In case anyone was curious, I really want the Olympics in 2016 to be Chicago and it makes it even better to know they are thinking about the environment in their planning...
Rock on ~ Time
Green, Silver, and Bronze:
Chicago's Olympic Bid
How do you improve on an exemplary track record? Chicago’s planners will struggle with this very question as they chase the 2016 Olympics bid.
Competing against cities like Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio de Janeiro, Chicago has to prove its Environmental Sustainability Plan—its strategy to make the Games and the city greener. But Chicago’s green reputation makes that task, if anything, harder.
“We don’t have the luxury, to some extent, that Beijing has, where they have terrible air quality,” says Bob Accarino, Abbot Laboratories’ Director of Environmental Affairs and Chicago’s environmental consultant for the 2016 bid.
Accarino and architects from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill put together an ambition sustainability plan for Chicago's bid. Not only will every event be accessible by public transportation, but additional bike lanes and bike taxis are proposed.
The Games' carbon footprint will be further reduced by solar-powered live broadcasts of the events. Remaining carbon emissions will be offset with carbon credits.
Even the buildings are designed to be recycled. An 80,000-person stadium destined for Washington Park can be converted into a more modest 5,000-person venue. And the 37-acre Olympic village slated for the South Loop? After the Olympians have left town—it transforms into a residential and retail development.
The overall aim of the planners, says Accarino, is to create a true Olympics experience within a safe, clean, urban environment.
“We wanted to build on the fact that Chicago really is a leader in urban design and wanted to demonstrate how large cities can be part of the solution to today’s environmental problems,” he says. “Can’t we do that here and then demonstrate to the world that it can be done?”
