed of all Olympics news. The tech is aimed at reducing unnecessary travel by journalists and using less paper than the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where seven million sheets were printed out.” ZDNet.co.uk

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It is pretty good news for construction workers in East London right now. Every new piece of physical development brings labour opportunities. Take the new bridge for example where two assistant quantity surveyors being sought, according to the Career Engineer:

“New construction opportunities continue to be created at the site of the London Olympics with the delivery of a new bridge in the Olympic Park.”

But let’s hope there is more to it than some welcome construction jobs to see us through the economic downturn. IMHO the focus needs to remain, “the shaping of place and creating a legacy” as Micheal Lyons put it (he is a Labour party councillor and council chief executive, but more relevantly he was educated in East London, so he should have a good idea what the local issues are).

“Local authorities, which really benefit their communities, are about sustainable development, shaping their localities and creating a legacy for future generations.” localgov.co.uk

One way to drive the economy longer term might be to really boost our image as a tourist destination during the games and also using cultural ‘Olympiad’ for this. If we can take advantage of hosting the ‘greatest show on earth’, it could happen. This is where volunteers and not-for-profit can make a difference.

The cultural Olympiad is the ceremonies, major cultural projects and regional events surrounding the Olympic games. Local events and projects around the country can still apply to be part of the culture Olympid. .

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I was quite impressed with the care being taken to preserve local wildlife in the Olympic Park and leave a green legacy for the East End of London. In the next couple of years work 45 hectares of wildlife habitats are to be made. These are the artistic impressions of what the completed work will look like during and after the games.

So far the ecology team have cleaned up some of the canal system’s waterways, and taken some of the aquatic wildlife to a nearby reserve. Local trees have also been taken to nurseries. ‘London Plane’ trees for example that have been here for up to 100 years and replanting of Crack Willion and White Willow will take place. This is a shot of a tree just south of the Olympic Park site, it is a hybrid willow and the shot is from winter 2009 so there are no leaves, but I think it still looks beautiful.

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Further to the ride and stride initiative (see previous post) there are other olympic transport developments recently announced :

1. a sorely needed tube expansion in East London, running north-south
“By June 2010, the line will run from Dalston Junction in the north to New Cross, Crystal Palace and West Croydon in the south. By February 2011 we will have extended it to Highbury & Islington. We are also planning to extend the line west from Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction. ” TFL
for a full East London Line map click here

2. It does not look like much yet, but it will be a four lane bridge into Stratford centre…

“The bridge’s steel arch is made up of three sections, each weighing around 65 tonnes, and the final section of the arch was lifted into place last week using an 800-tonne crane … the bridge is due for overall completion in May.” ODA

3. A 50-metre long tunnel
Sorry no pictures of that yet!

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