Olympic Dreams
I don’t thing there was an adequate planning process in Chicago where the communities were involved. To do it right, a planning charrette should have taken place for each venue. Community meetings were held but, this is never enough. They are never more than an opportunity for the community to react to what has already been decided. A week long planning charrette would have allowed each of the communities sponsoring a venue to take ownership of the project, a physical planning document would have been produced. There was plenty of time and money.
The word charrette may refer to any collaborative session in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem. While the structure of a charrette varies, depending on the design problem and the individuals in the group, charrettes often take place in multiple sessions in which the group divides into sub-groups. Each sub-group then presents its work to the full group as material for future dialogue. Such charrettes serve as a way of quickly generating a design solution while integrating the aptitudes and interests of a diverse group of people.
Source: Wikimedia Foundation
Do you really think more planning would have helped? Maybe. But I personally think the whole Olympic decision is driven by politics. It had nothing to do with planning. I think the Chicago committee planned their little hearts out. I believe it was a done deal before any planes touched down in Copenhagen.
What we’re ignoring is the fact that the Olympics is a NATIONAL endeavor. Chicago didn’t lose the Olympic bid, the U.S. did. It wasn’t a competition between Chicago and some other U.S. cities. It was a competition between the U.S. and Brazil and Spain and Japan. It seems to me that we were so focused on holding the games in Chicago that we neglected to acknowledge that it would have been a victory for the U.S. Rio is claiming this as a great undertaking for Brazil. The games will take place in BRAZIL- it just so happens that the actual location will be Rio. Mayor Daley and his team put together a real pretty package, but I never did think we stood a chance. It was South America’s turn all along and unless they had delivered a really dismal proposal, they were always going to win.
By: JoAnne Kempf on October 5, 2009
at 5:55 pm