London's Olympic Legacy by Gillian Evans

Author:Gillian Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London

In the Dark

When I next see Adam Williams, he explains that EDAW have been given an extension to their contract of a couple of weeks, and a restart date of October, by which time the company’s board will have been appointed, and the new American Chief Executive, Andrew Altman, will have taken charge of planning and design issues. Adam says he is learning more about what Margaret Ford wants from the trade press than from OPLC, so instead of waiting for direction from OPLC, he is simply doing what he feels needs to be done. He wonders if anyone at a senior level in OPLC actually knows what is in the Master Plan Framework, and the associated strategy documents, or if anyone at that level really appreciates how much work has gone into it.

Adam also speaks about feeling pulled in different directions, because he is, in addition to LMF work, also doing a scoping project for Boris Johnson on the possibilities for a higher education offer in the park. Adam says the legacy is still ‘an open book’, and ‘no one really seems to know what is wanted.’ There is a risk, he says, that because of political tussling behind the scenes, and a lack of clear direction, it will end up as ‘a pastiche of a place with no coherence—trying too hard to meet what everyone asks of it’. In frustration, Adam exclaims, ‘We are trying to create a framework for development—not a spectacle.’ He reiterates that their job is ‘not to come up with big ideas, but to create a framework of possibilities.’

Meanwhile, I notice, in the offices of EDAW that desks are beginning to be cleared, as staff are laid off, or redirected to other projects in Europe, or elsewhere, to wait out the LMF hiatus. The danger, Adam explains, is that rather than waiting through an uncertain period with the expectation of returning in October, many of those highly qualified and experienced people, with an invaluable depth of ‘project knowledge’ gained from years working on the LMF and Lower Lea Valley, will move on, apply for jobs elsewhere, and that knowledge will be lost.

Adam explains that what Margaret said at the legacy dinner, which I explained to him, about her 20 % reservation about the LMF is to do with the need for greater clarity about ‘transitional uses’. This makes sense, he says, because the majority of the development platforms are going to take years, if not decades, to be developed into business and residential neighbourhoods, and in the meantime, the park has to work as a visitor destination. He explains that Margaret’s other concern is with the sporting legacy, making sure that the options for the stadium are revisited (hence no John Lock at the legacy dinner, because his proposals for UEL’s involvement in the sporting education offer at the stadium are now up in the air), and that the sporting offer in the legacy park is pitched as part of the new focus on visitor attractions.

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