After the athletes and Olympic torch have moved on, Londoners will be left with the largest public space the capital has seen created in over a century.

The designers - a team from LDA Design and Hargreaves Associates - were selected by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) this month.

The 270 acre site is currently being been cleared and cleaned ready for construction to start in the summer. In 2009 work will begin creating the parklands and public spaces.

John Hopkins, ODA head of parklands and public realm, said: "The Olympic Park will be the centrepiece of the London 2012 Games and its legacy.

"We will be working with our design team to create a groundbreaking park that provides high quality open and green space to encourage a range of sporting, leisure, social and educational activities for existing and new communities."

Using their combined experience designing groundbreaking parks in the UK and across the world, LDA Design • Hargreaves Associates envisage nine character areas that enhance the ecology and biodiversity of the park, and create a vibrant mix of leisure and recreational activities.

These will potentially include:

• Allotments and other food growing areas;
• Meadows, wetlands, wooded valleys, orchards and viewing hills;
• New wildlife habitats;
• Areas and facilities for a range of sports such as canoeing, mountain biking, climbing and cricket;
• Revitalised waterways, towpaths and river walks;
• Natural amphitheatres and lawns for events and festivals; and
• New cycle and footpaths connecting the Lower Lea Valley with the Thames for the first time.

The public will be consulted on the detailed legacy plans in partnership with the London Development Agency ahead of a planning application later this year.

Andrew Harland, managing partner, LDA Design • Hargreaves Associates, added: "The Olympic Park is the UK’s most significant landscape project in years, and is likely to be so for many years to come.

"It is the centrepiece of Europe’s largest regeneration programme and will have a positive economic and social impact on the area while also demonstrating exemplar sustainability."

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:58:55 +0000