NYC Olympic Village Design Finalists Chosen

[Cotuit]

Five Finalists Chosen To Design Proposed Olympic Village In LIC

by Paul Menchaca, Western Queens Editor

December 18, 2003

NYC2012 has chosen five design firms as finalists to build the proposed Olympic Village in Long Island City.

In computer-generated pictures provided by NYC2012, the proposed Olympic Village for athletes (in the foreground) will be built as part of the Queens West development in Long Island City. Five finalists are vying for the chance to design the village.

The international competition featured 130 entries from 20 countries. The five finalists are Henning Larsens Tegnestue A/S from Denmark, MVRDV from The Netherlands, Morphosis from California, Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects from New York and Zaha Hadid Architects from London.

The finalists were chosen by an 8-member design review panel consisting of experts in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, environmental planning, housing, as well as an Olympian.

The five finalists will begin a 14-week planning and design study, before the submissions are presented to the public through an exhibit and interactive Web site next March. The final round will include an evaluation and public comment period and the winner will be announced in may 2004.

[turlough]

now that's really nice I think it will show NY in a whole new light I think it's wonderful and I can't wait to see it

[Allan]

I hope they vary the designs of the different buildings a bit more. I hate it when all the buildings look the same.

[tocoto]

I think there's too much variation between the height of the large low rise sctions and the realtively small area of high rise sections. It s also too bland and similar. Hopefully, the end result will be better.

[Cotuit]

That pic is just something that NYC2012 put together (and I don't know why they put together something so crappy looking). If what we see from the competition in March isn't any better, then we are in trouble.

[Cotuit]

More on NYC2012

In Olympian Dreams, Designs for the City

By JULIE V. IOVINE

January 14, 2004

NYC2012: Olympic Opportunities," now at the Center for Architecture in Greenwich Village, is a small show, but it presages huge architectural ambitions for New York City. The bid to make the city the home of the Olympics in 2012 may seem like a pipe dream, but detailed plans are well under way for some 25 sites spanning all five buroughs, New Jersey and Nassau County.

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Kohn Pedersen Fox's design for a New York Jets and Olympic stadium.

The projected new construction budget, the bulk of which will be privately financed, is in excess of $3 billion, said Daniel L. Doctoroff, deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding and the founder of NYC2012, the group leading New York's bid to be host. "We hope to use the process of bidding for, and hopefully hosting, the Olympics as a way to showcase New York as a center of excellence and path-breaking developments in design," Mr. Doctoroff said.

New York is contending against eight other cities, including Paris, London, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro and Havana, making this one of the hottest

[Cotuit]

NYC2012

Olympic Village Design Finalists

New York began as a village. In the spring of 1624, the first boatload of Dutch colonists arrived to establish their home around the harbor, setting their sights on the slender island the natives referred to as

[Scott]

I think I like Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects the best though they are all a little too modern.

[Cotuit]

I might like Zaha Hadid Architects, but I need to see something a little more representational of what the final product is expected to look like.

[Cotuit]

And the Winner is...

California Design Firm Chosen for Olympic Site in Queens

By COREY KILGANNON

They did not play the national anthem or drape the champion in red, white and blue, but there was plenty of other fanfare as city and state officials gathered yesterday in Long Island City, Queens, to announce the architect chosen to design the 2012 Olympic Village.

The winner, selected from 132 proposals from architects worldwide, was Morphosis, a firm based in Santa Monica, Calif., known for its innovative designs.

Standing next to the Morphosis model for the village, the officials beamed at its several serpentine low-rise buildings depicted on the banks of the East River, and its four sleek high-rises jutting up as if to mimic the United Nations building across the river from the proposed site. It sits at the southern margin of Queens West, a waterfront development plan the state is sponsoring. The village would include 4,500 units of housing for 16,000 athletes and coaches, and athletic fields and indoor training areas, all with views of the Manhattan skyline.

At a morning news conference at the Tennisport club, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Charles A. Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, called the Morphosis design strong enough to give New York the edge over the four other finalist cities competing for the 2012 Summer Games: London, Madrid, Moscow and Paris. A decision is expected in July 2005.

Mr. Bloomberg said the $1.5 billion Olympic Village project, on a 52-acre waterfront site, would be converted into "first-class housing" after the Games. The plan was selected by a steering committee organized by NYC2012, the organization leading the city's bid to play host to the Games.

Daniel L. Doctoroff, the city's deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, said the Morphosis design would be "incredibly important" in the competition for the Games and for the Games themselves, since "the athletes are the center of the Olympic Games."

Thom Mayne, 60, head of the Morphosis firm, is known for creating graceful designs out of unlikely materials, like industrial metals. Among the firm's current projects are a building for Cooper Union in Manhattan, a recreation center at the University of Cincinnati and a housing project in Madrid.

His Olympic design features three long, low-rise buildings that follow the contour of the shoreline, like flowing ribbons wrapping sections of tree-shaded parkland. Mr. Mayne said he tried to design the village as a "Central Park on the Hudson" and create "a contrast with the urbanity and density of Manhattan," all while connecting it to Manhattan.

Paved walkways are designed as extensions of Midtown streets, and many breezeways and open spaces are incorporated into the buildings to preserve Manhattan sightlines.

Another goal was to capitalize on its proximity to transportation and the security benefits of being partly bordered by water.

From The New York Times

Morphosis

Through its vision of global unity amidst the highest levels of human performance, the Olympic Movement is one of the primary institutions promoting peace, tolerance, and humanitarianism. The Olympic Village has an important symbolic role to play in public life both during the Olympic Games and afterwards. This Village will redefine the heart of the area by instilling values of diversity and cooperation to engender a sense of optimism, civicmindedness, and civic pride that will resonate long after the Games are over.

Our design for the Village establishes an iconic landmark and proposes an innovative vision for a 21st century urban environment that will redefine contemporary urban living through its commitment to sustainability, connectivity and interdependence. It is our intent to transform Hunters Point into a revitalized

[monsoon]

[DavePaulk]

The night shot of the MVRDV buildings is awesome, but i think they are still a bit ahead of our time. I can't really pick a favorite; they all have so much to offer.

[archiham04]

This is a really inspiring concept... could the olympics and olympic village construction become the stage for radical new architectural ideas and innovation that the world's fair once represented?...

[Spartan]

Ok, so this one is the winner right?

[Cotuit]

I could not tell if these towers were part of the winning design, but I really like the look.

It's a good one, but not the winner, that is Henning Larsens Tegnestue A/S's design.

[Cotuit]

Ok, so this one is the winner right?

Yup!

[Cotuit]

The night shot of the MVRDV buildings is awesome, but i think they are still a bit ahead of our time.

I agree. I would like to see what the winning entry, Morphosis, would look like from this angle at night. This is the view from the Long Island Expressway just before entering the Midtown Tunnel and crossing into Manhattan. It becomes a sort of gateway to Manhattan.

[monsoon]

[Guest donaltopablo]

Add a few smokestacks with flames shooting from the top to that last photo, and you will have a scene from the movie "Blade Runner".

Your not kidding. Although it would certainly be unique.