London Olympic Park

London will host the Olympic Games in 2012 and the site has been slected. The first contract, let in 2005 was for undergrounding the electricity pylons. They should never have been built overground in an urban area. But let us pray that other elements of East London's heritage, both vegetation and artefacts, will survive as the kernal of London's first and greatest twenty first century public park.

In March 2008 it was announced that the US firm Hargreaves Associates, in association with the UK firm LDA Design, had been appointed to design London's Olympic Park.  LDA Design’s managing partner, Andrew Harland, commented on Radio 4 (You and Yours 21.3.08) that the aim was to make a park which is 'beautiful, well managed and with lots to do'. This is a modern translation of Vitruvius design objectives: Commodity, Firmness and Delight. Speaking after Andrew Harland, John Hopkins explained that the park would implement the vision of the 1964 Civic Trust report on the Lea Valley Regional Park. It would be a park for the people catering for a great diversity of tastes. John Hopkins was formerly a partner in LDA Associates and then became the Olympic Delivery Authority's Head of Parklands and Public Realm.

See Gardenvisit commentary on the landscape architecture aspecsts of the London Olympic Park Development project.