London won the rights to stage the 2012 Olympics on the strength of a bid that promised to provide a legacy of regeneration in the four of the poorest boroughs in the East of the City. This was one of many events ten years later that sought to look back on the intervening years to examine whether the games delivered on that promised legacy. Did London avoid some of the pitfalls of previous games? What other benefits, besides the urban impact, can the construction and infrastructure sectors point to in terms of innovation, sustainability and management.
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Introducing the Conversation Rosanna Lawes – Executive Director of Development, London Legacy Development Corporation (Chairing) – underlined the importance of leadership in achieving the goals that were set, in particular cross-party non-partisan leadership. After a successful six weeks of sport, the project would fundamentally be judged on its success as a regeneration of a piece of the city, providing opportunities and better life chances for people in the area. This takes time, and looking back, she felt that they could perhaps have taken more risk and created more opportunities to be innovative and creative.
Sir John Armitt – Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission and former Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority for 2012 – was sadly unable to attend at the last moment but was keen to express his views. The legacy was always a key consideration and he though it has proved a success. Having visited the site a week before the event he felt that the additional housing is excellent whilst the growth in the East Bank cultural buildings is tremendous. Equally the repurposing of the Media centre is excellent. Overall it has been a fantastic piece of regeneration. From a construction point of view the degree of collaboration between all the parties was excellent and it is good to see how this has become a central theme in programme and project governance.
Kay Hughes – Director of Design at HS2 and previously at the Olympic Delivery Authority – felt there were two key legacies which came from the successful delivery of the project. Firstly it gave the public sector confidence that it could set up and run its own mega-projects successfully and this has been maintained in the GLA and local authorities since the games. Secondly the whole process was fundamentally enjoyable because design ‘took the lead’. From masterplanning to the alignment of the different players there was a clear strategy of ambition for design within the project.
Dan Epstein – Useful Simple Trust and previously Head of Sustainable Development and Regeneration at ODA – recalls the wise decision to make a point of visiting previous Olympic sites and learning from things that had obviously gone right and wrong – in particular avoiding the ‘white-elephant Olympic Park syndrome’. He also felt that leadership was key and the decision to take time to design and discuss, while only major infrastructure works took place paid dividends in terms of a well thought out legacy. He recalls a culture which accepted the programme and budget demands, while putting forward discussion about social outcomes, environmental issues and health and safety. He recalls the focus on the “badge of sustainability” worn by Prime Ministers, Mayors and refuse managers alike. Like many on the panel he feels the legacy is still a work in progress: “The test of success is and remains whether we have created a sustainable legacy and whether we create a sustainable and just community over time.”
Eleanor Fawcett – Head of Design, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation and previously LLDC – discussed how the Olympic Park (now the Queen Elizabeth Park would develop in legacy mode. Their strategy was to make sure that they “dissolved the blue Olympic fence” around the park in legacy mode and different section of the park would become “knitted in” to the surrounding urban centres with their different characteristics.
Hugh Sumner – Sumner and Co. Previously Director of Transport ODA – felt that as well as delivering ‘hard and soft’ outcomes for the games the transport sector importantly avoided any reputational damage which was much predicted in the press during the run-up to 2012. To achieve this there was much investment and effort in accelerating the improvements to transport and accessibility in the East of London. Stratford station is now busier than Waterloo, for example. Secondly they created a collaborative forum for the different transport modes – mainline, underground, DLR, buses – where previously there had been none, and this coordination still flourishes as part of the legacy of the games
Matthew Birchall – Buro Happold Engineering Global Sports and Entertainment – was involved at a design level with a number of projects on the site, some permanent some with a need to adapt after the games and some completely temporary. It is therefore essential to get the vision and the brief right, in his view, and working on the games clarified his own approach to design. “It may sound obvious, but you always have to start with legacy” he states. Future games should try to look at the everyday aspects of their proposed assets and the overlay a major event, probably temporarily, over that.
There was some questioning in the audience about whether the housing strategy based on the development around the Olympic village had really delivered what had been promised in terms of social uplift for local people. The panel responded that there was still time for these aspects to mature fully and that this was probably the most difficult aspect of legacy to get right as housing policy meant that the economic environment was not necessarily aligned with the planning aspirations.
Overall, an audience of professionals enjoyed the opportunity to look back, and in some cases forwards, to celebrate the legacy of 2012 and the impact it had on those involved. The idea of an international mega-event such as the Olympics is starting to be challenged by things such as COVID19 and climate change. It is quite possible that this might be the last time a UK city will stage something of this scale and it is important to capture the lessons that it has given us and particularly to celebrate the huge community-wide successes.
This event took place live at the Building Centre on 13 October 2022. It was produced in association with the Engineering Club to mark the 10th Anniversary of London 2012.