Full visualisation of the transformation of the former London 2012 Olympic Stadium released

Buro Happold in partnership with Balfour Beatty, London Legacy Development Corporation and architecture firm Populous, release the first full visualisation of the transformation of the former London 2012 Olympic stadium into an iconic and truly multi-purpose venue.

The stadium’s story starts in 2002 with a feasibility study into the potential for London to host the 2012 Games. In 2003, Buro Happold was selected as part of the EDAW Consortium by the London Development Agency (LDA) to develop a masterplan for the 2012 Olympic site and its legacy. Other members of the consortium included HOK Sport, Allies & Morrison, Foreign Office Architects, Mott Macdonald, Mace and Fluid.

In 2004 the planning application was submitted and granted for the London 2012 Olympic Park and Legacy. On 6 July 2005 the Olympic Games were awarded to London by International Olympic Committee.

The following year, Buro Happold , as part of the Sir Robert McAlpine team – Team Stadium – was appointed to plan and design for construct the former Olympic Stadium. Fast forward six years, to 2011 and Buro Happold re-engages with Populous Architects to develop the design for the conversion of the London 2012 Olympic Stadium.

Bringing the story up to date, the venue has a reconfigured, gravity-defying roof comprising 3,000 tonnes of new steelwork suspended from the existing supports, achieving the largest open stadium roof span in the world whilst reusing the 2,000 tonnes of original pipeline steelwork.  Now in the final stages of its transformation, the reconfigured stadium in the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park is the proud new home of West Ham United, UK Athletics, and several community sports clubs. Once it is completed in 2016, the stadium will also host rock legends, both codes of rugby, the World Athletics Championships in 2017 and much more besides. And next week the Rugby World Cup 2015 will arrive at the stadium, with the first match kicking off at 20.00 on Wednesday September 23rd. For those currently without tickets wanting to see the stadium in action themselves in 2015, there is also a Rugby League Test match between England and New Zealand scheduled for the afternoon of November 7th.

Watch the visualisation here…