LDA game plan up for regeneration

A masterplanning quartet led by Edaw has seen off big name architects including Terry Farrell, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Herzog & de Meuron to win the contract to create a ‘design blueprint’ for London’s 2012 Olympics bid.

Edaw has teamed up with HOK Sport, Foreign Office Architects and Allies and Morrison for the three-month project.

The consortium has been tasked with delivering proposals to London 2012 chairman Barbara Cassani and the London Development Agency in November. Details will then be finalised for the International Olympic Committee by January 2004.

The masterplan will set out the location of key Olympic facilities and their relationship with transport, public spaces, the local ecology and landscape.

A London Development Agency spokesman says decisions on the broader design process, its likely outputs and any tender process have yet to be made.

The plan will focus on the development of the Lower Lea Valley, running from Stratford to Canary Wharf and earmarked as the main location for the games.

Regardless of the bid’s success, the regeneration of this area remains a priority for Mayor Ken Livingstone’s London Development Agency, which sees the site as a catalyst for its Thames Gateway strategy for creating new jobs and economic growth.

‘Not getting the Olympics would be a disappointment, not a disaster. We’ve asked for two masterplans. If the Olympic bid isn’t successful, we’ll go with plan B, which focuses on the regeneration of the area as a business location and also as a place to live,’ says the spokesman.

The London Development Agency is stressing ‘legacy planning’ in the regeneration remit, conscious of ‘white elephants’ like the Millennium Dome. In design terms, this may mean an emphasis on temporary structures as well as sustainability.

‘[London 2012] might be the first disposable games,’ the spokesman adds.