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What do you do with 500 dorm rooms in the middle of nowhere? Honestly this seems like the perfect use case. Theres not enough demand at lake placid to use them

What do you do with 500 dorm rooms in the middle of nowhere? Honestly this seems like the perfect use case. Theres not enough demand at lake placid to use them as apartments.

fluxquanta 10y ago
You're not wrong. The only other use case would be to turn it into a college or something, but with North Country Community College and Paul Smith's already nearby, that market was already saturated at the time.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
okreallywtf 10y ago
It may be a pragmatic approach but thats part of the issue in the Olympics in general - building a lot of stuff (on the public dime) that will likely never have a use again. We're "lucky" enough that we always need more prison space but a much better (and in the long term, more pragmatic) case would be to need less prisons by not incarcerating so many non-violent minor "criminals".
- mstade 10y ago
  Not disagreeing with you, but would like to offer a counter story. I personality live in what used to be an Olympic villag. Or, more accurately, was supposed to be the Olympic village in the bid for Stockholm as the host city of the 2004 summer olympics. Interestingly, just like the Rio olympics the theme was environmental sustainability. The bid failed, but they went ahead with the plans anyway, and now it's lauded as a major success in urban redevelopment, taking what used to be a run down harbor and factory area which had mostly turned into a really shady part of town, and making it a great place for people to live and work. An old waste dump is now repurposed as a ski slope, and even hosted the Ski World Cup is past winter. While not technically an Olympic development, the idea was always to build a village that could then serve as a new residential area, and goes to show that the olympics can very much be the necessary catalyst in getting major developments off the ground. If IOC wanted to, they could absolutely push for all sorts of change by forming host requirements thereafter. They may want to claim they're non-political, but I don't think that's even possible on the kind of scale they operate.
  - mstade 10y ago
    Wow, such typo. That's what happens when you fat finger a reply on a phone, I guess. :o)
  - wineisfine 10y ago
    This is just an example of smart Scandinavians being 3 steps ahead again. I wonder what'll happen with the Brazil built Olympic villages.
    - hardlianotion 10y ago
      Weren't some of the Brazilian Olympic Village reused from the London Olympics? This was going to be a big deal four years ago.
    - mstade 10y ago
      Let's be honest, we do some dumb shit too, just like everyone else. But this particular story I like very much. It was laughed at by a lot of people before the development began, it was too expensive, nobody would like it, the design was terrible etc.; and now it's a highly sought after area to live in Stockholm. I'm quite proud of my neighborhood, I'm sure you can tell. I've lived there for over nine years as well, so I've seen the developments up close all this time, and it's been an amazing transformation! When I first moved in, it was mostly a construction area. Thankfully we had a grocery store and most other necessities in place very early on, but other non-essentials like pubs and the likes took a while. It's still a quiet part of town (which I like) but now we have a couple of really nice restaurants and such in place as well. I think in a world filled with terribly planned urban developments, Hammarby Sjöstad[1] stands out as an example where you can get things right. (They got a lot of things wrong as well, but have largely managed to successfully course correct along the way.) [1]: http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2014/02/12/hammarby-sjostad-a-new-generation-of-sustainable-urban-eco-districts/ http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2014/02/12/hammarby-sjostad... (This link says the bid was for the 2012 olympics, which I think is true as well, but the initial planning was for the 2004 bid I believe and when they failed they continued with the planning and tried again for 2012. I may very well be wrong though.)
  - 10y ago
- ak217 10y ago
  Atlanta built the olympic village on the Georgia Tech campus, and the dorms became student dorms. Perfect use case.
- madeofpalk 10y ago
  Olympics have actually placed a large focus on 'sustainable' developments. In Sydney, the Sydney Olympic Park is still standing and is used for lots of events all year round. The athletes villages were converted into apartments. London's has been championed as one of the most sustainable, with it being used to rejuvenate a dead industrial area. Some facilities were built to be temporary, whereas other are being developed further.
- will_brown 10y ago
  >...less prisons by not incarcerating so many non-violent minor "criminals". "Minor Criminals" as that term might commonly be understood typically don't go to prison, they go to jail. The very nature of prison entails a felony charge, now I know you can make an argument there are a few drug possession crimes that are felonies that shouldn't be, but that is not really applicable to the prison from this article, as this is a Federal prison.
Gracana 10y ago
Sucks if you're from the city and want to visit your friend/loved one in prison, though.
kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
> What do you do with 500 dorm rooms in the middle of nowhere? Create a flexible building with temporary partition walls so you can convert to 80-100 apartments. It's not rocket science how to make a building serve two purposes.
alistairSH 10y ago
Theres not enough demand at lake placid to use them as apartments. You just made the case that large (and probably wealthy) cities should host the Olympics instead of remote areas. They are more financially capable of absorbing the cost of hosting events. And have the population density that new buildings should relatively easily repurposed (see Stockholm anecdote in sibling comment).
- chrismcb 10y ago
  There aren't a lot of large and wealthy cities next to ski slopes
codingdave 10y ago
Back then, it might have been hard to answer. Today? A much cheaper, quieter place to incubate loads of startups.

What do you do with 500 dorm rooms in the middle of nowhere? Honestly this seems like the perfect use case. Theres not enough demand at lake placid to use them as apartments.

fluxquanta 10y ago

You're not wrong. The only other use case would be to turn it into a college or something, but with North Country Community College and Paul Smith's already nearby, that market was already saturated at the time.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

okreallywtf 10y ago

It may be a pragmatic approach but thats part of the issue in the Olympics in general - building a lot of stuff (on the public dime) that will likely never have a use again. We're "lucky" enough that we always need more prison space but a much better (and in the long term, more pragmatic) case would be to need less prisons by not incarcerating so many non-violent minor "criminals".

mstade 10y ago
Not disagreeing with you, but would like to offer a counter story. I personality live in what used to be an Olympic villag. Or, more accurately, was supposed to be the Olympic village in the bid for Stockholm as the host city of the 2004 summer olympics. Interestingly, just like the Rio olympics the theme was environmental sustainability. The bid failed, but they went ahead with the plans anyway, and now it's lauded as a major success in urban redevelopment, taking what used to be a run down harbor and factory area which had mostly turned into a really shady part of town, and making it a great place for people to live and work. An old waste dump is now repurposed as a ski slope, and even hosted the Ski World Cup is past winter. While not technically an Olympic development, the idea was always to build a village that could then serve as a new residential area, and goes to show that the olympics can very much be the necessary catalyst in getting major developments off the ground. If IOC wanted to, they could absolutely push for all sorts of change by forming host requirements thereafter. They may want to claim they're non-political, but I don't think that's even possible on the kind of scale they operate.
- mstade 10y ago
  Wow, such typo. That's what happens when you fat finger a reply on a phone, I guess. :o)
- wineisfine 10y ago
  This is just an example of smart Scandinavians being 3 steps ahead again. I wonder what'll happen with the Brazil built Olympic villages.
  - hardlianotion 10y ago
    Weren't some of the Brazilian Olympic Village reused from the London Olympics? This was going to be a big deal four years ago.
  - mstade 10y ago
    Let's be honest, we do some dumb shit too, just like everyone else. But this particular story I like very much. It was laughed at by a lot of people before the development began, it was too expensive, nobody would like it, the design was terrible etc.; and now it's a highly sought after area to live in Stockholm. I'm quite proud of my neighborhood, I'm sure you can tell. I've lived there for over nine years as well, so I've seen the developments up close all this time, and it's been an amazing transformation! When I first moved in, it was mostly a construction area. Thankfully we had a grocery store and most other necessities in place very early on, but other non-essentials like pubs and the likes took a while. It's still a quiet part of town (which I like) but now we have a couple of really nice restaurants and such in place as well. I think in a world filled with terribly planned urban developments, Hammarby Sjöstad[1] stands out as an example where you can get things right. (They got a lot of things wrong as well, but have largely managed to successfully course correct along the way.) [1]: http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2014/02/12/hammarby-sjostad-a-new-generation-of-sustainable-urban-eco-districts/ http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2014/02/12/hammarby-sjostad... (This link says the bid was for the 2012 olympics, which I think is true as well, but the initial planning was for the 2004 bid I believe and when they failed they continued with the planning and tried again for 2012. I may very well be wrong though.)
- 10y ago
ak217 10y ago
Atlanta built the olympic village on the Georgia Tech campus, and the dorms became student dorms. Perfect use case.
madeofpalk 10y ago
Olympics have actually placed a large focus on 'sustainable' developments. In Sydney, the Sydney Olympic Park is still standing and is used for lots of events all year round. The athletes villages were converted into apartments. London's has been championed as one of the most sustainable, with it being used to rejuvenate a dead industrial area. Some facilities were built to be temporary, whereas other are being developed further.
will_brown 10y ago
>...less prisons by not incarcerating so many non-violent minor "criminals". "Minor Criminals" as that term might commonly be understood typically don't go to prison, they go to jail. The very nature of prison entails a felony charge, now I know you can make an argument there are a few drug possession crimes that are felonies that shouldn't be, but that is not really applicable to the prison from this article, as this is a Federal prison.

Gracana 10y ago

Sucks if you're from the city and want to visit your friend/loved one in prison, though.

kevin_thibedeau 10y ago

> What do you do with 500 dorm rooms in the middle of nowhere? Create a flexible building with temporary partition walls so you can convert to 80-100 apartments. It's not rocket science how to make a building serve two purposes.

alistairSH 10y ago

Theres not enough demand at lake placid to use them as apartments. You just made the case that large (and probably wealthy) cities should host the Olympics instead of remote areas. They are more financially capable of absorbing the cost of hosting events. And have the population density that new buildings should relatively easily repurposed (see Stockholm anecdote in sibling comment).

chrismcb 10y ago
There aren't a lot of large and wealthy cities next to ski slopes

codingdave 10y ago

Back then, it might have been hard to answer. Today? A much cheaper, quieter place to incubate loads of startups.