Hopkins Architects has won the race to design the Olympic velopark, likely to be the last major design-led venue procured for the 2012 Games.

The Hopkins consortium, which beat seven other teams, also included Expedition Engineering, sustainability consultant BDSP and landscape and masterplanning architect Grant Associates.

The losers were David Chipperfield, David Morley Architects, Dominique Perrault, Flacq, FaulknerBrowns with Heatherwick Studio, Foreign Office Architects, and Wilkinson Eyre.

David Higgins, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chief executive, said the Hopkins team had understood the need to link the Games and the legacy. “Their vision supported our desire for a velodrome that sits within a comprehensive velopark with a range of cycling facilities for people of all abilities,” he said.

The velopark is due for completion in the summer of 2011 and will include a 6000-seat velodrome and a BMX circuit. After the Games, the BMX circuit will be moved next to the velodrome. A road cycle circuit and a mountain bike course will be added, and these will link into cycle routes across London.

A contractor has yet to be appointed, but is expected to be announced in March.

The news comes at a time when Olympic organisers are introducing a number of measures to control costs. This week:

  • David Goldstone, director of Partnerships UK, has been appointed finance and programme director in the Government Olympic Executive (GOE) at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
  • The number of Americans on the CLM delivery partner team, from the US consultant CH2M Hill, has been reduced
  • In addition, the ODA is considering setting up an internal panel to review procedures and costs.

Meanwhile, a Public Accounts Committee report has warned that the 2012 Olympics must be managed with an “iron hand” to prevent contractors holding it to ransom. The committee’s report warned that standards would drop and contractors would need to be paid more if the delivery timetable was not adhered to.

Postscript

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