The 2012 London Olympics are still a month away, but in Rio de Janeiro, the city is already gearing up for the 2016 Games. In February, the Samb'dromo, home to the city's official samba-school parades, reopened in time for this year's Carnival with the addition of four new grandstands. The parade ground, with its huge concrete parabolic gateway, was designed in 1984 by Oscar Niemeyer, whose office oversaw the new work. (The 104-year-old architect came out to visit the finished site in a golf cart). At the 2016 Games, the expanded Samb'dromo will hold the archery events as well as the start and finish of the marathon.
But the Samb'dromo isn't the only existing venue to be recycled for the 2016 Games. For sports-mad Brazilians, Rio is full of athletic facilities that can be adapted for the Olympics. And like the London Olympics this year, ideas about repurposing existing venues, as well as sustainability and a plan for a post-Games legacy of community improvements, helped Rio win its bid. AECOM, the master planner for the London games, won the commission to design Rio's Olympic Park, on the west side of the city, next to a lagoon, where 15 Olympic events will take place. To avoid the 'white elephant syndrome' in which former Olympic sites are rarely used after the fact, AECOM has a three-phase strategy for the park, says London-based Jason Prior, chief executive of planning, design, and development. The first phase will be the August 2016 Games (and subsequent Paralympic Games), followed by a five-to-seven-year transitional phase. Finally, in the third phase, the Olympic park will be devoted to a mix of uses.
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