Design Competition for a 2012 Olympic Village

[Kris]

City Plans Design Competition for a 2012 Olympic Village

By GLENN COLLINS

An international architectural competition will be held to design the 2012 Olympic Village, where more than 16,000 athletes and coaches would live if New York City is selected as the host of the Summer Games.

The village — with 4,400 units of housing on more than 36 acres at Queens West, across the East River from the United Nations — "will be the spiritual heart of the Olympic Games, and we want it to be remarkable, a real landmark," said Daniel L. Doctoroff, the deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding.

The competition is open to all architects, and up to five finalists will be announced on Dec. 4. Those finalists will participate in a 20-week planning and design study. After public commentary sessions akin to those during the architectural selection process for ground zero, the winner is to be announced in May.

The $400,000 design competition will be sponsored by NYC2012, the committee leading New York's bid to become the host city of the 2012 Games. The competition, as well as the village, will be privately financed, said Mr. Doctoroff, who was the founder of NYC2012.

Last November, New York was selected over seven other cities to represent the United States in the host-city competition. The International Olympic Committee is scheduled to announce the winning city on July 6, 2005.

The projected cost of the Olympic Village has been estimated at $1.5 billion.

A mix of high-rises, mid-rise structures and townhouses, the village "will not be dormitories," Mr. Doctoroff said. "We see it as first-class housing for New York City residents in a world-class design that people 50 years from now will remember as the center of the Games in our city."

He said the village would become a new city neighborhood at the southern margin of Queens West after the Olympics.

Contest submissions are due by Nov. 17. Alexander Garvin, director of planning, design and development for NYC2012, said: "We welcome proposals from young designers who are interested in exploring the potential of an environmentally sustainable residential community that will set the standard for urban design in the 21st century."

Members of the design review panel include Gary Hack, dean of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts; Con Howe, planning director for the City of Los Angeles; Ronay Menschel, chairwoman of Phipps Houses in Manhattan; Laurie D. Olin, professor of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania; Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land; Moshe Safdie, an architect; Denise Scott Brown, of the architecture firm Venturi Scott Brown; Dejan Sudjic, editor of the architecture magazine Domus; and Cristina Teuscher, an Olympic swimmer.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

I wonder how this project will proceed if NYC does not get the Olympic Games.

[Kris]

Down the toilet.

[billyblancoNYC]

Have faith, maybe with Rockrose's success on the North side, this will just become a natural extension of the project. It makes good sense with or without the olympics.

[NyC MaNiAc]

How much would New York City benefit from the Olympics?

Would it help out the city and it's debts?

[billyblancoNYC]

No one will know for sure, if ever, but I think the rough estimates are in the billions of economic activity/impact.

Makes sense, I guess. An olympics in NYC would be one of the most premiere events of all time.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Hopefully it would provide incentive to construct major projects and improvements by 2012 that will benefit the city before and after the Olympics. The people who complain that there will be too much traffic for three weeks drive me crazy. Big picture!

[billyblancoNYC]

www.globest.com/newyork.html

NYC2012 Calling All Designers
By Melissa Kress
Last updated: Sep 25, 2003 02:28PM

NEW YORK CITY-NYC2012 is holding an international design competition for architects and designers for the proposed Olympic Village, slated to be built in Queens. By holding an open call for qualifications, the committee hopes to encourage small, lesser-known firms to participate.
The competition is “another important milestone in the long race New York has been in to bring the Olympic Games to New York City,” says Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff.

The first step in creating an Olympic Village for 16,000 athletes, coaches and officials is an issuance for RFQs, which begins today with information posted on the committee’s website. NYC2012 will then hold a question-and-answer opportunity until Oct. 24. At that time all the questions and answers will be posted on the website. Interested firms then have until Nov. 17 to submit the simple, nine-page request, according to Alexander Garvin, director of planning for NYC2012.

A 10-person Design Review Panel will then evaluate all the submissions and select five finalists for the design phase of the competition, he adds. The finalists will be revealed on Dec. 4. The first submissions due in November will include only the firm’s name, the names of the people who will work on the project, proposed approaches and three visuals: a residential project already completed, a project that was not completed and the firm’s favorite project. The submissions will not include any designs for the proposed village.

“All through this we will be working with Olympians,” Garvin says. “There are two Olympians on the design panel … who lived in the villages and know what it is like.”

If the city is selected as the host of the 2012 Olympic Games, the Olympic Village would be located in Queens West, across the East River from the United Nations. After the 17-day games, the village--which will consist of approximately 4,400 housing units--would become residential housing for 18,000 people. If the city loses its bid, the site would still be the future site of residential development, according to Doctoroff. There is already an approved housing plan for the area which will go through, “win or lose,” he adds.

“If we do not receive the bid, the Queens West site, which forms the basis of the village, will go ahead,” he says, “but probably not on the same timetable as if we were selected.”

[JMGarcia]

I visited the NY Olympic Committees display offices and took these two pictures of the models.

[enzo]

Do we really need a box stadium?

[matt3303]

I agree. They could have been more creative than a shoebox. Still, remember that's just a preliminary rendering, not the final deal.

[TLOZ Link5]

I went to the Center for Architecture yesterday! Err, two days ago, considering that it's now early Sunda morning. It was great!

[Kris]

Originally Posted by ablarc

Olympic Village design finalists chosen

NYC2012, the committee spearheading New York's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, announced five finalists to design an Olympic Village in Queens.

The finalists, selected out of more than 130 entries from 20 countries, are: Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects from Manhattan, which is leading an international team; MVRDV from Rotterdam, which is working with Leeser Architecture of Brooklyn and Stoss Landscape Architects of Boston; Henning Larsens Tegnestue A/S from Copenhagen; Morphosis from Santa Monica; and Zaha Hadid Architects from London.

The finalists will now take part in a 14-week planning and design study. In March, their submissions will be presented to the public, and after an evaluation and a public comment period, the winner will be announced in May. The final design will be submitted to the International Olympic Committee on Nov. 15, 2004.

The proposed site of the Olympic Village is Queens West, across the East River from the United Nations. During the 2012 games, it would house 16,000 athletes and coaches, and following the event, it would provide housing for up to 18,000 New Yorkers. The project is expected to cost about $1.5 billion, most of it funded by developers; NYC2012 would contribute $50 million to $100 million.

New York City is vying with Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Paris, Madrid, Moscow, and Rio de Janeiro to host the games.
Copyright 2003, Crain Communications, Inc

http://crainsny.com/news.cms?newsId=7023

[Clarknt67]

Is there a square foot of NYC that *isn't* poised to be reconfiguired by a design competition?

Is so, let's find it and bring it to light! (so long as it's not my bedroom!)

[TLOZ Link5]

Originally Posted by Clarknt67

Is there a square foot of NYC that *isn't* poised to be reconfiguired by a design competition?

Is so, let's find it and bring it to light! (so long as it's not my bedroom!)

Ack! First NIMBYs, and now NIMBRs!