Daily Gusto: Olympic Villages for all!

March 15, 2004

Olympic Villages for all!

Isn't it great when architecture and food collide? No, not the towers of food at Gramercy Tavern. On the way to lunch today I took a look at the models for New York's 2012 Olympic bid. Several people wondered who has won the bid for 2008, and what their village will look like. Wonder no further! Take a look at the upcoming Athens 2004 Olympic Village before checking out San Francisco's Sasaki Associates plan for Beijing 2008.

There's no clear victor in the battle to transform Queens in eight years. Henning Larsens Tegnestue has some nice touches (windmills!) and their twisting hourglass skyscrapers would be a great addition to the skyline. But the pattern of buildings isolates the community in a way that might facilitate a great Olympic experience, but leave behind an alienated mass of buildings disconnected from the surrounding communities (like Battery Park City).

Morphosis' plan includes short buildings that seductively curve along the waterfront, with a boardwalk through 43 acres of restored (re-invented) wetlands and a nice promenade. But the skyscrapers look like a psychologist's experiment and again, the community is cut off from the surrounding neigborhoods. What's the point of building a beach only a handful of people will go to?

And if you want that "ancient Egypt on the East River via Bladerunner" look, MVRDV's towers are for you. Truncated pyramids stretch high into the sky, leaning in different directions, with different colored glass marking each building. Kind of interesting, kind of scary. And the beach looks like a Christo art project, but at least it's big enough to be an attraction and keep people coming to the area long after the Olympics are gone.

If you're looking for sustainability, Smith-Miller + Hawkinson have added a transit hub to insure New Yorkers will come through this Hunters Point community, and integrated the building plan into the current street pattern. This plan is the one that best folds the Olympic village into the city.

And finally, if you've ever wandered New York and thought "boy, this landscape just isn't textured enough," then maybe Zaha Hadid's plan is for you. The footprint pattern is a mass of clustered organic forms.

Posted by harry at March 15, 2004 3:29 PM | TrackBack

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nice to see that you have looked closely at our proposal.
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