Before leaving Rio, we met with some of the team from global planning and infrastructure consultants AECOM, who have the contract to plan and develop Rio's Olympic infrastructure. AECOM is the largest employer of designers in the world, with 40,000 employees deployed globally.
The AECOM team presented rather surprising photos of previous Olympics facilities in various host cities that are now weeds, rust, and abandoned of any activity. By contrast, they hope to focus on the "legacy" issues for the Rio games, thinking ahead to how the venues being developed for a few weeks' use can continue to be vital to the City's future, and how Rio's image will be marketed and perhaps forwarded and redefined by way of the games.
Rio will be the first South American Olympic host, and the AECOM team asserted that "nothing is more intensive...except going to war." There are political, financial, and time constraints to this huge undertaking, a "matrix of responsibility" involving multiple committees and decision-makers. Four years out, there is already a tension around getting everything accomplished on schedule. There are daily dialogues with the City Planning Department. Three new BRT networks are being planned, and a 300-household favela on the perimeter of the main cluster of facilities must be relocated. The planners will concentrate on energy-efficient construction, and are hoping that Olympic gold will include LEED gold ratings for new structures. But with all the construction, infrastructure and environmental impact concerns, much of the focus remains on successfully "branding" Rio in ways that will highlight the city as a gateway to South America, and showcase national treasures.
$2 billion dollars will be directly invested in the Olympic games, and it is stated that an additional $40 billion will follow. But the Olympics are not without their critics: an opinion heard from some locals both within and outside of the planning profession was that the citizens have not been sufficiently involved, and that the profits and glory will not be shared by all. Rio's happiness is all about good weather and futbol, and the City appears far more excited about the 2014 World Cup preparations than the Olympics. The AECOM team will be carefully following the World Cup preparations as a test case of readyness for their own endeavors.
The AECOM team presented rather surprising photos of previous Olympics facilities in various host cities that are now weeds, rust, and abandoned of any activity. By contrast, they hope to focus on the "legacy" issues for the Rio games, thinking ahead to how the venues being developed for a few weeks' use can continue to be vital to the City's future, and how Rio's image will be marketed and perhaps forwarded and redefined by way of the games.
Rio will be the first South American Olympic host, and the AECOM team asserted that "nothing is more intensive...except going to war." There are political, financial, and time constraints to this huge undertaking, a "matrix of responsibility" involving multiple committees and decision-makers. Four years out, there is already a tension around getting everything accomplished on schedule. There are daily dialogues with the City Planning Department. Three new BRT networks are being planned, and a 300-household favela on the perimeter of the main cluster of facilities must be relocated. The planners will concentrate on energy-efficient construction, and are hoping that Olympic gold will include LEED gold ratings for new structures. But with all the construction, infrastructure and environmental impact concerns, much of the focus remains on successfully "branding" Rio in ways that will highlight the city as a gateway to South America, and showcase national treasures.
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