4 ms·

The core idea here was good. Re-purposing these villages after use. Now if only we could do that in the modern day, with support from the IOC, and turn them in

The core idea here was good. Re-purposing these villages after use. Now if only we could do that in the modern day, with support from the IOC, and turn them into something positive. For example turn them into schools, homeless shelters, libraries, something along those lines.

deleted 10y ago
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ryanhuff 10y ago
As part of the Los Angeles 2024 bid, they are supposedly taking a different approach, in that they plan to utilize the existing student housing at UCLA for their athlete village.
- sjm-lbm 10y ago
  Atlanta used Georgia Tech's campus to house athletes in 1996 (and renovated/added additional dorms as well, at least as I understand it). Honestly, as bad as Atlanta's Olympics look at the time (with commercialism and the bombing, for example), I really think they deserve a lot of credit for using it as an excuse to provide the city with renovations people could use. Hopefully LA can do the same.
  - ja27 10y ago
    They gutted a pretty rough area south of campus and built a lot of new housing for the athlete village. For a while, both Georgia Tech and Georgia State used those buildings as dorms but Georgia State built their own closer to campus and now it's all Georgia Tech property. A lot of the Tech fraternity houses were rented out to media companies and got renovated. Tech did get a lot of use out of the aquatic center and it gets used for many NCAA events. They did finally defuel the Neely nuclear research reactor on campus before the games. I'd wondered how they were going to house athletes next to an experimental reactor. Nothing can excuse that mascot though.
- tzs 10y ago
  That's not a different approach for Los Angeles. That's the approach they used in the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, except they used USC that time. They also utilized existing venues for nearly everything, only having to actually build two new venues (a swim center and a velodrome).
CM30 10y ago
London seems to have done that after 2012. The stadium is being reused for various sports events and West Ham matches, the Aquatics Centre is a public swimming pool and gym, various other parts were converted in housing and an academy, etc. Of course, the fact it's in a very expensive city where leaving land unused would be commercial suicide helps a bit too.
BrandonY 10y ago
The 1996 Atlanta Olympics deliberately built all the athlete housing right next to Georgia Tech's other dorms with exactly this this in mind. Then, in 2007, Georgia Tech had some great new dorms that they would've needed to build anyway. Mind you, from 1996 to 2006, they put Georgia State students in the dorms and bussed them to and from Georgia State, which didn't make a lick of sense, but I give Atlanta's government a lot of credit for very nearly doing something right.
- quantumhobbit 10y ago
  I didn't live there but I do remember students complaining about the quality of construction. Apparently they weren't built to last.
- gtk40 10y ago
  It was helpful for Georgia State moving beyond being a commuter school.
tzs 10y ago
> The core idea here was good. Re-purposing these villages after use. Even better, hold the Olympics in places where there are already facilities that can temporarily be re-purposed for the Olympics, and then go back to their normal purpose. That's what happened for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. For housing the athletes they used student housing at the University of Southern California. If Los Angeles gets the 2024 Summer Olympics they plan to use student housing at UCLA for athletes and coaches, and student housing at USC for media housing. For athletic venues, only two needed to be built. They built a velodrome and a swim center. For the rest they were able to use facilities already present: LA Memorial Coliseum, LA Memorial Sports Arena, Dodger Stadium, The Forum, Long Beach Convention Center, Rose Bowl, Long Beach Arena, Anaheim Convention Center, along with the athletic facilities at several colleges and universities (UCLA, Cal State LA, USC, Loyola Marymount, Cal State Fullerton, East LA College, Pepperdine). The combination of low construction costs from being able to use so much existing infrastructure, and the use of corporate sponsorship to pay for the things that did need to be built (it was the McDonald's swim stadium and the 7-Eleven velodrome) resulting in the 1984 Olympics running a profit of more than $200 million. I was living in Pasadena at the time. I had expected the Olympics to be a pain in the ass due to increased traffic...but it turned out to have no negative effect that I could see. In retrospect, that should not have been too surprising. There are times of the year where the pro baseball, basketball, American football, and hockey seasons overlap, along with various college sports seasons. One could easily have a day with several team sporting events going on that will each draw a large crowd. On top of that you could have a major concert or two going on. In other words, Los Angeles already can handle many simultaneous major events. The Olympics is bigger than that, but not by anywhere near as big a factor as it would be in cities that do not have so many popular pro and college team sports and so many world class concert venues.
- chatmasta 10y ago
  That would limit the Olympics to cities that already have modern infrastructure and economies in place. One of the benefits of hosting the Olympics is that it puts the host city in the spotlight when they might never be otherwise.
- Declanomous 10y ago
Someone 10y ago
Doesn't about every Olympics do that with the Olympic village? For example: - London (http://www.eastvillagelondon.co.uk http://www.eastvillagelondon.co.uk): "Welcome to London's newest neighborhood, former athletes' village." - Beijing (http://www.china.org.cn/2008-03/05/content_11646502.htm http://www.china.org.cn/2008-03/05/content_11646502.htm): "Once the Paralympic Games are concluded, the Olympic Village will be taken over by a private development company, which will remodel the apartments into residential buildings" - Athens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Village#List_of_Olympic_Villages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Village#List_of_Olympi...): "The Athens Olympic Village also became a residential area following the Games. Today, the village with a capacity of approximately 10,000 people is in use." - Sydney (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newington,_New_South_Wales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newington,_New_South_Wales): "The Athlete's Village was converted to residential apartments after the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games." That's not schools or libraries, but if you build apartment buildings for 10,000 sportsmen, using them as apartments afterwards simply is the best fit.
Shivetya 10y ago
Atlanta did just that. Regardless of the higher poster who only considered a correctional facility but the village was always intended to be used by the local colleges for dorms and that is what happened. The stadiums were put to use by local professional teams the the Olympic Park area still remains mostly in use from the fountains to newly built areas. Even SLC's village went to schools. People still keep downplaying just how isolated Lake Placid as compared to both where people are and where people want to be.
maxxxxx 10y ago
In Munich (they had the Olympics in 1972) they are apartment buildings as far as I know. In general, Munich did a great job at using the Olympic facilities later.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

ryanhuff 10y ago

As part of the Los Angeles 2024 bid, they are supposedly taking a different approach, in that they plan to utilize the existing student housing at UCLA for their athlete village.

sjm-lbm 10y ago
Atlanta used Georgia Tech's campus to house athletes in 1996 (and renovated/added additional dorms as well, at least as I understand it). Honestly, as bad as Atlanta's Olympics look at the time (with commercialism and the bombing, for example), I really think they deserve a lot of credit for using it as an excuse to provide the city with renovations people could use. Hopefully LA can do the same.
- ja27 10y ago
  They gutted a pretty rough area south of campus and built a lot of new housing for the athlete village. For a while, both Georgia Tech and Georgia State used those buildings as dorms but Georgia State built their own closer to campus and now it's all Georgia Tech property. A lot of the Tech fraternity houses were rented out to media companies and got renovated. Tech did get a lot of use out of the aquatic center and it gets used for many NCAA events. They did finally defuel the Neely nuclear research reactor on campus before the games. I'd wondered how they were going to house athletes next to an experimental reactor. Nothing can excuse that mascot though.
tzs 10y ago
That's not a different approach for Los Angeles. That's the approach they used in the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, except they used USC that time. They also utilized existing venues for nearly everything, only having to actually build two new venues (a swim center and a velodrome).

CM30 10y ago

London seems to have done that after 2012. The stadium is being reused for various sports events and West Ham matches, the Aquatics Centre is a public swimming pool and gym, various other parts were converted in housing and an academy, etc. Of course, the fact it's in a very expensive city where leaving land unused would be commercial suicide helps a bit too.

BrandonY 10y ago

The 1996 Atlanta Olympics deliberately built all the athlete housing right next to Georgia Tech's other dorms with exactly this this in mind. Then, in 2007, Georgia Tech had some great new dorms that they would've needed to build anyway. Mind you, from 1996 to 2006, they put Georgia State students in the dorms and bussed them to and from Georgia State, which didn't make a lick of sense, but I give Atlanta's government a lot of credit for very nearly doing something right.

quantumhobbit 10y ago
I didn't live there but I do remember students complaining about the quality of construction. Apparently they weren't built to last.
gtk40 10y ago
It was helpful for Georgia State moving beyond being a commuter school.

tzs 10y ago

> The core idea here was good. Re-purposing these villages after use. Even better, hold the Olympics in places where there are already facilities that can temporarily be re-purposed for the Olympics, and then go back to their normal purpose. That's what happened for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. For housing the athletes they used student housing at the University of Southern California. If Los Angeles gets the 2024 Summer Olympics they plan to use student housing at UCLA for athletes and coaches, and student housing at USC for media housing. For athletic venues, only two needed to be built. They built a velodrome and a swim center. For the rest they were able to use facilities already present: LA Memorial Coliseum, LA Memorial Sports Arena, Dodger Stadium, The Forum, Long Beach Convention Center, Rose Bowl, Long Beach Arena, Anaheim Convention Center, along with the athletic facilities at several colleges and universities (UCLA, Cal State LA, USC, Loyola Marymount, Cal State Fullerton, East LA College, Pepperdine). The combination of low construction costs from being able to use so much existing infrastructure, and the use of corporate sponsorship to pay for the things that did need to be built (it was the McDonald's swim stadium and the 7-Eleven velodrome) resulting in the 1984 Olympics running a profit of more than $200 million. I was living in Pasadena at the time. I had expected the Olympics to be a pain in the ass due to increased traffic...but it turned out to have no negative effect that I could see. In retrospect, that should not have been too surprising. There are times of the year where the pro baseball, basketball, American football, and hockey seasons overlap, along with various college sports seasons. One could easily have a day with several team sporting events going on that will each draw a large crowd. On top of that you could have a major concert or two going on. In other words, Los Angeles already can handle many simultaneous major events. The Olympics is bigger than that, but not by anywhere near as big a factor as it would be in cities that do not have so many popular pro and college team sports and so many world class concert venues.

chatmasta 10y ago
That would limit the Olympics to cities that already have modern infrastructure and economies in place. One of the benefits of hosting the Olympics is that it puts the host city in the spotlight when they might never be otherwise.
Declanomous 10y ago

Someone 10y ago

Doesn't about every Olympics do that with the Olympic village? For example: - London (http://www.eastvillagelondon.co.uk http://www.eastvillagelondon.co.uk): "Welcome to London's newest neighborhood, former athletes' village." - Beijing (http://www.china.org.cn/2008-03/05/content_11646502.htm http://www.china.org.cn/2008-03/05/content_11646502.htm): "Once the Paralympic Games are concluded, the Olympic Village will be taken over by a private development company, which will remodel the apartments into residential buildings" - Athens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Village#List_of_Olympic_Villages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Village#List_of_Olympi...): "The Athens Olympic Village also became a residential area following the Games. Today, the village with a capacity of approximately 10,000 people is in use." - Sydney (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newington,_New_South_Wales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newington,_New_South_Wales): "The Athlete's Village was converted to residential apartments after the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games." That's not schools or libraries, but if you build apartment buildings for 10,000 sportsmen, using them as apartments afterwards simply is the best fit.

Shivetya 10y ago

Atlanta did just that. Regardless of the higher poster who only considered a correctional facility but the village was always intended to be used by the local colleges for dorms and that is what happened. The stadiums were put to use by local professional teams the the Olympic Park area still remains mostly in use from the fountains to newly built areas. Even SLC's village went to schools. People still keep downplaying just how isolated Lake Placid as compared to both where people are and where people want to be.

maxxxxx 10y ago

In Munich (they had the Olympics in 1972) they are apartment buildings as far as I know. In general, Munich did a great job at using the Olympic facilities later.