Hosting the Olympics is a massive undertaking for the host city. In 2006, London demolished more than 200 buildings to make room for what would eventually become the Olympic Park. When those buildings were demolished, an impressive 98 percent of the materials were reused and recycled in the construction of the Olympic Park and elsewhere. The Olympic Park was built on former industrial brownfields, which had to be cleaned up before the games. About 1.4 million cubic meters of contaminated soil was excavated from the site, and five enormous soil washing machines were brought in to wash the soil and filter out oil, tar and heavy metals.
In addition to the Aquatics Centre, the Olympic Park also includes the Wilkinson Eyre Architects-designed Basketball Arena, a large 12,000-seat temporary structure that will be taken apart and recycled once the games have ended. The other major indoor facility at the Olympic Park is the Copper Box, which will be used for handball and fencing.
After the 2012 Summer Olympics are over, the Olympic Park will again be transformed. In 2013, the roughly 500-acre Park in East London will reopen as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The 377-foot ArcelorMittal Orbit will still tower over the park, and the 80,000-seat Olympic stadium will be downsized to a permanent stadium that will seat 25,000 people.
+ London 2012 Olympics
Photos via London 2012
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After six years of planning, preparation and construction, London’s Olympic Park is almost ready to host its first non-athlete visitors. The £7 billion Olympic Park contains several of the 2012 Games’ biggest sporting venues, including the Olympic Stadium and the Zaha Hadid-designed Aquatics Centre, as well as the Olympic Village. And towering over the Olympic Park is Anish Kapoor’s controversial ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower, which is made from recycled steel and has received mixed reviews…
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Hosting the Olympics is a massive undertaking for the host city. In 2006, London demolished more than 200 buildings to make room for what would eventually become the Olympic Park.
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When those buildings were demolished, an impressive 98 percent of the materials were reused and recycled in the construction of the Olympic Park and elsewhere.
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The Olympic Park was built on former industrial brownfields, which had to be cleaned up before the games.
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“We’re now in the last of the call rooms,” London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe told the AP. “We’ve gone from the training track to the warmup track to the stadium. The volunteers are in place. The city is dressed. The torch is on its way.”
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Anish Kapoor’s ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower in the London Olympic Park is a sculpture made largely of recycled steel.
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The Zaha Hadid-designed London Aquatics Centre contains two 160-foot swimming pools.
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The ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower.
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The wetlands around the Velodrome make up the Olympic Park. You can explore and enjoy the green space before entering the stadium.
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‘RUN’ was created by internationally-renowned artist Monica Bonvicini. It is the largest standalone work of art on the grounds of the Olympic Park.
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Groove out on the dance floor and generate your own electricity in EDF’s play zone ‘The Magic of Electricity’.
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Lush and green artwork by Carsten Nicolai sited at the north of the Olympic Park.
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Coca-Cola Beatbox fuses the passions of sport and music, highlighting an anthem created especially for Coca-Cola by GRAMMY award-winning producer Mark Ronson. Visitors can literally ‘play’ the Coca-Cola Beatbox like a musical instrument.
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BMW Group Pavilion designed by British architecture firm Serie, is located on an elevated platform over the Waterworks River, between the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Centre. The two-story superstructure is built of steel with high recycled content,
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