CONNECTING CITIES :Mega Event Cities :MEGA EVENT
CONNECTING CITIES : M e g a E v e n t C i t i e s A publication for the 9th World Congress of Metropolis Papers by Adjunct Professor Richard Cashman Professor Hai Ren Hiromasa Shirai Dr Glen Searle Darlene van der Breggen Professor Donald McNeill Dr Mark Davidson Alan Marsh Edited by Alana Hay Richard Cashman Published by Sydney Olympic Park Authority for Metropolis Congress 2008
FOREWORD The 9th World Congress of Metropolis, to be held in Sydney in October 2008, is a great opportunity to generate research into the future direction of cities. With this in mind, the organisers of the congress have developed a number of research publications that explore new concepts related to cities as well as the emerging cities of India and China. In organising the Congress, we found that there was a network of researchers and commentators about cities across the globe who had very interesting issues to raise. While many of these will be presenting papers at the Congress, we also thought it would be useful to develop a series of publications that raise these issues in a provocative manner. The first of these books will be about networks the concept of cities interacting across the globe. The second examines the spreading urban regions around many cities followed by publications that look in detail at the cities of China and India. The final book examines the impact on cities of mega events such as the Olympic Games. Contemporary world urbanisation, particularly the rise of Chinese and Indian cities, means both opportunities and challenges for Australian cities. These publications put Sydney and other Australian cities in scenarios with global counterpart cities to benchmark their urban performance. The provocative topics are aimed to trigger fruitful debate in government, private sector and the general public regarding how to create better strategies for the future of Australian cities. We would like to thank all contributors, sponsors and research coordinators. Without their work, these publications could not have been possible. The influence of their contributions will be far reaching. Chris Johnson Director, Metropolis Congress 2008
Introduction 10 Chris Johnson 1 The Sydney Olympic Park Model: Evolution and Realisation 21 Adjunct Professor Richard Cashman 2 The operation of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Precinct 45 Professor Hai Ren 3 Planning London Olympic Park as a Global and Local Place A Comparative Analysis with Sydney Olympic Park 63 Mr Hiromasa Shirai 4 The Influence of Mega Events on City Structure Under Contemporary Urban Governance: The Example of Sydney s Olympic Games 87 Dr Glen Searle 5 Urbanising a Post Olympic Landscape 109 Darlene van der Breggen 6 Sydney Olympic Park: Centrality, Mobility and Metropolitan Publics 131 Professor Donald McNeill & Dr Mark Davidson 7 Marketing the Park to the Community Visitors and Audiences at Sydney Olympic Park 149 Alan Marsh
Hiromasa Shirai LONDON, UK Hiromasa Shirai is an architect and a phd candidate at the Cities Programme in the London School of Economics and Political Science (lse). Prior to starting his phd project at the lse, as an architect, he was involved in various architectural and urban projects throughout the world, including the China Central Television, Beijing, China Headquarters project, which is one of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games related developments. Since 2006, Hiromasa has been undertaking his phd research project on The legacy of Olympic site for the City at the lse. Along with his research at the lse, he has been involved in the design of London Olympic Park. Professor Donald McNeill LONDON, UK Professor Donald McNeill joined the Urban Research Centre from King s College London. He is known for his research in urban geography and in particular the relationship between architecture and urban space, with particular reference to skyscrapers, hotels, and airports. His latest book, The Global Architect, will be published by Routledge in 2008. Having published widely on mayors and urban governance, he continues to research in urban politics and development in Barcelona, London and Sydney. Darlene van der Breggen SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Darlene van der Breggen is Executive Director of Design at Sydney Olympic Park Authority. She has experience in public and private sectors of practice, specialising in public domain design and policy, urban renewal projects and master planning. She graduated in architecture from the University of Technology in Sydney and has a Masters of Architecture in Urban Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.
Professor Hai Ren BEIJING, CHINA Hai Ren, PhD is the Professor and Director of Centre for Olympic Studies in Beijing Sport University, China. He has specialised in Olympic studies and the social cultural studies of sport. He has undertaken various research projects on the Olympic movement in China and the Beijing 2008 Olympic & Paralympic Games. Alan Marsh SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Alan Marsh commenced as Chief Executive Officer of Sydney Olympic Park Authority in February 2008. Alan s previous roles have included Deputy Director General (Office of Public Works and Services) of the nsw Department of Commerce, ceo of Darling Harbour Authority and Commissioner for World Expo 1988. As Executive Director Rugby World Cup 2003, Alan played a key role in the successful delivery of the nsw Government s logistical support and as General Manager of Ticketing for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games was responsible for delivering a successful ticketing strategy for the best games ever. Dr Mark Davidson NEW HAMPSHIRE, USA Dr Mark Davidson joined the Urban Research Centre from Dartmouth College, usa. He is an urban geographer with interests in gentrification, urban policy, metropolitan politics and social justice. His research has examined the social impacts of new build gentrification in London, uk. His current research includes work on issues of social sustainability in Sydney and Vancouver, the relationship between health and gentrification in New York City, the social and housing market impacts of infill development in Sydney and place making activities at Sydney Olympic Park. Contributors Dr Glen Searle SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Dr Glen Searle is Director of the Planning Program at the University of Technology Sydney. His former role was Deputy Manager, Policy at the New South Wales Department of Decentralisation and Development, Treasury, and Planning. He has also worked as a Senior Research Officer at the uk Department of the Environment Inner Cities Directorate. His monograph Sydney as a Global City was published by the nsw Government in 1996. He is Chief Editor of the Urban Policy and Research journal. Richard Cashman SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Richard Cashman is an Adjunct Professor and Director of the Australian Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney. He published The Bitter Sweet Awakening: The Legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, in 2006 and will publish (with Simon Darcy) Benchmark Games: The Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, in 2008. He has published numerous papers on Sydney Olympic Park.
I N T R O D U C T I O N / C h r i s J o h n s o n NEW EVENT HOrIZON Cities seem to have a fascination with mega events. Just look at the list of past venues for the Olympic Games Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing. But even more significant is the list of cities bidding for future mega events. London has won the right to host the 2012 Olympics with Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Baku, Doha and Prague bidding for 2016. Participants in the race for the 2020 Olympic Games include Istanbul, Delhi, Cape Town, Melbourne, Brisbane, Toronto and many more. Cities are also bidding for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. The list of bidding cities includes Auckland, Lagos, Canberra and Toronto. The 2018 Asian Games have Jakarta, Hanoi, Manila, Singapore and Dubai all bidding. Clearly, these cities see value in hosting mega events despite their increasing costs. Cities, in their quest for global relevance see the value of mega events in terms of capturing the attention of the world s population and the branding their city receives.
COMPETING EVENT CITIES Source: International Olympic Committee www.olympic.org OLYMPIC GAMES 1988 2020 2012 LONDON 2016 BID Madrid 1992 BARCELONA 2004 ATHENS 2008 BEIJING 2016 BID 1988 Tokyo SEOUL 2000 SYDNEY 2016 BID Chicago 1996 ATLANTA 2016 BID Rio de Janeiro Proposed 2020 Bid Melbourne Brisbane Lima Monterrey Toronto Philadelphia Istanbul Lisbon Rome Prague Budapest Copenhagen Delhi Kuala Lumpur Busan Doha Dubai Cape Town Durban 80,000 74,615 VOLUNTEERS 70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 VOLUNTEERS MEDIA 21,600 MEDIA 20,000 10,000 ATHLETES 11,468 ATHLETES 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 MOSCOW LOS ANGELES SEOUL BARCELONA ATLANTA SYDNEY ATHENS BEIJING
350 11,468 ATHLETES 12,000 300 302 10,000 250 205,8000 200 6,000 150 EVENTS ATHLETES 4,000 100 43 NATIONS 50 2,000 241 ATHLETES 14 0 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 0 ATHENS PARIS ST LOUIS LONDON STOCKHOLM ANTWERP PARIS AMSTERDAM LOS ANGELES BERLIN LONDON HELSINKI MELBOURNE ROME TOKYO MEXICO CITY MUNICH MONTREAL MOSCOW LOS ANGELES SEOUL BARCELONA ATLANTA SYDNEY ATHENS BEIJING This book focuses on the impact of mega events, in particular, an Olympic Games and the legacy that it leaves. The Olympic Games have become an increasingly large event. Beginning in 1896 in Athens with a mere 14 nations and only 241 athletes, they have this year reached a record 205 nations at the Beijing Olympics with 11,468 athletes. This number is double the 5,516 athletes that attended the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968, where 112 countries were represented. As well as Olympic and sporting events, cities are hosting World Expos. Shanghai is determined to present itself to the world with its showcase in 2010. The World Urban Forum has also moved across various cities and of course, the Metropolis Congress adds prestige to its host city. As the Director of the Metropolis Congress 2008 in Sydney, I ve seen a fascination with the image and brand of Sydney from cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Jakarta, Shanghai, Guangzhou, São Paulo, Barcelona and many more. It is an event city that is increasingly becoming the focus for events and the resulting publicity around the world. It is the city that is becoming the attractor of tourism and a city s identity is often an important by product of one or more mega event. The chapters in this book explore the way three cities have or plan to use an Olympic Games as the catalyst to globally position their city. Beijing, the most recent host city, is positioned by Professor Hai Ren particularly in relation to post Games use. London the 2012 city, is analysed as a global and a local place by Hiromasa Shirai from the London School of Economics. A series of experts discuss the Sydney experience and the impact of the mega event on the city itself.
WORLD EXPO CITIES www.expomuseum.com 1970 Osaka Japan 1974 Spokane USA 1975 Okinawa Japan 1982 Knoxville USA 1984 New Orleans USA 1985 Tsukuba Japan 1986 Vancouver Canada 1988 Brisbane Australia 1992 Seville Spain / Genoa Italy 1993 Daejeon South Korea 1998 Lisbon Portugal 2000 Hanover Germany 2005 Aichi Japan 2008 Zaragoza Spain 2010 Shanghai China 2012 Yeosu Korea 2015 Milan Italy FIFA WORLD CUP HOSTS www.fifa.com 2002 SOUTH KOREA/JAPAN 2006 GERMANY 2010 SOUTH AFRICA 2014 BRAZIL 2018 Mexico? Qatar? United States? England? Spain? Netherlands/Belgium? Russia? China? Japan? Australia?
It is this impact that will be of particular interest to Beijing and London. Richard Cashman, in his chapter, explains the International Olympic Committee s (ioc) adoption of the Olympic Games Global Impact (oggi) programme in 2001. This operates over an eleven year cycle and specifically looks at long term legacies through economic, social and environmental impacts of the Games on a specific city. He outlines the evolution of Olympic precincts and compares the decentralised model (Barcelona 1992) with the centralised model (Sydney 2000). Cashman indicates that legacy was not part of bidding criteria at the time when Sydney won the Games. Sydney, eight years on, is building momentum on its next generation of urban development. Glen Searle outlines the evolution of Sydney Olympic Park after the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games through the development of a number of Master Plans and visions for the future. These incorporated significant new developments for commercial, retail and residential space in a manner that reinforced the structure of the New South Wales Government s original Master Plan 1995 for development of the Homebush Bay area. Searle relates Sydney Olympic Park to current planning theory and the trend towards more fluidity of spatial relationships rather than traditional fixed Master Planning. An example of this is the possibility of a new metro rail line that could connect Sydney Olympic Park, Parramatta and Sydney s central business district. Darlene van der Breggen explains the urbanising of Sydney Olympic Park with particular reference to the natural landscape, the sports icons, the axial corridors and the spaces between. Mark Davidson and Donald McNeill examine Sydney Olympic Park as a place and particularly its degree of centrality to Sydney. They focus on mobilities in relation to access to the site and stress the importance of broadly interpreting legacy to include the large amount of parklands and wetlands. Alan Marsh, ceo of Sydney Olympic Park Authority, outlines the importance of engaging local communities and leveraging brand and marketing opportunities provided by the legacy of a mega event such as an Olympic Games. He stresses some of the achievements, including the enormous remediation project, the environmental leadership and waste water recycling system. Marsh then outlines the current markets and uses of the site. It is clear in reading the chapters on Beijing and London that planning for long term use is an element integrated into the planning for mega event city developments, particularly for an Olympic Games. London has built long term legacy into its planning, as is now required by the International Olympic Committee.
There is, of course, a dramatic difference in city population between Sydney, London and Beijing. The larger the city, the easier it is for the mega event to be incorporated into long term planning for a city. The smaller the city, the more impact a mega event has in terms of determining the region s future structure. The keen interest, however, in major cities competing to hold mega events demonstrates the value they see in lifting themselves within the global city stakes. It seems that to become globally competitive a city needs to host mega events the biggest of these being the Olympic Games. Legacies from mega events can be more than the physical. Sydney has made a major contribution in the area of sustainability. At a time when climate change was hardly discussed, Sydney championed environmental initiatives. It is now home to one of the world s largest waste water recycling systems, a solar powered suburb, best practice approach to environmental sustainability and the largest remediation project in Australia. It could be argued that the enduring legacy of the Sydney Olympic Games will not be its success in delivering some of the world s greatest events but perhaps that our green games made other major cities more aware of their own nascent environmental and urban regeneration issues.
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The Sydney Olympic Park model: its evolution and realisation Richard Cashman Olympic precincts and parks are a relatively recent phenomenon. The creation of a dedicated Olympic precinct has important post Games legacy implications. Part of the justification for the investment is that it will be of long term benefit. The attachment of the Olympic name to a park or a precinct is a reminder of the site s significance 21
22 The IOC recognised the importance of event legacy by creating the Olympic Games Global Impact (OGGI) program in 2001
Olympic precincts and Parks are a relatively recent phenomenon. They are a product of greater planning and investment in Olympic cities since the 1970s. This is a result of the increased size and status of Olympic Games in this period with expanding media coverage and enlarged sponsorship commitments. Place competition and place marketing are products of globalisation; with regions, cities and even localities increasingly focusing on developing internationally competitive investment environments for investors who possess global reach. The Olympics are considered an unsurpassed investment package big ticket events like the Olympic Games provide a unique opportunity to launch large scale projects of urban infrastructure to advertise and promote a city in the global marketplace. A comparative study of Olympic precincts is a worthwhile exercise particularly with the International Olympic Committee s (ioc) greater emphasis on legacy since the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The ioc recognised the importance of impacts by creating the Olympic Games Global Impact (oggi) program in 2001. oggi, which operates over an 11 year cycle starting two years before the selection of the host city, to two years after the staging of an Olympic Games represents a sustained effort to collect and capture social, environmental and economic impacts of the Games. The benefits of oggi are two fold: it assists with the transfer of Olympic knowledge from one Olympic city to another enabling the ioc to better understand and manage future Olympic Games. Impacts are immensely important because they relate to issues of sustainability, accountability and evaluation. At an international legacy conference, in Lausanne in 2002, ioc President, Dr Jacques Rogge, warned about the danger of luxury developments, made in the name of Olympic Games, becoming white elephants post Olympics. It should be noted that Sydney s legacy plans, which were framed in the 1990s, occurred before the ioc s greater emphasis on legacy, making the evolution of Sydney Olympic Park different from that of the cities of Beijing and London. 23
U r ban landsca p e s Maurice Roche, in Mega Events and Modernity, noted that sports and leisurescapes sports parks, fairs, theme and amusement parks have become part of the landscape of contemporary cities. Such landscapes have been planned carefully to enhance commercial opportunities that are clustered around the park s main attractions so that events, architecture and landscaping help move people through and past concessions at speeds and intervals that have been carefully determined to enhance sales per capita. Roche elaborated further on what he calls event heritage architecture. The Eiffel Tower was a legacy of the Paris World Fair of 1889. London s Wembley Stadium, a product of the 1924 imperial expo, became a legendary theatre of dreams and a site of national sport event pilgrimage for the British public. While most event heritage architecture is planned, some legacy may not be foreseen. A surplus from the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition led to the acquisition of 87 acres of land in South Kensington where international expos have been held. Even though the Crystal Palace was burned down in 1937 the 87 acres has become the site of a permanent exhibition complex of institutions including Albert Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum and a number of other buildings. Landscapes provide an opportunity to explore place identity and the actors and narratives become central to the identity of a place. Designed landscapes, which are cultural products, reflect the social, economic and political circumstances of a city and give shape to a new imagining of the city. There has been a proliferation of literature in recent decades on ways of viewing urban space in a number of disciplines anthropology, architecture, geography, history, sociology and urban planning and studies so that the study of urban precincts has become a rich field for comparative study. O ly m p i c u r ban infras t r u ct u r e b e f o r e t h e 1 9 7 0 s Olympic urban investment was relatively modest before the 1970s. The scale of Olympic Games was much smaller and the media coverage was relatively small. Consequently, there was less incentive for a city to undertake a large scale infrastructure project. There were, for instance, only 3,342 athletes from 67 nations at the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games. By contrast, 3843 athletes 24
from 122 nations attended the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games and approximately 4,500 athletes from 71 teams attended the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. There was no international television coverage of the Melbourne Olympic Games so there was less opportunity for the city to promote itself internationally. Melbourne s Olympic investment was limited in comparison with later Olympic cities. It had no Olympic precinct as such. The Melbourne Cricket Ground became the Olympic Stadium and after the Olympic Games, resumed its previous use, primarily for cricket and football matches. Other venues were scattered around the city and the state. In 1956, there was only a limited idea of the legacy of an Olympic Games, creating infrastructure that would be of long term benefit to the citizens of Melbourne and Victoria. The Melbourne Cauldron, for instance, was constructed quickly and was not intended to last for longer than the period of the Games. It languished in a warehouse for three decades after 1956 when it was rediscovered and went on display in the Australian Gallery of Sport and Olympic Museum opened in Melbourne in 1986. T h e e v o lu t i o n o f O ly m p i c p r e c i n cts i n t h e 1 9 7 0 s The increasing size and status of the Olympic Games by the 1970s, fuelled by the expansion of international television, provided the incentive for cities to invest more in Olympic infrastructure and to use a mega sporting event to undertake large scale urban development. The Olympic Games provided an opportunity, as Glen Searle notes in his chapter, to stimulate urban development beyond the Olympic sports facilities themselves. Munich in 1972 and Montreal in 1976 provide interesting examples of how two cities invested massively in Olympic infrastructure to advance agendas that were considered important by the city planners. Munich built a futuristic stadium, an Olympic Village, sports arenas and water sports sites that were linked by a subway system connecting the facilities to the centre of the city. Graphic artist, Otl Aichers, coordinated colours and developed a series of sports pictographs. Significantly, this new Olympic precinct was created on a site of rubble dumped after the post war reconstruction of the bombed city. So Munich, like Sydney some decades later, used the event to turn a degraded wasteland into an attractive sports and recreation wonderland. 25
The increasing size and status of the Olympic Games by the 1970s, fuelled by the expansion of international television, provided the incentive for cities to invest more in Olympic infrastructure and to use a mega sporting event to undertake large scale urban development The organisers of the Munich 1972 Olympic Games wished to promote the stability and peaceful stance of the new German Federal Republic. Expanding global television revenue, combined with massive support from government agencies, underwrote ambitious Olympic developments. The organisers wished to dispel the memories of the last German Olympic Games, held in Berlin in 1936, when the Nazis were in power. Unfortunately, Munich was not remembered for its fine Olympic architecture or its efficient organisation but for the massacre that took place midway through the Games; that resulted in the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes, one policeman and five terrorists. The charismatic Mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau, wanted to use the 1976 Games to create a lasting symbol of la survivance, the will of French Canada to survive two centuries of English Canadian attempts at assimilation. While promising the ioc that the city would deliver a modest self financing Games, Drapeau proceeded to commission extravagant monuments including an Olympic stadium with a 50 story tower, a retractable roof and an ambitious and complex design for the velodrome that included a giant arc of a roof sweeping over glass walls, rising higher and higher with no visible means of support that then sloped back to earth. Montreal ended up with such monumental facilities, constructed with such little regard for their cost that they have become a byword for gargantuan extravaganzas. The tales of Munich and Montreal provide salutary lessons that the best laid plans may not produce the desired promotion of the city. 26
Sydney Olympic Park 2001, Olympic Games mode M o d e ls o f O ly m p i c p r e c i n cts Since the 1950s there have been three main models, with many variants, of Olympic precincts. 1. No Model The 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games had no Olympic precinct. 2. Decentralised Model The 1992 Barcelona organisers, by contrast, opted for a decentralised model, with Olympic developments spread over four main areas. Montjuïc, Diagonal, Parc de Mar and Vall d Hebron. Montjuïc was an established sports precinct with a stadium (dating from 1936) and a swimming pool (1972). Diagonal was the part of the city with the largest concentration of private sports facilities. The two other areas, Parc de Mar and Vall d Hebron were chosen because there were insufficient sports facilities there. So there was a conscious decision on the part of the Barcelona organisers to spread Olympic developments around the city. 3. Centralised Model The Sydney 2000 Olympic & Paralympic Games organisers preferred a more centralised model with 14 of the 28 sports located at eight venues at Sydney Olympic Park; also the site of the Olympic Village. Sydney Olympic Park is distinctive in that its 640 hectares include 425 hectares of extensive parklands, providing much scope for both passive and active recreation. 27
T h e rat i o n a l e f o r a c e n t r a l i s e d m o d e l Sydney s choice of this model was based on the following ingredients: A key objective was to create an attractive theatre for the Sydney Games. This was achieved by constructing mostly new state of the art sporting facilities, flanked by a wide boulevard that could accommodate large crowds and provide easy access to the Park, mainly by rail. Vision of this impressive and vibrant precinct was beamed across the globe in September 2000, thereby promoting the city internationally. Another aim was to enhance the sporting facilities for the city, as Sydney lacked a major stadium to seat 80,000 and a modern aquatic centre. The Sydney Olympic Park site, formerly known as Homebush Bay, was chosen because it was 16 km west of the Sydney s Central Business District, in an area where sporting facilities were considered most needed. Northern Water Feature, greening of Sydney Olympic Park Sydney, like Munich, chose to transform this large tract of degraded land into a clean, green, sports environment thereby promoting the idea of green games, something that appealed to the ioc which nominated environment as the third dimension of Olympism in 1995. The creation of a dedicated Olympic precinct had important post Games legacy implications. The primary justification for the investment was that it was located to the west of Sydney s cbd, where most of the population resided, so that it would be of long term benefit to the wider community of Sydney. The eastern suburbs, by contrast, had long been well served by the Centennial Park/Moore Park sports precinct. The attachment of the Olympic name to a park or a precinct is a reminder of the site s significance. The 640 hectares of Homebush Bay had been earmarked for development over three decades after the closure of the State Abattoir in 1988. Winning the 2000 bid merely sped up this timetable. While the nsw Government initiated and funded the operation of Sydney Olympic Park, it looked to the private sector wherever possible to cover the costs of construction and the operation of large 28
THE green games, something that appealed to the IOC which nominated environment as the third dimension of Olympism in 1995 facilities, such as the Olympic Stadium. In other instances, when the government paid for the construction of a facility, such as the Sydney International Aquatic Centre (now known as Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre), it sought to spread the financial load by handing over the operations of such facilities to private and public bodies, including local councils, sports associations and the nsw Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation. The proportion of public to private capital was roughly the same as the overall investment in the Sydney Games about two thirds public to one third private. However, Sydney Olympic Park was created and managed (and still is) by the nsw Government, through its agencies the Olympic Coordination Authority (oca) until 2001 and the Sydney Olympic Park Authority (sopa) since then. All but two of the sports facilities at Sydney Olympic Park were built during the 1990s and most were constructed between 1994 and 1999 as shown in Figure 1. 29
figure 1 Construction and investment in venues at Sydney Olympic Park VENUE SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK SPORTS CENTRE (FORMERLY STATE SPORTS CENTRE) ANZ STADIUM (FORMERLY STADIUM AUSTRALIA, TELSTRA STADIUM) SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK AQUATIC CENTRE SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK ATHLETIC CENTRE DATE BUILT COST (MILLIONS) DESIGN/ CONSTRUCTION 1984 $22.3 Cox Richardson (Architect); Dept of Public Works (Builder) 1999 $715.6 m: ($584m Private Equity, $131.6m NSW Govt) Bligh, Voller, Nield and Lobb (Architect); Multiplex Constructions (Builder) 1994 $218.8m Philip Cox (Architect); Dept of Public Works (Builder) OWNERS/ OPERATORS CAPACITY FUNCTION(S) State Sports Centre Trust Stadium Australia Group Sydney Olympic Park Authority 4,600 Sport, cultural events, business events 83,500 (110,000*) Aquatics 8,500 (17,500* ) Athletics 10,000 Football, cricket, business events, entertainment events, tourism Swimming, leisure, trapeze, athletics (Olympic warm up track) ACER ARENA (FORMERLY SYDNEY SUPERDOME) SYDNEY SHOWGROUND ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK HOCKEY STADIUM SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK TENNIS CENTRE SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK ARCHERY CENTRE 1999 +$142.4m Cox Richardson Devine Deflow Yaeger (Architects); ABI Group (Builder) 1996 Baseball Stadium ($11m) Dome and Pavilions ($377 m) Cox Richardson (Architect); Baulderstone, Thiess, Transfield, Edwards, Belmadar, Bona, Cordukes, St Hilliers, Hansen&Juncken, Lahey (Builders) 1985 $16m Ancher, Mortlock, Woolley (Architects); Dept of Public Works and AW Baulderstone PL (Builders) 1999 $39m (nsw Govt; $7.1m Tennis NSW and Tennis Australia; $1.3 m socog) Bligh, Voller, Nield (Architects); ABI Group (Builder) 1997 $3 m Stutchbury & Pape (Architects) PBL (managed by AEG Ogden) Royal Agricultural Society of NSW State Sports Centre Trust 21,000 Business events, concerts, entertainment events, indoor sports 10,000 Royal Easter Show, football, exhibitions, business and entertainment events 10,000 (15,000* ) Hockey Tennis NSW 10,000 Tennis Sydney Olympic Park Authority Nil (4,500*) *Olympic Mode Archery 30
S y d n e y O ly m p i c Pa r k po s t 2 0 0 0 Locals enjoying Music By Moonlight Event It is quite surprising how Sydney Olympic Park has been transformed since 2000 and how it continues to evolve. There has probably been as much investment in the Park post Games as beforehand. The changing face of the Park s built environment provides tangible evidence of this. An article in the Sydney Daily Telegraph on 27 August 2006 contended that a second building boom at Sydney Olympic Park from 2006 to 2008 would be almost as spectacular as the first one from 1996 to 1999, when the sports precinct was created. These new developments are fuelled primarily by commercial developments and mark an increase in private investment in the Park. The future erection of apartment towers will further add to this boom. It is important to note that Sydney s post Games planning differed from Beijing and London s because Sydney operated in a different Olympic environment. While Sydney s legacy plans were an attractive feature of its bid, there was no requirement in 1993 (and from 1993 to 2000) to spell out a detailed post Games legacy blueprint. So while the pre 2000 plans for the future of Sydney 31
32 Olympic Park were impressive as general vision statements, there were no specific legacy plans for implementation post Games. As a result Sydney Olympic Park experienced a difficult two years after the Olympic Games until Sydney Olympic Park Authority began post Games planning in earnest. Many in the local, national and international media were highly critical of Sydney Olympic Park in 2001 and 2002 with some journalists dismissing the Park as a white elephant. David Richmond, Director General of the oca and the first Chair of the Board of sopa commented in the Australian Financial Review on 22 August 2001, that there had been limited post Games planning before 2000. He stated that oca had commissioned preliminary post Games planning in 1999 but added that he was unable to divert staff from live Olympic tasks to work on post Games projects. Unfortunately national and international media and scholars have promoted the immediate post Games period view, that the Park was a failure and yet another example of an Olympic white elephant. Few have considered the many transformations of Sydney Olympic Park since then, as it has changed from a community liability to a community asset. Despite the initial delay, significant planning has since taken place at Sydney Olympic Park with space, previously dedicated to high intensity sport, elite athletic achievement and nationalist fervour, becoming places for escape, relaxation and self discovery, as Mark Davidson and Donald McNeill note in their chapter.
Cyclists at the annual Festival of Cycling, Sydney Olympic Park f ro m O ly m p i c to po s t O ly m p i c m o d e A number of venues were purposefully designed to allow for modifications and transition to post Olympic mode operations. The capacity of the Olympic Stadium was reduced from 110,000 to 83,500. Similarly, Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre was downsized from 17,500 to 8,500 seats (see Figure 1). Temporary stands were also removed at a number of venues. E n h a n c e m e n t o f t h e s y m b o l i c s i g n i f i ca n c e o f t h e Pa r k With the removal of the uncovered seating in the Olympic stadium, the Cauldron was refashioned and relocated as an attractive sculpture nearby in the The Overflow and has been relit a number of times on the occasion of Games anniversaries and other important ceremonial occasions. A forest of 400 poles in front of the Olympic Stadium, entitled Games Memories, was unveiled in 2002, to honour the Games volunteers. Throughout the Park there are many other reminders street names, plaques, ziggurats and monuments that this Park has symbolic significance. Visitors are reminded that the Park is an iconic place and is bound up in the larger public imaginary, as Davidson and O Neill note in their chapter. 33
34 The Olympic Cauldron, relocated in 2001 to Overflow Park, is now an artwork for public enjoyment
The Olympic Cauldron, relocated in 2001 to Overflow Park, is now an artwork for public enjoyment Po s t Ga m e s g o v e r n a n c e The NSW Government created the Sydney Olympic Park Authority (sopa) on 1 July 2001 to oversee Bicentennial Park, Sydney Olympic Park and Millennium Park, all of which became known as Sydney Olympic Park from that date. sopa s mission statement included the following: Sydney Olympic Park Authority will develop and manage Sydney Olympic Park, as a special place for sporting, elite and non elite, recreational, educational and business activities for the benefit of the community. Future development and management will be based on the principles of recognising the responsibility to preserve the Olympic legacy, of supporting stakeholders, of protecting and enhancing the environment, of maintaining high environmental and design values while also generating an adequate financial return to reduce the dependency for ongoing funding. www.sydneyolympicpark.com.au This mission statement was both comprehensive and broad reflecting both the wider goals of the Park after 2000 and its role as a community asset. 35
M as t e r P l a n 2 0 0 2 The first Sydney Olympic Park Master Plan, adopted on 31 May 2002, proposed a residential population target of 3,000 on a site adjacent to the town centre. It also proposed an increase in on site employment, particularly in the town centre, to ensure a minimum daily work force of 10,000. The plan recognised the need for leisure, entertainment and retail facilities for visitors, workers and residents. More recent plans and projections are contained in sopa s Master Plan 2030. For example, a residential development with 685 apartments has now been approved on Australia Avenue, the entry boulevard to the town centre. C o m m e rc i a l d e v e lo p m e n t o f t h e Pa r k Sydney Olympic Park continues to attract major investment in commercial, sporting, education and hospitality development. Confidence in the Park is demonstrated by the more than $276 million of developments approved in the last 18 months alone including 36
two hotels, three commercial buildings, a 208 unit residential development, a specialist hospital, a new pub and a childcare centre. The recently released Draft Sydney Olympic Park Master Plan 2030 will guide the continued development of Sydney Olympic Park. The Plan is a blueprint for the sustainable development of Sydney Olympic Park over the next 22 years as the precinct grows to accommodate a daily population of 28,500 workers, 14,000 residents, 5,000 students and more than 15,000 visitors. The Commonwealth Bank has already started shifting 3,500 city staff which were housed in three seven storey towers to the Park. The move will be complete by early 2009. The Bank will occupy 60,000 m 2 of office space next to the train station. It contains 3,500 m 2 of retail space, which will add street life to the town centre and a nearby town square, now under construction. Another office development of 7,200 m 2 with ground floor retailing has also been agreed in the town centre adjacent to the train station. Following the erection of two hotels before the Olympics, the Accor group announced two new hotels at the Park: the budget level 156 room Formule1 Hotel and the five star Pullman Hotel, with 212 rooms, which opened in September 2008. S po rt i n g a n d e d u cat i o n a l d e v e lo p m e n ts Three youth oriented facilities have been, or are being, developed: Monster Skatepark, Monster Mountainx, and Monster bmx. The Skatepark is the first international standard skatepark in the southern hemisphere. The mountain bike facility provided new facilities for the Western Sydney Mountain Bike Club after the original Olympic mountain bike track in western Sydney was closed. An international centre for excellence in sports science management, Sport Knowledge Australia, was set up in 2004 as a joint venture between the University of Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney and sopa. The nsw Institute of Sport s new headquarters, which were completed in 2006, accommodates 90 staff and coaches and a sports science laboratory. A sports education campus has also been designated next to the stadium. Australia s first international centre of excellence in sports science and sports management, the National High Performance Tennis Academy, and the Australian College of Physical Education is located opposite the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. 37
C r e at i v e i n d u s t r i e s sopa is developing a vision of a creative industries hub as the centrepiece of a creative industries strategy. As part of this, new artists studios and workshop facilities have been developed at Newington Armory, which includes an indoor performance space, an outdoor performance area, and an exhibition space. Pa r k l a n d s d e v e lo p m e n ts Upgrading the parklands has continued since 2000 making it more appealing to the public. Wentworth Common was opened in 2004 providing facilities for active and passive recreation and the Brickpit Ring Walk added to this when it opened in 2006. The first stage of the 20 hectare Blaxland Riverside Park was opened in March 2007. Ot h e r act i v i t i e s The Sydney Olympic Park Private Hospital is to be commissioned in 2009. It will specialise in orthopaedic surgery and in particular, sports injury and therapeutic services. Sydney Olympic Park has progressively gained greater traction with the public. There is a variety of visitors attracted to the Park. The challenge for sopa is to balance the interests of such various groups, as Davidson and McNeill describe in their chapter. After a slow beginning Sydney Olympic Park is being woven into the fabric of community life in western Sydney and the city more generally. In this respect it can be compared with major public development of 1988, Darling Harbour in the cbd, which also took some to gain public acceptance. Sydney Olympic Park has moved further down the track in its goal to become more self sufficient. Annual contributions by the nsw Government to Sydney Olympic Park Authority have been reducing since 2001. This reduction has been possible due to increasing revenue from property rents and commercial hiring, estate levies, sponsorship arrangements and car parking revenue. 38
figure 2 Sydney Olympic Park total visitations 2002 2007 Note: 1. 2007 data includes Sporting Clubs and Sports participation 10m 9m 8.54 million visits 10m 9m 8m 7m 6m 5m 5.53 million visits 8m 7m 6m 5m 4m 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 4m figure 3 Contribution of the NSW Government to Sydney Olympic Park $70.4m $43.4m $43.2m $34.0m $30.8m $31.2m $30.6m 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 39
Olympic Parks have become an essential component for host cities of Olympic Games Monster Skate Park, built and opened in 2005, attracts the youth market to Sydney Olympic Park 40
L e s s o n s f ro m S y d n e y O ly m p i c Pa r k With the benefit of hindsight greater planning for the legacy of Sydney Olympic Park and its implementation could have taken place before 2000. The existence of a long term plan may have diminished media criticism of the Park in 2001 and 2002 and eased the transition from Olympic to post Olympic mode. Significant policy developments have taken place since 2000 to address a number of post Games issues. sopa has demonstrated a measure of flexibility and pragmatism in that some new directions have been pursued (notably in business and residential development). Sydney Olympic Park has introduced a mix of uses, the worth of which could not have been fully appreciated in 1993 or even 2000. sopa has responded to the needs of the local community and also pursued new audiences, such as the youth market. It is evident from the increased visitation figures that the Park has gained the confidence of the community. However, the Park has continuing challenges, such as its identity, brand and the right mix of visitors. Sydney Olympic Park today reflects the three dimensions of Olympics sport, culture and the environment and provides much scope for passive and active recreation, as well as sport. There are also significant sports and environmental education programs at the Park. It has been transformed from a precinct primarily for high level sport, recreation and cultural events to a sports and entertainment suburb where people work and live. The ioc should welcome this transformation because it is sustainable and returns something to the Sydney community that supported the Olympic Games so wholeheartedly in 2000. Sydney Olympic Park has been transformed from a wasteland of white elephants, as one journalist dubbed it in 2001, to a vibrant and lively precinct in 2008, which has been embraced by the local community. There is much value then in the long term study of Olympic precincts to capture how they evolve over time. 41
2
Post Games Use of Beijing Olympic Park Professor Hai REN What is the plan for post Games use of Beijing Olympic Park and how will the city deal with such a large Olympic territory? Is it still too early to say at the time when the big carnival has just ended? This chapter presents an overview of Beijing Olympic Park and what the city intends to do to manage it post Games 45
46 Will Beijing Olympic Park become a manageable legacy benefiting CITY residents in the coming years or turn out to be a white elephant, PLACING a HEAVY burden on the city?
The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games held from 8 24 August and the Paralympics from 6 17 September featured splendid ceremonies, outstanding sporting performances and enthusiastic spectators. As this chapter is published, the dream of the Olympic Games comes to a conclusion and the reality of the future begins. Beijing Olympic Park has fourteen facilities for different fifteen sporting events. About forty four per cent of Olympic sports were played there. The Olympic Village accommodated about 16,000 athletes, coaches and officials. The Media Village, Main Press Centre (mpc) and International Broadcasting Centre (ibc), occupy a total of 1,135 hectares. Will Beijing Olympic Park of such size become a manageable legacy beneficial to city residents in the coming years or turn out to be a white elephant, putting a great burden on the city? What is the plan for post Games use and how will the city deal with such a large Olympic territory? These are the questions asked by governmental officials, general public, state owned industries and private business owners. The post Games use of Beijing Olympic Park had been taken into consideration as shown by early sketches shown in the media during the bidding stage, yet the city Tourism Bureau has only recently unveiled its tourism plan for the Park. It is obvious that managing an Olympic Park with such scope and so many social sectors will be a challenge. Will Beijing cope with the challenge? Is it still too early to say at a time when the big carnival has just ended? This chapter presents an overview of Beijing Olympic Park and what the city intends to do to manage it post Games. 47
F o r m at i o n o f B E I J I N G O ly m p i c Pa r k Beijing Olympic Park, the core area for staging the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games, is located in the northern end of the city s axis, running through various historical precincts. The Park consists of 1,135 hectares, divided into the three precincts, (Figure 1): 1 2 3 The Northern Precinct (680 hectares) has been named Olympic Forest Park. The natural landscape is the main attractant for the area. There are various hills, lakes, wetlands and about 14 scenic locations. The Central Precinct (405 hectares) is where new Olympic facilities are located including hallmark venues like the National Stadium (Bird s Nest) with 80,000 seats; National Aquatic Centre (Water Cube) with 15,000 seats, and the National Gymnasium with 18,000 seats. This precinct also includes the Olympic Village, Media Village, the Main Press Centre (mpc) and the International Broadcast Centre (ibc). The Southern Precinct (114 hectares) contains former sports facilities including a stadium and a swimming pool, which were originally built for the 11th Asian Games in 1990. figure 1 plan of beijing olympic park, showing the three distinct precincts 48
IMAGE: 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES 49
T r a n s f o r m i n g B e i j i n g O ly m p i c Pa r k Vision for the Beijing Olympic Park after the Games is described as a multi functional complex based on five industries; namely, sports, entertainment, exhibitions, tourism and business services. The Park will develop certain centres for the following activities: sport tournaments, arts performance, high level conferences, cultural business, tourism, leisure and physical recreation for the public. P l a n s f o r po s t Ga m e s u s e The staging of the Beijing Olympic Games and the development of Beijing Olympic Park has overlapped with the transformation of the city. In 2006 the Beijing government unveiled its long term plan for city s further development, which set up four functional zones and six key industrial areas. The Olympic Park is positioned in the zone of the City s Functional Extension and endowed with quite an important role to extend the city s functions. The plan focuses mostly on the Olympic Forest Park (Northern Precinct) and the Olympic Centre (Central Precinct), since these two areas were created especially for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. O ly m p i c F o r e s t Pa r k The use of Olympic Forest Park is directed towards: Commercial service of culture and sport; Exhibition of Olympic culture and arts; Physical fitness experiments; Demonstration of new ecological technologies for educational purposes. The Park is ready for tourists with its various landscapes but it has been recognised that more facilities are needed to support the desired multi functionality. 50
THE vision for the Beijing Olympic Park POST Games is described as a multi functional complex based on FIVE industries; sports, entertainment, exhibitions, tourism and business services O ly m p i c C e n t r a l P R E C I N CT The goal for this section is to build up a modern multi purpose sporting and cultural centre. In addition to its current function as a sport centre, some additions will be applied to host mixed use including conventions, exhibitions, cultural activities, recreation, leisure activities and shopping. The buildings temporarily used as competition venues during the Beijing Games for table tennis, badminton, fencing, wrestling, the Main Press Centre and the International Broadcasting Centre will be turned into convention and exhibition centres. Cultural facilities, such as Capital Youth Palace and Urban Planning Exhibition Hall and hotels will also be transformed for this purpose. The Water Cube will transform into the largest public aquatic recreational centre in Beijing. The space used for sport competition will be reduced to utilise approximately 20 per cent of total capacity with the remaining space being used for various activities for fitness, training and recreation. The Olympic Village will become a residential area with high standards of environmental sustainability. The majority of the 2,000 apartments, totalling 370,000 m 2 (including auxiliaries); have been sold with residents due to move in by June 2009. 51
The Bird s Nest and Water Cube will be transformed post Games 52 IMAGE: LAVA/Chris Bosse 2008
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There will be three stages of transformation 1. Venue adaptation 2. Focus on events and brand 3. connection to the international economy The plans for transforming the Park post Games has been discussed since the early stages of bidding, with a project timeline recently unveiled. The plan describes implementation in three stages: First Stage (2008 2010) Venues will be adapted including the Bird s Nest, Water Cube and National Conference Centre; to focus on tourism, business, exhibitions, show business and commercial services. A coordinated management mechanism will be set up to encourage new investment. Certain known sport events, well known conferences and exhibitions will be procured, while transnational and domestic corporations will be encouraged to relocate to the Park. Second Stage (2011 2015) Focus will be on cultural, sport, exhibition, commercial and financial services. Acceleration of development and establishment of a brand identity for Beijing Olympic Park will be crucial to cement the Park as a hot spot for domestic and international investment. 54
Third Stage (2016 2020) Beijing Olympic Park will be internationally recognised in terms of its sports tournaments, artistic performances, events and products and the Park s development will be connected to the international economy. Obviously the project is very ambitious and its designers are optimistic, listing some favourable factors for the project, such as convenient transportation, graceful social and natural environments, increasing demand from the emerged communities on the surroundings and excellent infrastructure. R e c e n t d e v e lo p m e n t The first post Games use of the Olympic Park will be for tourists. Six tourism themes have been designed and ready for initiation by the end of September 2008: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Olympic Sport Facilities Tour: mainly focused on the National Stadium (Bird s Nest) and National Aquatic Centre (Water Cube); Green Ecological Tour: mainly in Olympic Forest Park; Cultural Experience Tour: using a traditional Chinese Story with mascots, mobile shows and sponsor displays; Cultural Creation Tour: highlights of the Olympic Games Opening and Closing ceremonies; Shopping Tour: Olympic souvenirs and Beijing tourist souvenirs; Night Sightseeing Tour: lighting and illumination of sporting venues and facilities. To support the tourism programs, related auxiliaries are being created in the area such as food service, information, transportation, parking, rest areas, toilets and tour guides. The first post Games use of the Olympic Park will be for tourists 55
A dva n tag e s a n d c h a l l e n g e s f o r t h e t ransformat i o n The transformation of the Olympic Park to post Games use will have its advantages and challenges. 56 A dva n tag e s In the post Games era Beijing Olympic Park has the following strong points: Huge number of potential customers Beijing is a large city of 15 million residents with increasing demands for cultural activities. Beijing Olympic Park is already attractive to the general public due to its outstanding architecture, enormous space and diversified landscapes. The population in the surrounding area of the Park is quite dense. In addition, with tourism emerging rapidly as a new industry in China, Beijing is the first tourist destination for domestic and overseas tourists. Convenient transportation Beijing Olympic Park is close to main transportation lines, with the fourth and fifth ring roads crossing through the Park and subways directly to its heart. It is easy for public to access the Park using various modes of transport including rail, bus and taxi. For private vehicles there are several parking areas with relatively large capacity. Multi purpose venues The Park meets the needs of various social groups, for its multi functional design allows for mixed use activities from daily exercisers to mega events for sport and culture, small leisure activities to large conventions, exhibitions and shows. Quality infrastructure High quality infrastructure support system was established for the preparation of the Games, which will provide a solid support for the activities in the Park. The Park S multi functional design allows varied activities from daily exercisers to mega events for sport and culture, small leisure activities to large conventions, exhibitions and shows
three areas may compete for the same resources and efforts and it may be necessary to develop appropriate cooperation and even compensation for various stakeholders C h a l l e n g e s The Park s challenges mainly lie with maintaining a balance between the Park and public surrounds. Relationship Between The Park And Other Areas Beijing has existing urban developments including the cbd and convention and exhibition centres in the city s north before the Games. The relationship between the existing centres and the newly built Olympic Park may cause some issues. Relationship among the three areas To run many facilities in three separate precincts within the Park may cause operational issues. The three areas may compete for the same resources and efforts and it may be necessary to develop appropriate cooperation and even compensation for the various stakeholders. The pursuit of profits based on marketing needs may lead to some conflicts among the three sections as well as the same trades of the Park. It is important for them to avoid functional and commercial overlap, however, this may be difficult. Relationship among the various parties involved There are many parties involved in running the various sporting, tourism, commerce, transportation, security and media services. They share some common interests but at the same time have different goals and resources, which may be difficult for the city to coordinate. Shortage of mega events Tourism may not be sufficient to run the Park in the long term. Mega events, especially big sporting events, are crucial, especially for the Bird s Nest. Theoretically football matches are the best choice for its size and football is attractive to many sport fans in Beijing and China. However, a continuing decline in the performance of Chinese professional leagues and the national team has resulted in a rapid fall in spectator numbers. It may not be easy then to discover suitable mega events for the Bird s Nest. 57
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Olympic Parks have become an essential component for host cities of Olympic Games Olympic Parks have become an essential component for host cities of Olympic Games. Olympic Games as a super mega event demands a super capacity of facilities, which results in some difficulties for post Games use once the host city returns to its daily life. Beijing Olympic Park is one of the most splendid and dramatic Olympic greens in the history of the Olympic Games. The city must begin the transformation of the Park to its post Games mode. A blueprint is now ready though presumably it will be adapted in time to accommodate the operation of many direct and indirect variables. Will the transformation process be carried out in the way as its designers planned? Only time will tell. 59
3
Planning London Olympic Park as a Global and Local Place: A Comparative Analysis with Sydney Olympic Park Hiromasa Shirai What are the aspirations and challenges in planning the London Olympic park for the 2012 Olympics? An insight into the preparation for the London Olympic Games and what the city has learned from Beijing and Sydney 63
The London bid placed great emphasis on A sporting legacy for FUTURE generations and how the new Olympic Park in east London would be transformed from the heart of the Olympic GAMES to a local sports precinct 64
It has always been a critical issue for the host city to mediate the global event place to the local neighbourhood after an Olympic Games have concluded. In particular, for the host city which concentrates the competition venues and creates an Olympic precinct, this is not confined to a matter of management of individual sport architecture but of integration of one urban quarter into a broader urban tissue. Sydney and London Olympic Parks have much in common at the planning stage. The two Olympic Parks provide a hub for Olympic venues. Eight competition venues for fourteen sports were constructed at Sydney Olympic Park, while there will be ten competition venues in the new Olympic precinct in Lower Lea Valley. Behind employing highly concentrated venue distribution, setting and creating the Olympic Park, both cities have a strong regenerative objective to remediate former industrial land and turn it into a green sports precinct. The London bidding team, like the Sydney one, placed great emphasis on the sporting legacy for young generations to come and expressed how the newly built Olympic Park in east London would be transformed from the heart of the Olympic Games to a local sports precinct afterwards. Furthermore, it is envisaged that the long term objective for both cities is not to create a mono functional sports precinct but to construct a mixed use urban quarter. While both precincts have similar urban objectives, there are fundamental differences between the two parks, as the geographical and topographical contexts of the two Olympic precincts vary, leading to different spatial strategies. It is also important to understand that the International Olympic Committee (ioc) took several actions on the legacy of the Olympic facilities in 2001 following Sydney s Olympic Games and this has had a great impact on the London s Olympic urban policy. This chapter will examine how the London Olympic Park aims to mediate its physical arrangement for the Olympic Games to its post Olympic settlement for local use and will compare the London and the Sydney experiences. The following issues, in particular, will be discussed in order to highlight different ways that an Olympic precinct becomes both global and local. It should be noted that in 2008, the planning and construction of the London Olympic precinct is ongoing and therefore, a final analysis of the London Olympic Park and its legacy is not possible. Yet, the planning vision behind the creation of the London precinct is evident. The comparison with Sydney Olympic Park provides a useful reference point for an analysis of the London Olympic precinct. 65
Figure 1 London Olympic Park, Panorama North to South Lea Source: London 2012 G e o g raphica l a n d s o c i a l c o n t e x t o f t h e Lo n d o n O ly m p i c Pa r k London Olympic Park is being built in the Lower Lea Valley, in east London, which stretches north to south as this river runs into the River Thames opposite the Greenwich peninsula. The Lower Lea Valley has been characterised by derelict industrial land and poor housing for a long time and the area was fragmented by the various waterways, overhead pylons, roads and railways. Due to the industrial land use and dominance of various civil infrastructures, much of the land in the Lower Lea Valley has been polluted. Yet, it has been historically difficult to develop the site. One of the reasons is that four London boroughs (Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney and Waltham Forest) share the Lower Lea Valley area and their political boundaries are crossed at the middle of the Olympic Park site. These boroughs are described as some of the most deprived areas in the uk and have suffered from high unemployment, a low proportion of managerial and professional skills among the residents and a high crime rate. Hence, the Lower Lea Valley (llv) and the Olympic Park site have been designated as a primary regeneration area in various planning 66
frameworks. First, regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley is a part of the government s Thames Gateway Development Plan. The Thames Gateway stretches for 40 miles along the Thames Estuary from the London Docklands to South end in Essex and Sheerness in Kent. Much of the area has become derelict with the decline in industries serving London and the South East. The Thames Gateway Development Plan sets a strategic planning framework to regenerate the brown fields in the area as a governmental priority project and the Lower Lea Valley is located in the west end of the Thames Gateway development area. Second, the London Plan (2004) which is the strategic urban planning guideline for London formulated by the Greater London Authority on behalf of the Mayor of London, designated East London and the Thames Gateway as an opportunity area and in its Sub Regional Development Framework, East London, the Lower Lea Valley and Stratford are defined as the fulcrum of two nationally important growth areas in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister s Sustainable Communities Plan. Furthermore, for the purpose of providing more explicit regeneration objective and planning frameworks for the Lower Lea Valley, the Mayor of London issued the Lower Lea Valley Opportunity Area Planning Framework. Its objective is to build on the area s unique network of waterways and islands to attract new investment and opportunities and to transform the Valley into a new sustainable, mixed use city district, fully integrated into London s existing urban fabric. The Lower Lea Valley Opportunity Area Planning Framework noted that the Olympic project focused attention on what could be achieved in the llv, and highlighted the need to identify the optimum scale of change across the Valley. In order to accelerate the regeneration in the Lower Lea Valley, the planning authority needed a project big enough to remediate the areas. The construction of London Olympic Park is expected to showcase how a socially, economically and environmentally deprived area can turn into a new urban precinct. These local regenerative and global showcasing objectives are a shared aspiration between London and Sydney. Chris Johnson, former nsw Government Architect, had made a similar comment about Sydney s Homebush Bay in 1999 when he stated that the Games proved the catalyst for the development of this contaminated area and its process was an important feature of creating Sydney s green games identity. London had similar aspirations to Sydney but the two cities employed different approaches in mediating the global and local requirements of their respective Olympic Parks. 67
1952 Helsinki 1956 MELBOURNE 1968 MEXICO 1972 MUNICH 1984 LOS ANGELES 1988 SEOUL 2000 SYDNEY 2004 ATHENS 68
1960 ROME 1964 TOKYO 1976 MONTREAL 1980 MOSCOW 1992 BARCELONA 1996 ATLANTA 2008 BEIJING 2012 LONDON 69
While Sydney undertook major legacy MEASURES after the Games, legacy is central to London s pre Games planning process P l a n n i n g a p p roac h to t h e l e gacy o f t h e O ly m p i c p r e c i n ct : P u t t i n g t h e l e gacy f i r s t One of the biggest differences between Sydney and London in planning the Olympic precinct lies in the time frame to embed its legacy consideration into the planning process. While Sydney undertook major legacy planning after the Games, legacy is central to London s pre Games planning process. Behind this difference, there is a great influence by the ioc, which designated the legacy as one of the most important issues since 2000 and demands on host cities have become much greater than that of the Sydney Games. In this context, London had to prioritise the legacy in its planning process. Lord Sebastian Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (locog), stated in July 2007 that 50 per cent of the organising team are working on making sure the Games are working functionally at Games time and the other 50 per cent spend every working hour worrying about what it is we are going to do with these facilities afterwards. They of course have to be returned to the communities. Architect Bob Allies, who has been involved in the design of the London Olympic Park as a master planner since the bidding phase, commented in 2008 that the design team have always had two types of drawings; one, the master plan for the Games, and another for after the Games. This strategy was applied not only for the practical objective to ensure that the Olympic precinct does not become a white elephant, but also as part of the political ideals to secure the right to stage the 2012 Games. In the final presentation of the host cities election at Singapore in 2005, an impressive video was presented to show how London Olympic Park would look both in Olympic and post Games mode. London made the legacy of the Park a central plank of its bid. Now that London has won the bid, it now has to deliver on its legacy promises. The oda, the government body responsible for ensuring delivery of venues and infrastructure, designated three phases: 1. Olympic and Paralympic Games phase 2. Legacy transformation phase 3. Legacy development phase 70
Figure 2 London Thames Gateway, Lower Lea Valley and the 2012 London Olympic Park Source: London Thames Gateway Development Corporation LOWER LEA VALLEY DEVELOPMENT AREA Emirates Stadium 60,355 seats OLYMPIC PARK SITE Kings Cross Station Boleyn Ground 35,647 seats St Paul s Cathedral London Bridge RIVER THAMES Canary Wharf Millenium Dome Thames Barrier 1km 2km 5km 71
72 The first phase relates to the staging of the Games in 2012. The second phase refers to the period when temporary structures are dismantled and plans are prepared for the subsequent post Games development. The third phase is when the London Olympic Park becomes part of the urban fabric in the Lower Lea Valley. The intention of defining the above three phases is to establish a clear goal for the long term project and clarify the responsibilities of the delivering authorities. While the oda is the leading Authority for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the legacy transformation phase, the London Development Agency (lda) has responsibility for the legacy development phase. Ricky Burdett, Chief Adviser on Architecture and Urbanism of the oda, believes that a smooth transition from a special government authority to a local one is vital. He suggests that the oda fundamentally has a responsibility only to deliver the urban structures required for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but by extending its involvement to the transformation of the Olympic structures after the Games are over, it intends to fill the gap between the Olympics and subsequent development. Burdett used the words, the dna of city to explain the role of the Olympic project in the city and he suggests the dna will become the core of the urban evolution. Legacy planning is not without its difficulties. One critical dilemma for the planner is how to define the post Games shape of the Olympic site before the Games. The social, economic and physical requirements for London Olympic Park have continued to change since planning began in 2004 with ever changing requirements on the site and amendments to the plan. Legacy planning has had to be based on speculative predictions of the future of the precinct. Furthermore, the surroundings of the Olympic Park have been changing socially and physically. Since the construction of the Olympic Park is expected to change the land value of the Lower Lea Valley, new developments have been emerging independently along with the construction of the Olympic Park. These projects have been undertaken by private developers and it has been quite difficult to integrate them with the Olympic project which is being implemented by the public bodies. The Commissioner for Architecture and the Built Environment, the Government s Advisor on Architecture, Urban Design and Public Space, suggested a robust but flexible design for the Olympic Park. Yet, one can argue that it is better to define the legacy of the Olympic Park after the Games, as Sydney implemented, because planners can explicitly realise the demand on the precinct and adopt it to the further development. It is, however, too early to evaluate this question.
P e r m a n e n t a n d t e m po r a ry : A p ract i ca l m e t h o d to m e d i at e g lo b a l a n d lo ca l r e q u i r e m e n ts In order to deal with different requirements on the Olympic precinct during and after the Games, London pursued the practical step of utilising temporary structures, thereby following similar ioc s policies to deal with the issue of gigantism. In the Games Study Commission, launched soon after 2000, this was one of the recommendations for a smoother Games operation and a positive legacy. In the beginning of the report, the words of Pierre de Coubertin were introduced as follows: It would be very unfortunate, if the often exaggerated expenses incurred for the most recent Olympiads, a sizeable part of which, represented the construction of permanent buildings, which were moreover unnecessary temporary structures would fully suffice, and the only consequence is to then encourage use of these permanent buildings by increasing the number of occasions to draw in the crowds. The Olympic Parks of London and Sydney differ on this issue. While Sydney kept almost all of the venues as permanent facilities with the exception only of archery some of the London venues will be temporary. The water polo pool, basketball arena and hockey facilities will be temporary structures and dismantled after the Games are over; though the hockey facilities will be assembled in another location in the Park. The idea behind employing temporary structures comes not only from decreasing maintenance of the stadia which are anticipated to be less used facilities in the future, but it also paves the way for private developers to build their own projects. In this way, London considered the Olympics as more ephemeral than Sydney and as simply one event for further development of the site. Temporary features will be applied to the permanent stadia at London, such as the main stadium and the Aquatic Centre. A similar policy was implemented at Sydney when the Olympic Stadium was downsized from 110,000 to 83,500 after the Games and the Aquatic Centre from 17,500 seats to 8,500. London will implement an even more drastic transformation. London s main stadium will be reduced from 80,000 seats at Games time to 25,000 afterwards. The Aquatic Centre will be similarly reduced from 17,500 to 2,500 seats. The main stadium will especially include a unique architectural feature in that it will be built with a podium. Permanent seating will be 73
olympic Park in games Mode figure 3 London Olympic Park Master Plan during the Olympics London Olympic Park Master Plan during the Olympics. (Source: London 2012) 74
located below the podium and temporary seating will be built on the podium so that after the Games there will be a flat and vacant podium which will be available for further development of the stadium area. Furthermore, most of the auxiliary facilities of the main stadium, such as toilets and kiosks, will be temporary with separate follies outside, in order to minimise permanency wherever possible. There is much flexibility in this arrangement for subsequent development. Utilising temporality is also understood as London s important iconic aspect, following Beijing s spectacular Olympic Stadium for the 2008 Games, well known as the Bird s Nest, designed by the Swiss architects, Herzog and de Meuron. Almost every Beijing image in the media comes with the powerful image of the Bird s Nest. The image of the Olympic Stadium provided a perfect background for an introduction to the Beijing Olympiad. Whatever contents of the media article, visually, the Bird s Nest is always behind the story of the new Beijing, together with words such as spectacular and exciting. When executives visit Beijing, the way in which they go to see the Bird s Nest is broadcast by a global media. In fact, the Bird s Nest was introduced by the unveiling of computer generated images. Since then, construction images at various phases and nearly completed images were broadcast regularly to global audiences. The huge success of the Bird s Nest s visual image left a great legacy for the subsequent host city, London. In the wake of Beijing s visual achievement, London has had to accept the fact that it will be almost impossible to compete with Beijing in terms of the visual impact of the stadium. Inevitably it has to invent a new approach to express uniqueness for its Olympic Stadium. When Tessa Jowell, Minister for the Olympics for the London Games, visited Beijing in November 2007, she commented that the Beijing Olympic Stadium is probably the last Olympic Stadium that we will see on this kind of scale. This can be understood as the manifesto in which London addresses the departure from Beijing s success and the rationality of its stadium design. It simply abandons competing with Beijing s spectacular iconic image and tries to find a niche which none of the previous Olympic cities have tried before. On 7 November 2007, London unveiled plans for its main stadium for the 2012 Games. London argues that they have learnt why iconic stadia have suffered and have designed its Olympic Stadium with permanent and temporary structures in mind. Yet, London has to face the difficulty of its characteristic changeability. One problem for the London organisers has been to define the legacy uses of the main 75
figure 4 London Conceptual drawing of the London Olympic Stadium Source: London 2012 76
stadium and find a post Games tenant, with the drastic downsizing. Holger Preuss argues that it is also crucial to secure sufficient income to cover costs of the stadium after the Games are over. Furthermore, Andy Thornley has suggested that it is also critical to understand how different financial models lead to different social accessibility to the stadium. In the case of the London Stadium, some Premier League football clubs, such as West Ham United, showed an interest in basing themselves at the Olympic Stadium after the Games. If the club locates itself at the former Olympic Stadium this would secure its financial viability. The capacity of 25,000 seats is, however, too small for this and other Premier League Clubs. In addition, the London Olympic Authorities promised in the bid to use the stadium for both elite and local athletes. This is another critical constraint in attracting a tenant to the stadium after the Games. The oda continues to struggle with the competing issues of financial viability and the social accessibility of the stadium. It has decided to retain its initial promise to use the stadium for primary athletic purposes with 25,000 seats. The decision to mix temporary and permanent structures may make it difficult to satisfy both the economic and social demands. Olympic stadia are global spaces, but also have to be local spaces with economic and social viability. In this sense, Henri Lefebvre s concept of global space, set out in 1991, provides a further consideration of the legacy of the Olympic stadia. Lefebvre describes as such: Global space established itself in the abstract as a void waiting to be filled, as a medium waiting to be colonised. How this could be done was a problem solved only later by the social practice of capitalism: eventually, however, this space would be to be filled by commercial images, sign and objects. Temporary structures will be employed in London not only for the competition venues but also for site wide infrastructure such as bridges. As the Olympic site is fragmented by various waterways, connectivity and accessibility, each stretch of land is critical both during and after the Olympics. The flow of visitors during the Games, however, is much more than that anticipated after the Games. Hence several temporary bridges, which are proposed for the Games, will be removed once the Games are over. Furthermore, most of the permanent bridges are also designated to extend their width by adding temporary parts to increase the capacity occasionally. Yet, the classification of permanent versus temporary structures 77
figure 7 News article on the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony Source: Evening Standard, 8 August 2008 78
figure 8 Article of the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony and the bird s nest Source: Evening Standard, 8 August 2008 at the London Olympic site has been under constant reconsideration. Bob Allies, the Master Planner of London Olympic Park admitted, that our notion on the legacy has been changing during our work. What we thought as a permanent at one point is treated as temporary structure now. This further underlines the difficulty in the legacy planning because it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict the future, particularly when pre Olympic planning is undergoing continuing change. Olympic stadia are global spaces, but also have to become local spaces with economic and social viability 79
S ca l e a n d l a n d u s e : c o n s e q u e n c e o f t h e u n i q u e g e o g r a p h i ca l / to po g raphica l c o n t e x t Another fundamental difference between the London and Sydney Olympic Parks are their geographical and topographical settings. Water in particular, is a key feature for both precincts, yet its relation to the Olympic site is different in each case. These geographical and topographical variants affect the strategies employed towards the scale of the place. Sydney Olympic Park is located near Parramatta River, but water does not feature at the core of the site. The sports precinct is a one solid block of land so that people are able to access the main venues without physical obstruction. Sydney Olympic Park has ample space around the sports stadia to achieve a grand atmosphere with large crowds and wide boulevards. This space has been retained after the Games, thus differentiating this precinct from other urban quarters in Sydney. London, by contrast, has a different relationship with its Park environment as London Olympic Park is intersected by the various waterways and other infrastructures. The London authorities have had to resolve how these fragmented lands can be utilised as a global event space. Because of the limited size of the space, the athletic and aquatic events are planned to be staged on different days in order to reduce the number of the spectators visiting the Olympic Park on any one day. In this sense, it will be more difficult for London to replicate the grand atmosphere of Sydney Olympic Park. London, however, has treated the spatial constraints of its Park as a positive. Bob Allies argued that creation of informal space rather than formal space with the grand atmosphere was a British cultural preference. It is also understood the layout of the competition venues are inevitably limited by the geographical context in that they are dispersed throughout the Olympic Park. So informal space implies decentralisation within the Olympic precinct, which is a collection of segmented places. The Olympic Parks, in both Sydney and London, are described as centralised sports precincts in the city, yet the London Olympic Park has decentralised spatial distribution in its precinct, whilst Sydney has a core in the precinct. The different spatial settings in the Sydney and London Olympic Parks lead to varying approaches to land use within the precinct, especially in the role of sports in the post Olympic Master Plan. According to the Draft Sydney Olympic Park Master Plan 2030, issued 80
in September 2008, Sydney Olympic Park identifies nine precincts. For example, main sports functions are organised on the southern end of Olympic Boulevard while commercial and retail functions are located near the railway station. This approach makes the precinct highly structured and each area has an identical character. Yet a criticism of this type of zoning may be the lack of flexibility in planning and, more importantly, it may cause unequal rhythm of spatial usage. Conversely, the zoning could help protect the major event capability of the precinct. While Sydney Olympic Park employs distinctive zoning, London Olympic Park will utilise a different approach for its post Olympic Master Plan. Although the legacy Master Plan is still evolving and there may not be a final one because it may possibly change over time London has proposed to disperse the stadia throughout the Olympic Park in the approved planning application in 2007. After the Games, various functions, such as residence and education, will be brought into the precinct and these functions will be located around the stadia dispersed in the Olympic Park. As a result, there will not be one strong focal point as sports, residential dwellings and educational functions will be mixed and dispersed throughout the site. The stadia are expected to become the core for further development in the Park. It is anticipated that mixed land use will make each area lively So while the London approach will certainly ease spatial inequality it may increase social inequality throughout a day, due to the overlapped different rhythm of the building usages. Yet, one can argue that instead of easing spatial inequality within the site, it may bring social inequality, through unequal access to the legacy sports stadia. While authorities have promised that the legacy stadia will be accessible to all local residents, it is likely to be more accessible to upper class residents who will probably reside in the dwellings near the stadia. So while the London approach will certainly ease spatial inequality it may increase social inequality. 81
An important feature of the Olympic precinct is not only lived space but also living space 82
An Olympic Park is a unique place. It is initially designed as a focal point for a two week global celebration. Yet once the event is over, it has to change its role in the urban context. The Olympic precinct therefore inevitably has to satisfy both global and local demand. In order to mediate such global and local requirements, different Olympic Parks in previous host cities have tried various systems. There is no doubt that these experiences were inherited by the subsequent cities and contributed to the evolution of the Olympic precinct. London and Sydney both created (or are creating) an Olympic Park as a concentrated stadium site. Behind the creation of the sites there is a local intention to regenerate an environmentally or socially deprived area and a global aspiration to showcase the Olympic site not only as a materialised urban consequence but also as a unique urban transformation. Yet, Sydney and London took different strategies in mediating global and local aspects of their Olympic Parks. Sydney fundamentally adopted the legacy consideration after the Games in order to synchronise ever changing social and economic demand on the site. London, by contrast, put legacy first and embedded it into the Olympic Master Plan. This approach was echoed by the ioc s emphasis on legacy planning. In order to adjust the extraordinary number of visitors and specific spatial requirements London utilises temporary structures more than Sydney and considers the Olympic Games as an ephemeral event in the long story of the area. Furthermore, different geographical and topographical settings in the precinct bring different strategies towards the scale and land use of the Olympic Parks. Both approaches have certain advantages and disadvantages. Eight years have passed since Sydney staged the Olympic Games and London has not yet staged the Games. An important feature of the Olympic precinct is not only lived space but also living space. Robert Adby, former Director General of Sydney s Olympic Co ordination Authority suggested in 2007 that it will take a couple of decades for Sydney Olympic Park to be fully integrated into the urban tissue. This has occurred in other Olympic Parks. London Olympic Park is also evolving throughout time and it is crucial to observe all planning efforts not as a consequence but as a process. 83
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The Influence of Mega Events on City Structure Under Contemporary Urban Governance: The Example of Sydney s Olympic Games Dr Glen Searle The Influence of mega events on city structure under contemporary urban governance: the example of the Sydney Olympic Games 87
88 Since the Sydney Olympic Games, the government has sought and attracted considerable private investment to Sydney Olympic Park
The Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games transformed obsolete industrial and defence lands at Homebush Bay into the main precinct for the Sydney Olympic Games: a complex of major sporting venues, new housing, a new rail line and the first stages of the city s largest regional park. The precinct was renamed Sydney Olympic Park in 2001. Development of Sydney Olympic Park for the Olympic Games was conceived, planned and mostly funded by the state government, with private sector financing being used for the two main stadia. Since the Sydney Olympic Games, the government has sought and attracted considerable private investment to Sydney Olympic Park. This chapter overviews the post 2000 development of the Park and analyses imperatives behind this development. 89
the highly contingent nature of post Olympic development and its potential scale increase the likelihood of a less coherent, more keno like post modern city O ly m p i c Ga m e s i n f r as t r u ct u r e a n d po s t O ly m p i c d e v e lo p m e n t The scale of the Olympic Games makes it unique amongst special events, not least in terms of the potential for catalysing post Olympic urban development. This has been evident from the Munich 1972 Olympics and since then in Olympic cities such as Seoul, Barcelona, Sydney and prospectively, London. Yet the type and scale of urban development, generated by Olympic Games infrastructure is contingent on a range of local factors varying, inter alia, from ideology to the nature of pre Olympic development and land ownership around Olympic infrastructure and market demand for redevelopment. At the local scale, the highly contingent nature of post Olympic development and its potential scale increase the likelihood of a less coherent, more keno like post modern city. More generally the concentration of very expensive, advanced infrastructure in a few locations means that Olympic Games facilities and associated post Games (re)development serve to accentuate the splintering urbanism of contemporary first world cities, in which city landscapes are a spatially uneven mix of advanced infrastructure of various kinds under different levels of neo liberal governance. Several key parameters that potentially shape the nature and scale of post Olympic development can be identified. The first is the nature of the Olympic infrastructure itself. In some cities, Olympic Games have largely used existing sports facilities, with modest investment in new facilities. The Los Angeles Games of 1984 are the most recent example. Next, there have been a number of Olympics where new sports facilities were built but where there was little investment in other city infrastructure or in the city s environment, such as the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games. Lastly there are Olympic Games that stimulate urban development beyond the Olympic sports facilities themselves. This affect dates from the Rome 1960 Games and is the focus of this chapter. 90
The wider urban development impacts include airport, road and public transport improvements, new residential quarters, new hotels, new commercial centres, upgrading of communication systems and new recreation and leisure spaces. Such wider infrastructure investment has the potential to generate multiplier development in the post Olympic period. A second parameter of post Olympic development is the land ownership pattern in areas potentially most affected by Olympic infrastructure. In cities where disaggregated land ownership patterns prevail, the potential for Olympic generated development will be limited. In other cities, such as Sydney, large sites adjacent to Olympic infrastructure have the potential to generate significant post Olympic development, especially if held in public ownership. A third parameter is the urban governance context. In cities where the private sector leads major development proposals (such as in United States cities), achieving post Olympic spin off development might be more difficult because of the degree of agreement that had to be negotiated between different parties. In other cities with a more public sector led development framework, post Olympic spin off development will be easier, via planning and public investment. Neo liberal governance involving public private partnerships can create a middle approach between these two extremes. C o n d i t i o n s g e n e r at i n g po s t 2 0 0 0 d e v e lo p m e n t at S y d n e y O ly m p i c Pa r k Planning for the Sydney Olympic Games did not incorporate further development at Sydney Olympic Park after 2000, except for completion of stages two and three of Newington residential area (stage one being the Olympic Village), conversion of the main stadium for multiple uses and long term completion of the Millennium Parklands. Nevertheless, in its role of ensuring that Olympic sporting facilities would be properly used after the Olympic Games, the Olympic Co ordination Authority (oca) circulated a Development Options paper for Sydney Olympic Park in May 2000. The options included making Homebush Bay a centre of excellence for sports, with a sports university and sports medicine centre and extension of Sydney Olympic Park s leisure and cultural centre role, with a cinema complex, an Aboriginal centre, an arm of the Australian (nsw) Museum and a tertiary education centre. A number 91
92 of factors soon produced an impetus for effecting significant post 2000 development. These factors largely emanated from the state government s ownership of land at Sydney Olympic Park. The first factor concerned the state government s neo liberal ideology, which had prevailed since 1988. While the application of neo liberalism by the nsw Government produced contradictory policies, several principles remained paramount. One was the sale or lease of state land and other assets to offset recurrent budget expenditure. At Sydney Olympic Park, the ongoing costs of operating the Park s facilities generated a special imperative to gain revenue from further development of state land. In 2001 02, Sydney Olympic Park Authority (sopa) was established to manage the public assets of the Park after the Olympics. The sale or lease of government land via post Olympic commercial and residential development offered the prospect of reducing or eliminating the Government s investment. Even after the Olympics, there were still large areas of state government land at Sydney Olympic Park available for development. A parallel factor generating post Olympic development at Sydney Olympic Park was the infrastructure and facilities constructed for the Olympic Games. The sporting venues and Sydney Showground attracted crowds of varying sizes for local, national and international events. This produced opportunities for hotel development and food and drink outlets. The venues themselves offered opportunities for sport based employment, such as training and administration. The rail line offered prospective tenants and residents a connection with Sydney s heavy rail system and access to jobs and workers that this provided. The partially completed Millennium parklands and the adjacent Bicentennial Park provided excellent opportunities for walking, cycling and other outdoor leisure pursuits for new residents and workers. A related factor was the financial difficulties for Sydney Olympic Park venue operators, particularly for the Olympic stadium and Sydney SuperDome. These were failing to attract adequate events and crowds for a range of reasons including competition from other state government sporting venues. The venue operators formed a lobby group, the Sydney Olympic Park Business Association, to press their arguments. The Association sought a range of new developments from the state government, including another hotel, clubs, cinemas and shops. Following the Sydney Games, the nsw Premier said the nsw Government would respond to the problems of Olympic Park venues by pack[ing] in activity around Homebush Bay, along the
lines of the Darling Harbour redevelopment scheme of the 1980s. The government itself had an interest in increasing patronage of Sydney Olympic Park venues to augment revenue from its car parks, notably the 3,400 space multi level car park it built adjacent to the Sydney SuperDome prior to the Olympic Games. Intensified commercial and residential development at Sydney Olympic Park in proximity to the rail station would also meet wider state government planning objectives. Higher density residential development would assist the government s urban consolidation goal of housing two thirds of Sydney s future population increase on sites in the existing urban area, focusing on centres and corridors with good public transport, particularly rail. The extensive parklands at Sydney Olympic Park would aid this because they meant that residential developers would save significant costs by not having to pay the local open space levy normally required under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. Similarly, commercial office development would meet strategic planning goals of maximising such development on sites with good access to rail stations. For potential new residents and workers, the sporting facilities and parklands at Sydney Olympic Park would provide a significant attraction and thus assist the achievement of government planning goals at the Park via new development. Intensified commercial and residential development at Sydney Olympic Park in proximity to the station would also meet wider state government planning objectives 93
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P l a n n i n g f o r S y d n e y O ly m p i c Pa r k d e v e lo p m e n t a f t e r 2 0 0 0 Significant post 2000 development at Sydney Olympic Park was initially indicated when the 1998 Metropolitan Strategy showed Sydney Olympic Park as a focus of major economic development for the first time. The May 2000 Options paper submitted to the government then provided the impetus for post Olympic planning. M as t e r P l a n 2 0 0 2 In 2001, the Olympic Coordination Authority (oca) commissioned four architectural and urban design firms to produce alternative design scenarios for Sydney Olympic Park. The oca then prepared a draft Master Plan for the Park, published in June 2001. The draft Master Plan was based on a precinct development structure. The precincts comprised a vibrant Town Centre around the railway station, a major events precinct (Stadium Australia and Sydney SuperDome), Sydney Showground, Australia Centre (the existing business park zone south of the station), the brickpit edge, the participation precinct (including the State Sports Centre, International Tennis Centre, Hockey Centre, Aquatic Centre and Athletics Centre) and parklands. The employment target was 10,000, focusing on the Town Centre. There was also a residential urban core population target of 3,000 to contribute to customer levels needed for town centre retail activities. Development of up to 30 storeys would be allowed in the Centre. The plan included a nucleus of retail uses within the Centre incorporating restaurants, food outlets, cafes and convenience stores for visitors, workers and residents. A rapid transit way from Sydney Olympic Park to the Parramatta regional centre was included in the plan. The plan did not draw on imaginative elements featured in the four commissioned proposals. Instead it contained not much more than basic land use and density controls, giving developer proposals a high degree of flexibility. The revised draft Master Plan retained the general structure and targets of the initial draft. The emphasis on uses related to sport and entertainment in the centre of the main stadium zone was heightened and high rise residential uses were relocated from the railway station to the nearby main entry boulevard, so as to create a strong edge and to reduce noise and other crowd related 96
conflicts with main venue activities. The final Master Plan was little different to the revised draft plan. It kept the employment and population targets of the draft plan. Initial development would be concentrated in the Town Centre to generate a vibrant precinct. It confirmed the draft building scales: the predominant building height would be six storeys although a 30 storey tower would be allowed at the end of the rail station axis and up to 20 storeys allowed along the entry boulevard. V i s i o n 2 0 2 5 Two years after publication of the first Master Plan, Vision 2025 was prepared as a prelude to a new Master Plan and for consideration as part of the new Metropolitan Strategy. The rationale for a new plan so soon after the first was explained by the need for development that promoted a critical mass and mix of uses required for the establishment of a more vibrant township. The vision extended the framework of the Master Plan principally in terms of urban design, via several principles including: Transform low density land uses, currently occupying large areas of the urban core, into an intense urban centre through establishment of major development opportunities; Build on the grandeur and spatial generosity of Olympic Boulevard to form one of the world s greatest contemporary civic spaces; Provide better connections to adjoining areas so that Sydney Olympic Park and surrounding parklands and communities are easily accessible by a range of transport modes, and become fully integrated. The 2005 Metropolitan Strategy confirmed the planning priority of further major development at Sydney Olympic Park. The strategy included Sydney Olympic Park as one of its Specialised Centres, defined as a centre that performs vital economic and employment functions. The strategy contained objectives and actions to increase housing density, business activity and government offices in its nominated centres and to support them with transport infrastructure and services. 97
M as t e r P l a n 2 0 3 0 In 2008 Master Plan 2030 was published. This proposes more compact development than the previous plans. The Master Plan s map of illustrative uses for the Town is shown in Figure 1. Its key principles are: The concentration of commercial and retail uses close to the railway station; The concentration of new residential uses along parkland frontages; Community uses concentrated east of the railway station to service new residential development; Concentration of education uses into a campus setting around existing sporting venues; and Preservation of existing sporting and entertainment venues. Master Plan 2030 proposes a significant increase in development at Sydney Olympic Park. It projects a daily population of 28,000 workers, 15,000 visitors, 14,000 residents and 5,000 students to ensure an active precinct 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Figure 2 shows an artist s impression of Sydney Olympic Park and surrounds in 2030. This proposed development incorporates a shift in emphasis in the scale of built form (Figure 3). The basic scale will be four to six storeys, increasing to eight storeys along the urban spine from the railway station to the eastern parklands edge. This reduces the potential scale of development there from that proposed in Master Plan 2002. In addition however, Master Plan 2030 seeks to provide some sense of enclosure and definition to the vast spaces of the Olympic Boulevard by proposing that the eastern side of the Boulevard be bordered by wall buildings of up to 30 storeys. Another wall of up to 30 storeys is also proposed along a section of the entry avenue south of the centre. Master Plan 2030 proposes a range of new infrastructure to support the proposed level of development. A number of new streets will be constructed, particularly in the proposed residential areas, giving the Town area a finer grained development pattern. Several small parks and open space areas will be inserted into commercial and residential areas and around the athletics facilities. Land will be reserved for new community facilities in the major new residential zone east of the rail station. Since the preparation of Master Plan 2030, preliminary options for a metro line from Sydney cbd through Sydney Olympic Park and 98
Kevin Coombs Avenue BRICKPIT ARENA MULTI PURPOSE ARENA PAVILIONS Olympic Boulevard STADIUM Australia Avenue Edwin Flack Avenue CIVIC/COMMUNITY/ CULTURAL COMMERCIAL COMMERCIAL/ RESIDENTIAL MIX ATHLETICS TRACK POOL Sarah Durack Avenue SPORTS CENTRE RESIDENTIAL TENNIS EVENT/ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION/SPORTS OPEN SPACE figure 1 Master Plan 2030, showing the uses for the Town Centre 99
figure 2 Artist s impression of Sydney Olympic Park and surrounds in 2030 Newington to Parramatta have been released. This would improve rail capacity and relieve congestion on the existing western Sydney rail line. It appears that the metro route through Sydney Olympic Park would largely follow the Master Plan transit route. Construction of this line would greatly enhance the prospects for achieving the master plan employment and population targets and for generating a dense and vibrant town centre around the metro station (which would be in a different part of the centre than the existing heavy rail station). Po s t O ly m p i c d e v e lo p m e n t The oca invited proposals for commercial development at Sydney Olympic Park based on the initial draft Master Plan. Assessment of proposals was to be based on their conformity with the draft Master Plan (though it appeared likely this would be flexibly evaluated), financial return to the oca, capacity to deliver 100
Kevin Coombs Avenue BRICKPIT ARENA MULTI PURPOSE ARENA STADIUM PAVILIONS Murray Rose Avenue Dawn Fraser Avenue Olympic Boulevard Australia Avenue Edwin Flack Avenue ATHLETICS POOL 6 8 STOREY WALL BUILDINGS WITH INTEGRATED TOWERS (UP TO 30 STOREYS) 8 STOREY URBAN SPINE BUILDINGS TRACK Sarah Durack Avenue SPORTS CENTRE TENNIS 6 (±4) STOREY BUILDING FABRIC 4 STOREY LANDSCAPED BUILDING FABRIC figure 3 Planned Building Heights the project, risks to oca, and the approach to ecologically sustainable development (including impact on public transport). These have subsequently remained key criteria for consideration of development proposals. Actual and committed development since 2000 has covered several categories that broadly conform to the Master Plans. Details of these developments are set out in Richard Cashman s chapter. 101
Post Olympic development at Sydney Olympic Park can be read to provide insights into the conditions for such development in the contemporary era. In particular, it can be analysed to contribute to our understanding of the role of neo liberal governance and whether Olympic related development is a significant contributor to a less coherent post modern city structure. Olympic related urban development is a special case of major urban development projects that have been increasingly used as weapons in inter city competition for investment. Such development has typically used public private partnerships that use special planning controls to assist project goals. In turn, such development frameworks are seen as a demonstration of the way in which neo liberal governance has underpinned contemporary city development across much of the first world. Yet the experience of Sydney suggests that a more nuanced perspective is needed. At one level, it is apparent that the governance involved in developing the facilities for the Olympic Games almost invariably requires a significant public sector financial contribution. Contemporary exceptions to this have been Los Angeles (1984) and Atlanta (1996), post 2000 development at Sydney Olympic Park can be seen as the latest in a series of government responses to the advent of global competition produced in large part by a neo liberal financial system 102
where existing facilities and ongoing post Games usage of venues enabled public expenditure to be minimised, but to some criticism in the case of Atlanta as expectations increased after the Barcelona Olympics. Elsewhere, including Sydney, hosting an Olympic Games has involved large, unrecouped public sector outlays. In this sense, hosting of an Olympic Games is contradictory to pure neo liberal governance principles of small government and minimal government expenditure. The state cannot be rolled back now for the Olympics, even in the United States where the Mayor of New York coordinated the city s bid for the 2012 Olympics. Rather, Sydney Olympic Park s development both before and after the Sydney Olympic Games could be seen as a mix of neo statism and neo corporatisation state strategies to adjust to global neo liberalism, rather than pure neo liberalism. At another level, this perspective can be expanded to show how development at Sydney Olympic Park and similar Olympic cities might be seen as the most recent manifestations of policies framed by neo liberalist precepts that have evolved over the last quarter of a century. In Sydney, the state government of 1976 1988 responded to the new global competition that emerged after deregulation of the world financial system from the early 1970s with policies to attract global tourism and information technology industry investment. The centrepiece of the tourism strategy was the Darling Harbour redevelopment scheme, which ran into a large financial deficit due largely to a delay in approving an international casino. Such expenditure, in association with wider welfare state cost structures, threatened state finances. A new state government was elected in 1988 with a neo liberal agenda of smaller government and gaining more value from government assets such as land. This government was successful in its bid for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This neostatist initiative was a new response to global competition, being driven by the potential of an Olympic Games to put Sydney on the global map at a time when the state was in its deepest recession for 60 years. While major cost offsets were obtained through private investment in the main stadiums, net state government costs still ran into several billion dollars, causing reductions in capital funding of state health and education sectors. After the Olympics, the drawdown on the state budget continued via costs of maintaining and operating Olympic facilities even though some revenue was obtained from users of the facilities. Hence there was a significant fiscal imperative for developing remaining state land at Sydney Olympic Park to offset ongoing state costs. Thus post 2000 development at Sydney Olympic Park can be seen as the latest in a series of government 103
responses to the advent of global competition produced in large part by a neo liberal financial system and crisis tendencies and contradictions related to neo liberal policies stemming from that competition. A wider issue concerns the extent to which Olympic developments, as major urban projects, inserted into the city for a one off mega event, contribute to a more random, post modern city structure that has been likened by m.j. Dear to the outcome of a keno game. The relatively short timeframe between preparing the bid and hosting an Olympic Games means that sites for venues are limited to those that can be made available for development within a narrow timeframe. Such sites might not fit the existing city structure in an optimal fashion, as their availability will depend on a range of micro site factors such as the timing of factory closures or company takeovers. The potential of such factors is to increase the randomness of Olympic venue location. In Sydney s case, Sydney Olympic Park has been sited on land formerly occupied by State Abattoirs and Brickworks and a Defence depot. The state land had become available at the time the bid for the year Olympics was to be prepared, a by product of the neo liberal asset sale policies of the state government elected in 1988. In this sense, the Sydney Olympic Park site reflects circumstances whose timing was unpredictable until almost the start of bid preparation (the 1988 metropolitan strategy did not plan for major development there, for example). Yet seen in the context of the evolution of Sydney s structure over 200 years, these circumstances were not as random as they might have seemed. In a real sense, the development of Sydney Olympic Park has evolved in path dependent fashion from the area s initial development in the mid nineteenth century as stockyards and abattoirs, next to the new rail line on the then edge of Sydney s built up area. The abattoirs continued to occupy the site until taken over by the state government in the mid twentieth century at the height of the state welfare era. This state ownership in pre neo liberal times kept it from being developed for higher value uses such as housing, preserving it for the year Olympics. Thus the siting of Sydney Olympic Park cannot be read as a purely accidental occurrence but rather as the result of historical factors that were part and parcel of the evolution of Sydney s structure up to the contemporary era a structure that could clearly be understood in terms of fundamental location organising factors such as relative accessibility as well as state ideology, which has cast its own rational imprint on city structure (such as the welfare state plan of the government for Sydney of 1948 1951). Finally, we might reflect on the extent to which development of Sydney Olympic Park resonates with 104
CURRENT PLANNING THEORY INCREASINGLY Recognises the fluidity of spatial relationships and the difficulty in making plans current theories about the nature of urban planning. Current planning theory increasingly recognises the fluidity of spatial relationships and the difficulty of making plans that attempt to incorporate fixed forecasts of these relationships into the longer term. Jean Hillier, for example, sees long term plans operating on two planes, one of broad trajectories such as sustainability that can incorporate a variety of outcomes and another of organisation and blueprints for framing small changes. The planning and development of Sydney Olympic Park would be an example of Hillier s second plane, with pre and post 2000 blueprints for its development. Planning for Sydney Olympic Park also incorporates elements of Hillier s first plane, for example its goal of sustainability. But in setting firm employment and residential targets over several decades, the planning of Sydney Olympic Park risks falling short if the broad strategic directions Hillier s first plane generate specific parameters that render the targets unachievable. For example, longer term petroleum costs might increase international transport costs to the point where Sydney s status as a global city is threatened, producing increased office vacancies in the cbd that reduce the attractiveness of Sydney Olympic Park for office development. A critical point here is that the use of neo corporatism, via Sydney Olympic Park Authority (sopa), to achieve longer term development involves the use of business models that require forecasting of revenue targets some years into the future and thus quantitative forecasts of trajectories toward employment and residential targets. A sophisticated risk analysis might address some of the issues here, but the range of potentially adverse factors is wide and unlikely to be able to be incorporated into the relatively rigid blueprint corporatist spatial model that is required by a government development corporation such as sopa. Nevertheless the post Olympic development of Sydney Olympic Park represents a rational response to the infrastructure and facilities built for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in terms of Sydney s wider planning needs and in terms of offsetting state costs of continued operation. 105
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Urban models for a post Olympic landscape darlene van der breggen How will the conventions that have informed early development at Sydney Olympic Park influence future development and establish Sydney Olympic Park s built character over the longer term? 109
110 In remaking Sydney Olympic Park into part of the working fabric of Sydney, a range of landscape and urban design conventions were used to create an identity
The modern Olympics are significant catalysts for urban renewal and regeneration in host cities. The presentation of each symbolises cultural ideals and aspirations beyond the realm of sport. In some cases they are opportunities to recapture values that have been lost in the pace of urban growth. For example, the City of Barcelona used its Olympics to resurrect a long oppressed Catalan culture. The New South Wales Government, as part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games (Sydney Games) bid, set an ambitious agenda to restore environmental harmony to demonstrate that urban development, human endeavour and viable habitats can co exist and flourish in previously degraded environments. Having set this standard for the Sydney Games, the next challenge was to enable a diverse and vibrant town centre to grow from these beginnings. In remaking Sydney Olympic Park into part of the working fabric of Sydney s greater metropolitan area, a range of landscape and urban design conventions were used to create an identity for the town and its setting. These investigations exemplify prevailing trends in urban and landscape planning in late 20th Century Sydney. But while they are clearly evident today, a language for future building development is still evolving. This chapter describes the conventions that have informed early development at Sydney Olympic Park, and speculates on future development scenarios that will establish the precinct s built character over the longer term. 111
112 Aerial view of Sydney Olympic Park, c. 1940
State brickworks in full production S e t t i n g Sydney Olympic Park is a town with a strong presence in a landscape setting that consists of a rich variety of reclaimed industrial brown field sites, wetlands and reconstructed landscapes, which collectively tell a story of neglect and renewal. The southern shores of Parramatta River are low lying and gently undulating: the elevated points having been settled originally by Europeans for pastoral and later, for industrial uses. These are interspersed with creeks and wetlands, some of which have been reclaimed over time. In the early 20th century, this relatively featureless landscape was clearly not valued, and its environmental significance, unrecognised. Over time, these inherited landscapes have been remade into the parklands that we know today: their designers experimenting along the way with different techniques for remaking the landscape. Bicentennial Park for example, is a contemporary interpretation of a Beaux Arts landscape a picturesque artifice, composed with a formal axis, park follies, constructed vistas and ornamental waterways that overlaid contaminated subsoils. 113
Bicentennial Park Later, the Master Plan for the Millennium Parklands (Hassell, Walker and McKenzie) also sought to give structure and identity to the landscape although in this instance contaminated material was reshaped into the Five Millennium Markers that provide orientation and identity through the action of the parallax view: the relative location of the mounds in relation to one another providing the means of orientation in the landscape. The design for the stadium precinct of Sydney Olympic Park is also influenced by landscape setting. The first sporting arenas were embedded in a landscape of circular shapes: sweeping berms, curved retaining walls and undulating pathways that were almost painterly in composition, and from above resembled a landscape of Aboriginal dreamings. Wentworth Marker 114
figure 1 Millennium Markers 115
S po rts I c o n s This landscape emerged in the early 1980s with the completion of the State Sports Centre (renamed Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre). Conceived as a scaleless semi industrial box to house major sports events, the design owed more to the prevailing warehouse language of adjacent industrial districts of Auburn and Silverwater. Even so, within the industrial landscape, the State Sports Centre was distinguishable by its superstructure of masts and tension cables. This set the tone for later sports arena development, as in ensuing years, the Sydney Olympic Park skyline evolved with a tracery of delicate steel structures: suspended and arched trusses, cable stayed masts and lighting masts against a more solid backdrop of parabolic roofs, domes and vaults. This has come to be the most recognisable feature of Sydney Olympic Park. Sydney Olympic Park skyline evolved with a tracery of delicate steel structures 116
a x i a l c o r r i d o r s In 1994, the NSW Government, through the Homebush Bay Corporation, staged an international Urban Design Studio. The workshop was modelled on the design charrette, a popular strategy for intensively focussing on a design problem. Directed by Lawrence Nield, it purpose was to generate schemes for urban form and spaces, street character, land use mix to provide a catalyst for the continuing development of a vital and diverse city. 1 Participants included urbanists, landscape architects, artists, economists and environmentalists. It was at this forum that the distinctive axial structure of Sydney Olympic Park s Master Plan was first proposed. The intersecting axes gave order and coherence to the vastly differing characters of the remnant State Brickworks and Abattoir, the Australia Centre and the sporting venues. The north south axis extended across the ridge of the site, and connected the Haslam s and Boundary Creek corridors establishing the two main zones that delineated the stadia precincts to the west from the Showground and Australia Centre precincts to the east. 1. International Urban Design Studio brief 117
118 figure 2 1996 Homebush Bay public domain proposal by the government architects design diretorate and Hargreaves Associates
The east west axis was a secondary corridor that marked the high point and centre of the town and later its community spine. This axis also forms one of the major green corridors that connect the core with the parklands, approximating the green move that was a key component of the Hargreaves Landscape Strategy for the Town Centre. The quadrants generated by the axes, each have its own identity and contain one of the town s major specialisations the stadia, education and sports, the Showground and the future commercial and residential communities of the Australia Centre. figure 3 Sydney Olympic Park s axial structure 119
C e n t r e s a n d e d g e s Initially the Park struggled to activate the place on a day to day basis. It brought to mind the phrase there is no there there, 2 a popular term to describe places that have no sense of place. Even now there is a striking disparity between the urban domain in full event spectacle and the emptiness once the crowds have left. It was recognised that the urban domain needed to be reconfigured so that it could engage with its many publics (as stated in the Davidson and McNeill chapter), ranging from the intimate perspective of the local worker ambling along the boulevard to that of the interstate visitor attending a one off event or even more remote engagement via electronic media. Each of the post Olympic Master Plans have focused on the importance of the main axial spaces to give definition, identity and scale to the panoramic vistas of the town. Master Plan 2030 provides for tall buildings up to 30 storeys to reinforce the eastern alignment of Olympic Boulevard, contain its expansive width and provide a more urban edge to public domain spaces (Refer Figure 4). Comparative images between the urban domain in full event spectacle and the emptiness once the crowds have left. 2. Gertrude Stein 120
These are further refined through colonnaded edges that provide shelter, scale transition and diversity through the activating uses along their length. s pac e s i n b e tw e e n Having established the spectacular gestures that define Sydney Olympic Park, future development will focus on the every day providing the homes, offices, schools and shops for a residential and working community of up to 60,000 people. Given that the precinct covers an area equivalent to central Sydney s central business district, Master Plan 2030 concentrates most of this development around the railway station, on the southern and eastern slopes of the knoll originally occupied by the Australia Centre. The debate over suitable urban forms for the infill development has polarised around the office park and the more traditional new urbanist models. The traditional model involves a finer grained street structure and street edge defining buildings: generating a network of intimately 121
figure 4 Sydney Olympic Park height strategy scaled, mixed use and higher density neighbourhoods to balance the super scaled Boulevard, avenues and urban squares. The smaller floor plates also increase solar access and fit more easily onto sloping sites. The alternative office park model is characterised by freestanding buildings in landscaped settings. These developments are generally low scale, large floor plate, single use buildings, often within an expansive car park terrain. Once considerations, such as new infrastructure costs, the impact of additional traffic on the Park s event capability and land economics are taken into account, it becomes apparent that, in many respects, neither of these models is perfectly suited for the future growth of Sydney Olympic Park. Large sites close to Sydney are highly prized for commercial office park development large and efficient floor plates produce office spaces that are very competitive to inner urban alternatives. For Sydney Olympic Park, however, concentrations of commercial use create traffic peaks that threaten the smooth running of events and will be impossible to sustain until improvements in transit 122
business park model, norwest traditional urban model, pyrmont ultimo PENINSULA sydney olympic park figure 5 Comparison with alternative urban models in Sydney: Norwest Business Park and Pyrmont Ultimo peninsula 123
infrastructure are in place. This model also doesn t fit comfortably into a higher density urban context. Its large floor plates make tedious street edges and discourage pedestrian activity that makes streets vibrant and safe. The modifications required to fit these into more urbanised contexts, such as underground parking, mixed uses, ground level activation and narrower floor plates, dramatically reduce development viability. Master Plan 2030 has taken a less prescriptive approach setting a broader framework that enables some degree of certainty for the immediate future whilst allowing greater flexibility for alternative (and possibly unexpected) urban scenarios to evolve over the longer term. It is conceivable that the conventional urban models could be transformed, through innovations in areas such as sustainable development, affordable housing, mixed use and adaptive reuse, into development models that are unique to Sydney Olympic Park. Innovations in materials, construction and building technologies, for example, have the potential to transform the constructed landscape as best practice sustainable design becomes a standard requirement for any new development. New processes such as off site fabrication will enable better use of environmental management technologies and also control the quality of the completed project more effectively. Technologies such as wind turbines, adapted to suit urban conditions, could become a feature at any site with enough exposure to the Park s extreme wind conditions. The corporate glassiness of recent office developments will be replaced by developments of greater texture and transparency that reveal landscaped atria and will be enclosed by smart facades. conventional urban models could be transformed, through innovations in sustainable development, affordable housing, mixed use and adaptive reuse, into development models that are unique to Sydney Olympic ParK Future commercial office development at Sydney Olympic Park 124
Strategies for adaptive reuse will ensure that new development has the robustness and flexibility to be retrofitted for entirely new uses as conditions at Sydney Olympic Park evolve. Office spaces, for example, could transform to retail or residential uses and above ground car parks to residential or office uses. Careful site planning will allow for incremental densification of larger sites, without compromising their viability. For example, generous landscaped setbacks and open terrain car parks could, once new markets emerge and transport improvements are in place, be converted to infill development that activates street edges. Unlike previous development at Sydney Olympic Park, the responsibility for conceiving and delivering innovations such as these will switch to the private sector. The role of Master Plan 2030 and Sydney Olympic Park Authority is to enable this through a range of measures such as development incentives, design excellence provisions and sustainability benchmarking. 125
grand axial gestures have shaped the growth and character of the world s most famous cities
The centre of Sydney Olympic Park s future township Sydney Olympic Park is a planned town that has drawn on urban traditions to give it the identity that it will need to entice a residential and working population and to attract investment. While it is true to say that there is still no there there, it appears that post Olympic development strategies are beginning to take effect. Historically, grand axial gestures have proven to be enduring and robust frameworks that, over centuries, have shaped the growth and character of the world s most famous cities. For Sydney Olympic Park, it will allow a township of diverse and distinctive neighbourhoods and communities to evolve.
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Sydney Olympic Park: Centrality. Mobility and Metropolitan Publics Mark Davidson & Donald McNeill While a key aspect of its post Olympic legacy has been its role as a space of escape, relaxation and self discovery, the Olympic precinct must also manage the temporary intrusion of potential urban disorder into its otherwise relatively calm environs 131
In early 2008, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, a well known rugby league football club announced that it would be taking a 10 year lease on anz Stadium. Perhaps the most iconic venue in Sydney Olympic Park, the stadium formed the centrepiece for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As the club officially put it, the stats show that our membership is no longer dominated by the 2000 to 2036 postcode areas, which has been our traditional audience. This was big news for Rabbitohs fans. But it was also illustrative of more general processes of urban change that have occurred in major cities over recent decades. In particular, it highlights how city publics should now be understood as socially diverse; disentangled from their traditional community neighbourhoods within cities; and often travelling long distances on a daily basis to work, be educated and to play. A few days later, it was reported that nsw Police were seeking an early meeting with supporter s groups and stadium officials to prevent crowd disturbances between city publics should now be understood as socially diverse; disentangled from their traditional community neighbourhoods within cities; and often travelling long distances on a daily basis to work, be educated and to play
followers of two other rugby league teams that use anz Stadium. The occasion was the first match for a currently controversial player, Willie Mason playing for his new team, the Roosters against his former colleagues, the Bulldogs. This was an interesting moment in the Park s evolution. While a key aspect of its post Olympic legacy has been its role as a space of escape, relaxation and self discovery, the spectre of violence is another example of the temporary intrusion of potential urban disorder into the relatively calm environs of the Olympic precinct. These anecdotes tell us something about the role of Sydney Olympic Park in a contemporary city. Being close to the territorial centrepoint of the metropolitan region, the Park is now viewed and indeed increasingly positioned, as Sydney s major sports and musical events destination; providing a home for activities that previously were firmly embedded within the city centre. Through the provision of combined event and transport ticketing, passengers are ferried by public transport from all over the metropolitan area to attend major sports events, Royal Easter Shows and music concerts from Hilary Duff through to Kiss. Along with other urban activities now housed within the Park, it seems this post Olympic space is undergoing distinctive changes. In this chapter, we attempt to place Sydney Olympic Park. We consider how the Park functions as a central place; how it is made up of a diverse set of publics; and how the evolution of the Park entails new spatial identities. We therefore have three areas of interest. Firstly, we are interested in issues of centrality. The Park plays an important role in terms of providing jobs within the formal Metropolitan Strategy of the nsw Department of Planning as a Specialised Centre in the West Central Subregion of Sydney, and part of a nascent (or optimistic) alternative global corridor linked to Macquarie Park and Parramatta. Second, we are interested in the fact that publics can now be understood as mobile, with differing abilities to criss cross the city. Thirdly, getting a handle on the Park s users is a complex issue that is intertwined with the identity of the park. It sits within some of the most multicultural districts of Australia and hosts a diverse range of user groups including football fans, walkers, cyclists, school children, tourists, students and workers from a variety of backgrounds and age groups. 133
S y d n e y O ly m p i c Pa r k a n d S y d n e y s c e n t r a l i t y The Park s identity is tightly tied into the intense visual mediation of the Sydney Games. With over 800 cameras from the official Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation (sobo), plus a varying number of additional cameras from competing countries (the American nbc brought 1000 personnel and 100 cameras, for example), and major deployments of British, Japanese, Brazilian, Canadian and other world media, the site was intensively filmed during the three week period of the Games. The producers were faced with a problem, however, in that the location of the Games precinct in the inner suburb of Auburn, where the vast majority of the events were staged; was 14 km from the iconic sights of Sydney, such as the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. In order to locate the Games, major international broadcasters chose to construct an imaginative geography through editing beauty shots of the harbour to accompany sports events. The effect was to splice Sydney s physical geography; placing certain spaces within the global television audience s gaze and overlooking others. Yet as most Sydneysiders know, the harbour is physically peripheral to the vast majority of the population. By contrast, the Park lies at the geographic centre of the Greater Metropolitan Region of Sydney. The nsw Government s Metropolitan Strategy projected up to 500,000 new jobs in Sydney by 2031, almost half of which are to be located in Western Sydney, and 30 per cent of which are to be in the global economic corridor running from Macquarie Park to Sydney Airport and Port Botany. In the strategy, Sydney Olympic Park (along with the adjacent development at Rhodes; with ikea, retail shopping mall and residential apartments) has the status of a Specialised Centre. For the planners, the area could form the impetus for a strong economic corridor from Macquarie Park through Olympic Park Rhodes towards Parramatta to bring higher skilled jobs to Western Sydney, as was noted in the Draft West Central Subregional Strategy for 2007. Sydney Olympic Park has therefore been set within a web of centres and corridors as an important part of the metropolitan area s economic well being (refer to Figure 1). It features in the Sydney THE Metropolitan Strategy projects up to 500,000 new jobs in Sydney by 2031 134
Nepean River North West Growth Centre Rouse Hill Hornsby Penrith Castle Hill Brookvale Dee Why Norwest Mt Druitt Blacktown Macquarie Park Chatswood Westmead Parramatta River Parramatta Prairiewood Fairfield Rhodes Olympic Park St Leonards GLOBAL SYDNEY North Sydney Sydney Cabramatta Burwood Bondi Junction Bankstown Green Square South West Growth Centre Liverpool Bankstown Airport Milperra Kogarah Hurstville Sydney Airport Randwick Education and Health Port Botany Leppington Georges River Sutherland Campbelltown Macarthur figure 1 Sydney Olympic Park location Metropolitan Strategy Economy and Employment chapter as an important conference centre, business park and employment growth centre. In contrast, the chapter on Parks and Public Space did not set out any specific objectives for Sydney Olympic Park. So what underpins this centrality? Certainly, the Park s existing business park (the Australia Centre) has served to provide an anchor for businesses in the area. A cluster of Accor hotel brands now located in the Park (Formule1, Ibis, Novotel, and Pullman Hotel) identify the Park as an important business event destination, particularly as an alternative to Darling Harbour. Large investment from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in new office blocks in the Park part of a far reaching rethink of the bank s logistical organisation is further evidence of how major employers are seeing the Park as a good locational choice for its workforce. These existing functions have led the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy to map the Park s centrality in the form of circles and catchment areas, projecting it as a potential growth centre for the future metropolitan expansion of Sydney. As such, the Park s spatial relationships to other important centres are flagged explicitly: 7 km to Macquarie Park, 6 km to Parramatta, 14 km to Sydney Airport, 16 km to the central business district, and so on. This approach to understanding centrality a 135
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Sydney Showground business event venues Novotel, Ibis and Pullman Hotels at Sydney Olympic Park technique long used in both planning and academic practice certainly serves to represent important geographical relationships. However, there is another way to think about the notion of centrality; one which replaces the crude spatial understandings imposed by the associated metaphors of the diameter and radius on the complex socio spatial figurations of Sydney. This approach, rather than using distance as a measure of access and proximity, focused on the issue of time (which we might understand as a corridor effect). This notion of time space is important when considering who the Park s users might be. For example, take the impact the possession of the car has upon access to the Park. Without a car, the Park s users are reliant on public transport; with all the inevitable hold ups and connections associated; not to mention the lost productive labour in transit time. And while Sydney as a whole has 1.5 cars per household, these high levels of ownership are stratified by class. Therefore, the mobility afforded by the car in the auto landscape of Sydney varies according to household income and family working practices. As such, reference to global corridor effects will have to be taken with a pinch of salt given that the corridor in question tells us little about participation and inclusion. The social differentiation of access and choice to various modes of travel therefore questions the utility of the centrality metaphor when used with the simple geography of the circle; especially given the push to create new centres across Sydney is not accompanied by a discussion about how to change the embedded centrality of the city s current transit infrastructure (i.e. the current built environment that underpins previous ideas of the region s centres and peripheries). To present maps of centres and circles is therefore to yield cartographic power; to generate an imaginary of space that overlooks important socio economic and geographic differences. This means that we need to focus on the issue of mobility, both in terms of the orthodox mode of mobility in Sydney (the private car), its much derided socialised mode (bus, train and ferry) and also alternative modes of transport, most notably cycling and walking. Discarding the simple visual imaginary of the circled catchment area and focusing upon how different mobilities enable and disable access to the Park; and indeed how these different modes of movement variously affect experiences of the Park; therefore gives us a better tool for understanding the nature of Sydney Olympic Park s emerging and planned centrality. 137
M o b i l i t i e s As a central place, Sydney Olympic Park will increasingly become a space of convergence. At the start and end of each day, the Park is witness to flows of workers engaging in the routine practice of commuting, a scenario reminiscent of the downtowns of modern urban centrality. Writing at the start of the 20th Century, German sociologist Georg Simmel defined urban society by the heightened mobility of city inhabitants. In particular, he pointed to the tempo of city life generated by the constant intersecting movements of city dwellers as hallmarks of modern, metropolitan society. These movements, Simmel claimed, created all kinds of social phenomena the blasé urban attitude: the indifference of people to the bizarre and unexpected. However, when we examine Sydney Olympic Park and the mobilities of its users, the constant buzz of his turn of the century Berlin are not repeated. The multiple publics of the Park are obviously spatially and temporally structured in ways different from Berlin (or Sydney s cbd today) where the congregation of urban functions and infrastructures created a complex milieu of city life that was defined by its own being; not particular events or groups. For visitors to anz Stadium mobilities are likely dictated by traffic congestion, car parking and train services. In addition, stadium users, such as Rabbitoh fans, will have infrequent journeys to the Park. The movements of this public, and experience of the Park, are therefore likely to be structured in very particular ways. This may contrast to the routine movements of the Commonwealth Bank worker. Here, mobility is likely scheduled by the daily working hours of employees and repeatedly practiced routes in and out of the Park. The point here then is that the Park s social environment and its experience are structured by multiple mobilities. Opposed to viewing the Park as a static place with distinct users, publics and spaces, an acknowledgement of its users various mobilities heightens our awareness of the complexity of this place. Sociologists such as John Urry and Mimi Sheller have urged urban scholars to engage more closely with the social relationships which underpin such mobilities. Physical and immaterial connections and barriers are central to mobility. Access to connections and mechanisms to overcome barriers can dictate one s ability to engage in public life. For example, the the Park s social environment and its experience are structured by multiple mobilities 138
ability to drive to the Park or access train travel is key to becoming one of the Park s users. Without either ability, all but a few of the Park s neighbouring areas can access the Park with ease. Therefore, just as the different mobilities of various social groups affect residential or working geographies, so it affects who constitutes the Park s publics. Such complexity comes with managerial issues attached. Regulating and controlling the mobilities of the Park s users is likely to become an increasing concern for Sydney Olympic Park Authority (sopa). As we noted in our introductory discussion about the feared conflicts between rival fans, the mobilities of some Park users will likely be disabled whilst others are enabled. Those seeking the restful escape of the Park are likely to avoid the rush hours that will inevitability accompany its emergent business park function. And the Park s existing barriers such as the river, the m4 Motorway, Parramatta Road and the railway lines play important roles in shaping the imagined geographies of users and would be users alike. But connections and barriers are not simply about access to physical things or heightened mobility that financial wealth can allow. They can also be perceived. For example, like most urban parks, Sydney s Olympic precinct will be perceived by many as an impassable space during darkness; a place to avoid in the absence of the securities brought about by sunlight and the presence of others. Furthermore, the sporting and recreational spaces and functions of the Park may be perceived as inaccessible or unsuitable by some, even if physical obstacles are not present. Recall the point made above about how strategic planners have mapped the Park in terms of its links to the Sydney central business district, Parramatta and Macquarie Park, each significant high order employment hubs in the metropolitan area. By contrast, the municipality of Auburn within which the Park sits is one of the most multicultural places in the whole of Australia; and also one of the most deprived. Of Auburn s 62,000 residents, 53 per cent were born overseas and only 25 per cent speak only English at home. Questions concerning opening the Park up to its neighbours therefore clearly extend beyond physical accessibility. It is also vital that we ask how the articulated identity of the Park is received in an area that is likely to have had different relationship(s) to the Olympics and that now might look towards the Park s emerging economic productivity with ameliorative hope. Contrast this with the role of the Park s identity for potential business tenants where issues of accessibility, quality of work and relaxation space and growth are more important. 139
V i s i b i l i t y a n d s p e ctato r s h i p In recent years, a major challenge for sopa has been the building of its brand identity. Its chosen symbols a yellow circle on a grey background appears everywhere, from its website to the signs that mark out its territorial boundaries. Branding is a key element of modern business practice. Nearby office centres such as Parramatta and Burwood and specialised office parks such as Norwest and Macquarie Park are big competitors for the development, financial and corporate tenants that would ensure a steady flow of workers through the precinct s retail and leisure facilities. Yet unlike the Norwest or Macquarie Park business parks, both of which present themselves largely as good places to do business, Sydney Olympic Park Authority has a more complex identity to manage and develop. Other fields of vision are present. Significant efforts have been made by designers to maximise the aesthetic beauty of the Park, both through the creation of tree lined boulevards and clear landmarks as a form of serial vision for those passing through the Park, but also as a means to enhance through public art and careful urban design the creation of viewing points at various places in the precinct. Fittingly, given the intense mediation of the Games, the sports stadia remain a powerful arena of spectatorship. Ballparks have always been significant elements of modern city culture, from the football grounds of Europe to the iconic baseball parks of North America. In Sydney, debates continue as to the role of the major stadia such as anz Stadium in the place based attachments of Rugby League. Regardless, sitting in anz Stadium to watch a major football or rugby match is becoming a central element in the New South Wales sports fan s itinerary. The visit of David Beckham and his la Galaxy team to play Sydney fc in 2007, which almost filled the stadium, was evidence of this. Both as a function of Olympic legacy and its popularity as a place to attend sporting events, shows and concerts, the Park s identity is bound up with a larger public imaginary than any business park. As a space of spectatorship the Park continues to be associated with grand and symbolic happenings. Of course, these happenings also continue to play a role in sustaining the collective memory of the Sydney Games. Current activities, while devoid of direct associations to the Olympics, play an important role in maintaining the Park s legacy through the (re)creation of spectator crowds or funnelling of global media 140
attention. Furthermore, the continuing presence of street furniture and boulevards referencing the Park s previous Olympic function leave little doubt about Olympic legacy for the Park visitor. All this stated, the evolution of the space and the formation of new publics will require careful management if the Park s identity is to remain a symbol of the Sydney Games. Barcelona still continues to hold large scale commemorations of their victory in the bidding process, and their staging of an Olympic Games. As such, the city s public is fed a constant reminder of the legacy of the Games. Interestingly, the City Council maintains an identity and imaginary around its hosting of the Olympics that allows it to sustain its appetite for major project development. As Sydney Olympic Park evolves, an understanding of the place as a palimpsest is therefore important. The re inscriptions of identity that will undoubtedly take place as the Park takes on new functions and publics will create a diverse and potentially conflicting set of imaginaries: the ways in which the Rabbitohs fan and the Commonwealth Bank worker identify with the Park will alter over time. Therefore, as these develop, questions about the Olympic inscription and its historical resonance are likely to emerge. Yet, as we begin to think about the Park s evolving identity, it is important that we do not ignore other Olympic legacies that have a less visible presence. For example, the Park now plays an important part of the city s plant and animal ecology. Indeed, it has a legislatively defined framework for the type of flora and fauna that exists in the area and the way in which these are managed. Such vibrant environmental surrounds trace their origins back to the Games and the site remediation that took place. The process of identity formation and management therefore goes on at Sydney Olympic Park. As new users, inhabitants and visitors conduct an ever increasing collection of activities in the Park, the issue of identity will continue to be a managerial concern; something that is both planned and organically evolving. And given the strong associations between the Park s publics, mobility and accessibility the choices involved in branding the Park will require sensitive decisions over how best to manage its multiple users. 141
ANZ Stadium and Olympic Boulevard 142
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144 The Park s catchments and accessibility cannot be captured by a single geographical imaginary
In this discussion we have highlighted a number of questions that require address if we are to understand the place of Olympic Park within wider metropolitan social and economic dynamic. Clearly, the Park continues to evolve at a rapid rate as the space becomes part of new plans and processes. In doing so, the Park has become part of contemporary movements in urban planning by incorporating various users and urban functions within a designated park space. It therefore faces similar challenges to other places, such as Chicago s Millennium Park and Brisbane s Roma Street parkland, where traditionally distinct spaces are now morphing together. If, like Barcelona, a place based Olympic imaginary is to be maintained, it is worth thinking about the types of legacies involved and which of those should be made most visible. Sporting achievement, national or city pride, environmental recovery, urban renewal; all of these can claim to be part of the Olympic legacy. Given the Park s mixed usage future and its multiple publics, it is likely that future place identities will be varied. These challenges are not easily approached using conventional understandings of centrality, publics and place based identities. The Park s catchments and accessibility cannot be captured by a single geographical imaginary. Access and mobility are socially and geographically complex features of urban life which are not easily manipulated in cities such as Sydney. As a consequence, as we begin to think about who constitutes the Park s users, and indeed who can relate to this place as being central, the cartographic circle must be abandoned. We have suggested that the concept of mobilities is a productive tool for rethinking the Park. Through this, we are able to both better understand how geography affects the ability of various people to become one of the Park s publics and how these mobilities themselves help forge the Park as a place. This helps us understand how these kinds of mixed used spaces might be distinguished from more traditional urban centres and how these spaces might cause conflict between differently motivated publics. So, we suggest that any interrogation of Sydney Olympic Park s legacy and future role in the Sydney metropolitan area requires a similarly metropolitan frame of interpretation when assessing the publics that will fill up the stadia, office blocks, cafes and parklands. Whether it be the sports fans that sporadically populate the Park s environs, the future Olympians that use its facilities, the business tourists that attend conventions and sleep a few nights, or the call centre workers that keep the Commonwealth Bank s profits ticking over, the Park s vitality requires welcoming and accommodating a diverse range of publics with their own codes of behaviour and expectations. This is a challenge that requires careful methodological tooling and imaginative forms of spatial analysis. 145
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Marketing the Park to the Community: visitors and audiences at Sydney Olympic Park Alan Marsh Olympic precincts do not automatically go on after the Games to become iconic parts of the cities in which they have been built. As discussed in this paper, it takes planning, a determined marketing and communications strategy, sophisticated and mutually rewarding relationships 149
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The drama of the greatest sporting event on earth reminds us how Sydney ignited in the same way in 2000 The cheering and applause that rang through the Bird s Nest in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games is still almost audible. The drama of the greatest sporting event on earth reminds us how Sydney ignited in the same way in the year 2000. The Olympic Games are unlike any other event in the world. They transform the host city and leave a huge and iconic infrastructure for future generations. But Olympic precincts do not automatically thrive after the Games. It takes a determined combination of vision, planning and marketing to ensure that they become a vital addition to the city rather than simply monuments of the past. 151
S y d n e y O ly m p i c Pa r k : v i s i o n a n d p l a n n i n g Regeneration plans for Homebush Bay as an international sporting venue were first proposed as far back as the early 1970s. The nsw Government recognised the opportunity to rehabilitate it following its long industrial history. The vision was to turn this large, overlooked area of Sydney into an area that contributed to the economic and social life of nsw and indeed Australia. Frankly, it was a site ripe for renewal. The nsw State Abattoir and the nsw State Brickworks were situated here. Other industrial uses of the land included production of town gas and other petroleum products, solvents and tar bituminous products. The parklands were used for extensive landfill purposes in the post war period. By 1988, when the abattoir closed, there were an estimated 9 million cubic metres of waste and contaminated soil spread over its 425 hectares. The first integrated plan for the development of the site was Master Plan 1995 for Homebush Bay, which guided the development of the area (known at the time as Homebush Bay) for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games (the Games). This included the establishment of the sporting and support facilities required for the Games, road networks, car parking facilities, public transport infrastructure, Sydney Showground and associated halls and the start of the Millennium Parklands. The legacy of winning the Olympic bid and preparing for the Games (besides the establishment of world class event venues like the Olympic Stadium) include: The largest remediation project of its kind in the history of Australia, with 9 million cubic metres of waste remediated to transform a former rubbish dump into parklands. The creation of one of the largest metropolitan parklands in Australia. The establishment of one of the world s largest wastewater recycling systems. The creation of Newington, a new solar powered suburb neighbouring Sydney Olympic Park, to host the Athletes Village. The adoption of a best practice approach to environmental sustainability, including water conservation and recycling, energy conservation, renewable energy technologies, use of sustainable materials, waste management and the protection of unique flora and fauna. High quality architecture, public spaces and urban elements. 152
In 2001 Sydney Olympic Park Authority (sopa) took over from the Olympic Coordination Authority to capitalise on these legacies and ensure that Sydney Olympic Park continued to provide entertainment and leisure activities for the people of Sydney and nsw. Master Plan 2002 aimed to support the development of the area immediately around the train station in the centre of Sydney Olympic Park and set out a vision for the Park to host 10,000 workers and accommodate a wider range of land uses including commercial, leisure, education, retail, hotel as well as cultural activities. Vision 2025, presented in 2005, offered a longer term vision for the Park s continued development and set out a broader range of uses to support the creation of a sustainable and vibrant township that was in keeping with Sydney Olympic Park s evolving local, regional and metropolitan context. Vision 2025 identified the Park as a unique place that offered a sustainable solution to Sydney s population pressures with the capacity to greatly enhance the quality of life of the people of Western Sydney. Today, the Park is home to about 60 businesses and has a workforce of more than 6,000. This will grow to about 8,000 by early 2009 with the completion of two more buildings for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Organisations based at the Park include the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Jemena, Dairy Farmers, the Australian College of Physical Education and the nsw Institute of Sport to name but a few. Many of the businesses that move to Sydney Olympic Park do so because of the unequalled work/life balance offered to workers along with strong environmental credentials. It was very pleasing to note that two Sydney Olympic Park businesses, bp Solar and Peregrine Semiconductor, were recognised at the 2008 Western Sydney Industry Awards for their role in developing innovative technologies that are now used around the world. Cranes have become a typical part of the Park s horizon, reflecting the dynamism of Sydney Olympic Park and the confidence that the Cranes have become a typical part of the Park s horizon, reflecting the dynamism of Sydney Olympic Park and the confidence that the business community has, as both an event capital and an economic hub in Western Sydney 153
business community has, as both an event capital and an economic hub in Western Sydney. That confidence is well deserved. There has been more than $1.1 billion of developments approved at the Park since the 2000 Games and more than $276 million in the past 18 months alone. This includes: A 2 star, 156 room Formule1 Hotel Pullman Hotel Sydney s first 5 star hotel in 10 years and Greater Sydney s first 5 star hotel ever bringing the total number of hotel rooms in the Park to about 800. A 208 unit residential complex the first residential development within the Park Three new commercial buildings A specialist hospital A new pub and bistro. Sydney Olympic Park s town centre is developing a critical mass of workers and construction. This supports the establishment of a range of service industries at the Park including cafes and restaurants, a convenience store, bank, florist, pharmacy and newsagent. These, in turn, improve the experience of people coming to the Park to enjoy a unique mix of recreation, events and in the future, to reside. Sydney Olympic Park s town centre is developing a critical mass of workers and construction WHICH supports the establishment of a range of services including cafés and restaurants, a convenience store, bank, florist, pharmacy and newsagent 154
D raft S y d n e y O ly m p i c Pa r k M as t e r P l a n 2 0 3 0 Master Plan 2030 sets a bold vision to turn Sydney Olympic Park into a bustling town in its own right. By 2030 it will have 14,000 permanent residents, a daily population of 28,500 workers, 5,000 students and more than 15,000 visitors. The challenge to date has been to find a balance between developing an urban town while remaining relevant and attractive to the people of the city. The future of the Park rests with leveraging the legacy of the Olympic Games while building a strong brand for the future. Some of the other objectives for the Authority are to: Ensure that the principle of sustainability is a driving element of sopa s development of the Park, so it is viewed internationally as an outstanding example of intelligent place making; Support the establishment of a knowledge economy at Sydney Olympic Park through the advanced application of Information Technology and Communications that supports innovative education programs; improves communication capability; attracts business development and growth; and delivers state of the art services to those living, working, learning and playing at the Park; Build on Sydney Olympic Park s uniqueness as an outstanding sports, entertainment and recreation precinct; Expand the Park s rapidly growing business, education and hospitality initiatives; Introduce new urban activities including residential uses that will activate the precinct on a 24/7 basis; Become a centre of excellence in education and training drawing on the college town model featuring a diverse student and institutional base woven into the fabric of the urban townscape; Become a regional centre for culture, the arts, food and entertainment an active, lively place that offers a distinctive array of social and cultural opportunities through events and other activities; and Be home to one of the world s great urban parklands, where nature, art and history come together. 155
the community, in the broadest sense, MUST buy into THE vision SOPA needs to effectively communicate what a great place the Park is to ENCOURAGE them TO visit, invest or move in Tac k l i n g t h e m a r k e t i n g c h a l l e n g e s To meet our long term targets, it will be critical to get the community, in the broadest sense, to buy into our vision. This presents a range of marketing and communications challenges. Sydney Olympic Park Authority needs to effectively communicate what a great place the Park is to our audiences, to make them more likely to visit, invest or move in. We need to make them more aware of the extensive range of offers at the Park, to foster an emotional attachment to the Park and encourage them to embrace the Park as a place. Ultimately we want to engage with our visitors and make them feel good about Sydney Olympic Park and think it is a great place to play, learn, work and live. In short, our challenge is to build the brand and engage with our target audiences. 156
B u i l d i n g S y d n e y O ly m p i c Pa r k s b r a n d Sydney Olympic Park Authority has many natural advantages including the Park s outstanding sports and entertainment venues, diverse parklands and riverside setting, heritage of the Newington Armory and a strong record in environmental sustainability including remediation of landfill areas. It is also located in the heart of Western Sydney, with close proximity to the Sydney cbd, international airport and Parramatta. Another advantage is our positive working relationship with the venues that are within the precinct including anz Stadium, Acer Arena, Sydney Showground, Accor hotels and the Waterview Convention Centre. These strong relationships allow the Authority to present the precinct and its venues to our key markets with a unified voice. Importantly, the Authority does not replicate the marketing and communications capabilities of the venues in the Park, but works collaboratively with them to complement and extend their internal marketing and communications capabilities in the interests of driving visitation, activating the precinct and building the Park s brand. The success of the Park s venues is enhanced by cooperatively marketing with the Authority s consumer and business marketing teams. Examples of this approach are the Authority s Business Events team that include an enquiry service for business clients and publications that showcase the opportunities of each of the Park s venues. The Authority provides support for events at Acer Arena, Sydney Showground and for media events including the recent opening of the 5 star Pullman at Sydney Olympic Park. K e y m a r k e ts The Authority has identified six key markets: 1. Leisure focusing on Sydneysiders 2. Business Events domestic and international 3. School Education nsw and act primary and high schools 4. Tourism Domestic and international tourists 5. nsw Businesses commercial developers, tenants, investors and influencers 6. Action Sports youth market 157
H i t t i n g o u r ta rg e t m a r k e ts Leisure The Park is located in the geographic heart of Sydney and in the fastest growing region in New South Wales; it is therefore well placed to serve the needs of leisure visitors and tourists. Using Australian Bureau of Statistics data and the Authority s own research, defined locations and size of target audiences have been identified and specific product offers to appeal and attract these markets have been created. Sydney Olympic Park Authority has also initiated a wide range of marketing and communications campaigns to promote its onsite events and promote leisure visitors. Tactical marketing initiatives to attract this market in recent months include vibrant bus and billboard advertisements to promote the Park as Sydney s premier cycling and leisure destination. The advertisements targeted high traffic areas and were viewed by over two million Sydneysiders. The consumer benchmark survey conducted in 2007 recorded strong, unprompted awareness of both bus and billboard advertisements at 10 per cent. Overall, the increased awareness level of the Park s outdoor advertising grew from 11 per cent in 2005 06 to 30 per cent in 2006 07. Sponsorship of Channel 7 s Sydney Weekender television program to promote the Park to the Sydney family market. The consumer benchmark study recorded a significant increase in unprompted awareness among Sydney television viewers, in this case to 75 per cent, up from 56 per cent. Development of the What s On? consumer database, which currently has 35,000 subscribers. This enables the Authority to speak directly to current and potential visitors. 158
Schools The Park offers a broad range of educational experiences, utilising the environmental attributes of the Park. The Authority has built a dedicated classroom in the field for educational purposes and all programs are linked to the school curriculum. Schools are a particularly attractive market as each contact generates hundreds of visitors from one school. There are also good linkages with students who can generate a lifetime attachment to the Park. Schools also mostly visit during off peak times and can fill gaps in venue capacity. Offering these programs are also a valuable service to the community. 159
160 Business Events (mice market) The meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (mice) market is worth about $7 billion in Australia each year. Sydney Olympic Park hosts almost 2,000 business events and about one million business visitors, representing around 12 per cent of overall visitation to the Park. The extensive nature of the facilities (10 venues and 100 function areas) at Sydney Olympic Park satisfies a wide range of needs for this market. The Authority has, and will continue to seek to enhance facilities for this growing sector in order to continue to attract this lucrative market to the Park.
Tourism Our unique combination of attractions and experiences also makes the Park an exciting destination for both international and domestic tourists. A number of primary and secondary target segments have been identified including Japan, Korea, China and the United Kingdom. Products such as the Games Trail tour and Stadium Explore tour have been created specifically to attract this market. The Authority will most likely develop self guided and third party operated tourism product in the future.
Business Relocation and Investment This is an essential segment as it attracts developers that in turn attracts commercial tenants. It fundamentally underpins the Park s development as a significant urban centre. The key drivers vary, though there are considerable consistencies in terms of the quality of infrastructure, building features and staff amenities; ease of access to public transport and the availability of convenient parking facilities. Youth Market This is a fast growing and attractive market for the Park with 50% of young Australians between ages 6 16 riding bikes, skateboards and blades, and one in every three riding on ramps. Monster Skatepark, Mountain x and bmx facilities have been purpose built for young people who want to watch or participate in these action sports. The skate park draws participants aged 6 24, including primary and high school students, in and out of school hours. Attracting the Young It is worth going into some detail about two of our main strategies to attract young people to the park. One is the Monster Skatepark brand, which is the largest skate park in the southern hemisphere, and the first and only world class ramp facility in Australia. It gives the Park a cool youth edge, and its brand has been built on the basis that it is the real deal a skate park built and run by skaters and bmxers for skaters and bmxers. Above all, the brand is about buzz the adrenalin rush you get from participating in or watching action sports. Another sub brand created to attract youth is Kids in the Park. This is brand that captures school holiday programs across the precinct and is aimed at positioning the Park as the destination for families during this period. It aims to introduce families to the variety of offerings available at the Park through a package of entertainment, arts and recreation activities. 162
Winning Over the Community An Olympic precinct stands or falls by its interaction with the community at every level. Winning the hearts and minds of the people is an important part of our task. When it comes to community relations, we have a four pronged approach: 1. Maintain strong communication links with the local residential and employee populations to promote the Park, through email, newsletters, and attendance at community gatherings such as meetings, forums, events and festivals. 2. Develop strategic alliances with local government bodies and with business groups such as the Sydney Olympic Park Business Association and Western Sydney Business Connection, to promote the Park through their networks. 3. Implement a strategic corporate hospitality program to facilitate relationship building with key stakeholders and as an integral tool in the promotion of Sydney Olympic Park. 4. Deliver a Visits program to promote awareness of the Park to the broader community, including state, national and international delegates. 163
Visitors In 2007 the Park attracted 8.5 million visitors, a growth of 10 per cent on 2006. Since 2002 the number of visitors to the Park has grown by nearly 50 per cent and is on target to achieve the goal of 10 million by 2010. People come to the Park for education, business events, sports participation and events, tourism and to visit the parklands. They come to ticketed entertainment like concerts, performances and dance parties at venues such as the Acer Arena, the anz Stadium, Sydney Showground and the Sports Centre. And they come for community entertainment such as the Sydney Royal Easter Show, events organised by Sydney Olympic Park Authority included Music by Moonlight and Movies in the Overflow, and other associated community events. The biggest slice of the total visitor pie in 2007 was parkland activities at 26 per cent from 23.4 per cent in 2006. Sports events drew 19 per cent. Community entertainment and business events 12 per cent each. The jump in parklands visitation is impressive given that this area had already grown 17.2 per cent from 2005. The 2007 growth was helped by the opening of Blaxland Riverside Park a constructed parkland with significant free parking. 2.5M 2.5M SPORTS PARTICIPATION PARKLANDS 2.0M 2.0M ANNUAL VISITS 1.5M 1.0M SPORTS EVENTS BUSINESS 1.5M 1.0M 0.5M 0.5M 0 EDUCATION TOURISM & LEISURE 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 0 figure 1 Visitation to Sydney Olympic Park 164
Education grew 26.7 per cent in 2007, particularly because of an increase in the number of school sport carnivals being held in the Athletic Centre. Business events at the venues now contribute over 1 million visitors annually. This has been achieved through the sustained delivery of a variety of consumer trade shows and large conferences. Special events are often very large in nature as clients utilising these venues are attracted by their ability to turn large expanses of space into creative event venues with the wow factor. Building an Internal Community For the Park to become a real town, it needs to be an attractive place for people to live and work as well as to visit. Lifestyle is a unique membership program designed to enhance the lives of employees, students and residents in and around the Park. This is an initiative of the Sydney Olympic Park Authority and a jointly funded by the Sydney Olympic Park Business Association, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the gpt Group. Lifestyle provides discounted, priority and convenient access to a diverse range of facilities, services and events at the park. The Lifestyle website ensures accessibility at all times, dedicated staff and concierge service, a shopfront for personal assistance and membership materials. Lifestyle is a not for profit organisation with profit reinvested into the program. The program was inspired by one at the multi award winning Chiswick Park in West London, which in its first year was Britain s best performing property asset. The founding partners see Lifestyle transforming the Park into a vibrant, diverse environment for employees and residents, differentiating Sydney Olympic Park from other business precincts in the greater Sydney metropolitan area. The program will create a more rewarding environment, attracting and retaining employees, investors and tenants and, in time, will contribute to the growth and sense of community within the Park. 165
World class Parklands Sydney Olympic Park is set amongst 425 hectares of parklands in the heart of a modern metropolis. Pristine woodlands, rare salt marshes and mangroves stand alongside constructed places of historical significance. There are Aboriginal sites and sites of historic colonial and naval importance. An immense brick pit, now home to the threatened Green and Golden Bell Frog, once supplied clay for the characteristic red brick of many Sydney houses. Many people are familiar with these open space recreational areas like the well established Bicentennial Park and the recently opened Blaxland Riverside Park. Less well known are the 175 hectares of saltwater and freshwater mangroves within the precinct, which includes the largest remaining stand of coastal salt marsh on the Parramatta River, or the critically endangered Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest, the endangered remnant Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest or the successful waterbird refuge that attracts an increasing number of internationally protected migratory shorebirds like the Sharp tailed Sandpipers and the Bar tailed Godwits. Sydney Olympic Park has a rich biodiversity of over 400 native plant species and 200 native animal vertebrate animal species. The Park s biodiversity includes three endangered ecological communities, over 180 species of native birds, seven species of frog, nine species of bat, seven species of reptiles, native fish species, many thousands of species of invertebrates, protected marine vegetation and threatened plants. Nearly half of the Park provides habitat for listed threatened species and communities, and for protected marine vegetation. Sydney Olympic Park Authority is obliged under the Sydney Olympic Park Authority Act 2001 to protect, maintain and improve the parklands as a means of promoting their recreational, historical, scientific, educational and cultural value. The vision for the parklands is for them to rival the great parklands of the world like Central Park in New York and the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. To this end, massive plantings of native vegetation are taking place, following horticultural and environmental best practice. Green and golden Bellfrog. View into Bicentennial Park, Wentworth Common and the Brickpit. in the heart of a modern metropolis Pristine woodlands, rare salt marshes and mangroves stand alongside constructed places of historical significance 166
Keeping on Track with Research No marketing and communications program can operate in a vacuum. Sydney Olympic Park Authority conducts annual customer research to better understand the wants and needs of our customers. This includes an annual consumer benchmark survey, a new business to business brand health survey, a parklands user survey and ongoing customer satisfaction surveys. In 2006 07, Sydney Olympic Park Authority also conducted a survey of the Park s workforce to gain a better understanding of the transport needs of the Park s population. In that year the consumer benchmark survey was conducted online for the first time. Its key findings included that 79 per cent of Sydneysiders surveyed visited the Park at least once in that year and 76 per cent of Greater Sydney residents surveyed visited at least once in the year. The Park is strongly associated with good accessibility and a diversity of entertainment events. 167
168 Staying in the News Out of sight, out of mind, the saying goes. Consequently, Sydney Olympic Park Authority has worked hard to stay in the public eye and has received extensive positive media coverage across local, national and international media. A number of media launches have been held at the Park over the past 12 months including the release of the Draft Master Plan 2030, the opening of the 2007 Sydney Royal Easter Show the tenth since the event relocated to Sydney Olympic Park and the opening of From Mao to Now one of Australia s largest art exhibitions on China timed to coincide with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and to promote greater understanding between the Olympic host cities of Sydney and Beijing. Media articles on the Park range from event specific public relations campaigns through to reporting on the progress made since the Sydney 2000 Games. Of course, things have to happen in terms of development, and Sydney Olympic Park Authority makes every effort to promote the Park as an attractive location for commercial, educational and residential development.
BUILDING ON internationally recognised initiatives in energy and water management, green building design, and sound economic and ecological management 170
E y e o n t h e f u t u r e Make no mistake as mentioned earlier, Olympic precincts do not automatically go on after the Games to become iconic parts of the cities in which they have been built. It takes planning, a determined marketing and communications strategy and it means building a sophisticated and mutually rewarding relationship with the community and with the world. Draft Master Plan 2030 will become a reality. By 2030, Sydney Olympic Park will have a daily population of 45,000 in addition to visitors and event patrons. It will have built on the Park s internationally recognised initiatives in energy and water management, green building design, and sound economic and ecological management. The Park s status as Australia s home of major sporting and entertainment events will have been enhanced, and it will stand not only as a monument to the greatest sporting event on earth, but as a best practice example of sustainable urban development. 171
We would like to thank the following partners for their support in staging the 9th World Congress of Metropolis P U B L I CAT I O N PA RT N E R P r i n c i pa l Pa rt n e r s M a j o r Pa rt n e r s Support Partners