the big
interview
James Bulley
For the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and
Paralympic Games (LOCOG), the story starts with the winning
bid in 2005. Its main responsibility: to prepare and stage the Games.
as the official engineering design services provider for london 2012,
atkins is now helping to set the groundwork for the main event.
James Bulley, LOCOG’s director of venues and infrastructure,
offers his first-hand perspective on getting ready for...
20
the big event
What are the biggest challenges white elephants. Temporary facilities or size nearby. For the aquatic centre,
facing LOCOG with regard to installations – what we call “overlay” – it makes absolute sense to build it on the
infrastructure and London 2012? will be used where appropriate. Wherever chosen site: it will probably be the only
The major challenge is the sheer scale of possible, we only want to put in additional competition standard pool in london in
the project. as the organising committee, facilities on a temporary basis, as opposed 2012, so there’s an absolute need for it.
we don’t just have to think about building to leaving behind big structures. Where there isn’t a long-term need, we
the Olympic Park, which is a very clear even though such facilities are not quite build a temporary facility. That’s the basis
and tangible task. We’re dealing with over the same in monetary terms as building an of lOCOG’s legacy planning.
100 sites and venues. These range from Olympic Park, the number of projects involved at the same time, we aren’t starting
competition venues and operations centres and the scope of it all make it significant. The from scratch. The concept we presented to
to training grounds and places that will amount of temporary construction, in terms the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
welcome spectators, such as airports, of venues that we have to build and then in singapore during the bidding stage
railway stations and car parks. take down after the Games, is three times was about taking advantage of london’s
This obviously represents a huge more than all the three previous summer existing world-class venues – Wembley,
investment, both to meet the additional Olympic Games put together. Wimbledon, lord’s and the Dome – and
requirements for existing venues and to mixing them with some famous london
build new ones. The process we’ve been How does the question of legacy landmarks. For example, having road
going through with the Olympic Delivery figure in all of this? races set against the backdrop of locations
authority (ODa) and others concerns how any venue we deliver must be underpinned such as Buckingham Palace, st Paul’s
we refine and optimise our plans, so that by ongoing use and a business plan. If we’re Cathedral and the Tower of london.
we’re spending our budget in the most developing a new venue, we must be sure I think that gave the london bid
efficient way. it is being built in the right location for use a significant advantage from the start.
at the same time, one of the decisions after the Games. For example, there’s no add to this the new facilities that we
we took during the bid was that we were point building another indoor arena where were proposing for the Olympic Park
going to deliver london 2012 with no we’ve got an existing arena of the same and the regeneration of east london,
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24