Getting Ready for the Big Show - The London Olympics

 480 days to go - Zaha Hadid's Aquatic Center as designed (left) and as built (right); a quarter of Kapoor's Tower & the Olympic Stadium

There's a clock in Trafalgar Square counting down the days/hours to the start of the 2012 Olympics. Rumored to cost more than $14B, there's no shortage of criticism - from the logo to the creepy-looking mascots to the emerging buildings. Unlike several past Olympiads, all the venues have been focused in one dilapidated area of the city to spur revitalization efforts. Last week we took an evening walking tour around the periphery of the venues, not exactly on the usual tourist route, to see some projects under construction. The tour was led by Timothy Bruce-Dick, an elderly rather eccentric London architect (redundant adjectives?) who added inside gossip. Hadid's Aquatic Center has been regrettably altered with temporary seating "wings" to add more seats for the games; as the architect said, "Hadid is probably biting the rug right now!" Surrounding the athletic venues is the Legacy Park, 1 mile long and 620 acres, the largest park to be developed here since Victorian days. Some of the parkways, sculpted landscape, and a new high-rail station in the middle of the grounds are already open to the public.