Friday, July 18, 2008

Olympics contribute to Chicago


The 2008 Beijing Olympics are just about to take place, but there has been a huge interest in which city will be hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics. The candidate cities consist of Madrid, Rio, Tokyo, and Chicago (my favorite). These cities over the last year have been flaunting their positive attributes demonstrating why they deserve to host the games. Chicago is a prime candidate due to its provided stadiums, strong infrastructure, great public transportation systems, Central location in the US, and of course its beauty and architecture.
The plan calls for four organized clusters housing different events. A new Olympic Stadium will be set up in Washington Park, that would hold the opening and closing ceremonies. The stadium is projected to house 80,000 viewers during the Olympics, and after the games the stadium will be down scaled to a 5,000 seat amphitheater. The Olympics Sports Complex is another proposal to host tennis, BMX, volleyball, and Track Cycling. Another great attribute about Chicago is its already existing venues. The proposal takes advantage of Solider Field, McCormick Place, UIC Pavilion, United Center, Allstate Arena, and finally Lake Michigan. To house all of the Olympians a plan is drawn out for an Olympic Village, which will be built right on the lake shore, and after the Olympics the Village will convert to mixed-income housing. Everything I have mentioned is being built to fulfill the requirements to host the Olympics, but there are also some other perks that come with being a bidding city. The greatest example is the under construction Spire. The Chicago Spire, designed by Santiago Calatrava, will become the third largest building in the world standing at 2,000 feet tall. The tower is proposed to be completed in 2012 (right before the Olympics) and will host 150 floors all designated to residential. The tower is meant to stand as an Icon for Chicago, and demonstrate Chicago's strength in building technology through its spiral structure. Even Buckingham fountain is getting a 25 million dollar make over, that is proposed to be completed by April 1st, when the Olympic board comes back to Chicago. Chicago is a beautiful city that has a world renowned reputation, and the 2016 Olympics will only demonstrate its Beauty, Organization, and Strength.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is cool. i hope chi-town gets it, i had no idea which building were going to be used.

Anonymous said...

Chicago (stir the soul) I really hope they get the bid!!! my cousin lives in Chicago and it would be really awesome to meet up with him to go see the games!

Anonymous said...

CHICAGO!!!