On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:13:21 +0100, "Robin" wrote:

Also, the majority of the costs were spent in the UK. For example, the
construction industry was probably rather glad to have all the extra
work in an otherwise very lean period.

While I believe 98% of contracts in the Park were let to UK firms, that
does not mean the money stayed in the UK. First, many international use
UK subsidiaries, especially when bidding for public sector work.
Second, I live, and have lived, near the Olympic Park since well before
London's winning lie in 2005 and can assure you very many workers were
not from the UK and were taking or sending money abroad.

Well, I suppose that's going to be true of any building project, but
the fact remains that it's our most depressed industry and needs the
work (perhaps the Olympics work helped keep some companies afloat). It
might have been Polish builders this time round, but it would have
been Irish in the past.


And the British architects of
the rather splendid venues can confidently expect more foreign
commissions (including designing the Rio Olympic park).

Possibly yes - for the few buyers who want a vanity project and don't
mind about budget and over-runs. But I suggest the much greater volumes
of bread-and-butter buyers will not be interested in, for example,
copying the aquatics cent see eg the comments from Sir Robin Wales.
I suspect the velodrome might do better - if they can sort out cheaply
the leaking roof.

Ah, a leaking roof: the guarantee of an architectural award! And the
projects were actually ahead of schedule and within the (realistic)
budget (as opposed to the original finger-in-the-air guess).

As for the swimming pool, Zaha Hadid's firm already gets plenty of
foreign commissions, but had hitherto lacked a flagship UK project, so
this project should boost the foreign work. Well done the Welsh steel
firm that was able to construct that amazing tripod of a roof! It's
just a pity that the building had to be disfigured by the ugly winged
extensions during the Games themselves; it'll look a lot better when
reduced to its final form.

I'd also suspect that Heatherwick Studio will win rather a lot more
work after that amazing multi-petal cauldron. I'd highly recommend the
V&A exhibition of his work (which, to get back in context, includes
the NB4L):
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibit...erwick-studio/