Here is an interesting look at the after affects of the Olympic Village in Vancouver...
Among the lasting legacies for Olympic host cities are the villages constructed to house athletes and officials. After the final medals are awarded, how do cities capitalize on these massive remnants of their games?
or the 2010 Winter Olympics, about 3,000 of the world’s best athletes (and officials) took over a corner of downtown Vancouver, British Columbia — not to mention the little city that skiers and bobsledders created 70 miles north, in Whistler. Such Olympic villages can be billion-dollar creations that are in the world’s spotlight for just a few weeks.
So what happens to these glamorous villages when the athletes pack up their medals, memories and dirty laundry to fly home?
If the planners have done their homework and everybody keeps their promises, the villages are in for a long and productive post-games life. But that’s not always how it works out. Here’s our look at the afterlife of several villages from the past few decades.
Vancouver: The best (and costliest) village ever?
With its Olympic Village, Vancouver is certainly gunning for one of the most dramatic transformations of a site — and it looks like it may succeed.
What the athletes may not know, as they enjoy the spectacular views across False Creek toward the Vancouver skyline and the North Shore Mountains beyond, is that city planners have hoped to transform this land since the 1970s. The Southeast False Creek area was the last remaining piece of undeveloped waterfront in downtown Vancouver. Most recently, its big tenant was the city’s public works yard.
That all changed with the Olympic Village — 18 midrise buildings with enough apartments to accommodate 2,730 athletes and officials during the Olympics, and an additional 350 during the Paralympics in March.
After the games, the ultragreen village (rechristened Millennium Water) will become the centerpiece of the larger Southeast False Creek neighborhood. The village’s 1,100 units will include 730 market-rate condos, 120 market rental apartments and 250 affordable rental apartments. (Many of the condos already have sold, for about $950 per square foot.)
Homeowners won’t be able to move in as soon as the games end, however. Once the village is handed back to the developer this spring, the buildings need to be touched up and retooled: Kitchens that were boarded up for the games so athletes couldn’t use them must be completed. Nice wood flooring must be installed (often right atop the carpeting in place for the athletes, which will be used as padding).
The apartments aren’t the only thing that will need to be altered: A 45,000-square-foot community center on the waterfront, which is now serving as the village mayor’s office during the games, among other uses, will be refitted with a day-care center, a restaurant, a nonmotorized boating center and a gym.
The goal is to create a complete community with all the things it needs, where none existed before. By 2020, city planners expect the Southeast False Creek neighborhood to be home to 16,000 people living in more than 5,000 apartments and condos. They’ll be able to enjoy 26 acres of parkland, including a new waterfront promenade, a public plaza and a community garden.
Sound good? It should. The Vancouver press has reported that the $1 billion project is $130 million over budget to date.
