Welcome to London! For the first time in just under 3 months, we would be in a country in which our native language is the same as the dominant one of the land. So we were pretty excited. We had a wonderful conversation with a fellow on the easyjet plane who offered us all kinds of fun tidbits about the city. We took a bus from Luton airport to a more centric area of the city. But while waiting for it to depart, we had the pleasure of eavesdropping on a conversation between the bus drivers and a British version of Siri. We ate dinner at a pizza hut (The UK is still Europe, but feels much more American than anywhere else.) Then we traveled to our hotel, far removed from anything significant. But on the underground, there was this gang of kids, HS age, who got on and started poking fun at one another. But they did so in a verrrryyy British manner. And it was absolutely hilarious (at least I thought so).
27 MARCH 2014 We didn't really have a strict planned schedule. But since our hotel was east of town, we would check out the 2012 Olympic area. It was a short underground ride on the red line to Stratford. (PLEASE MIND THE GAP BETWEEN THE TRAIN AND THE PLATFORM)
This is the swimming arena, now converted from Olympic to public use. There was a children's swim meet going on inside, a ticketed event, so I don't have any interior photos.
The fluid shaped shell is clad in this wood covering. The abstract form is one that seemed like it was a Zaha Hadid building. And it turns out, we were right! Zaha was here!
We were unable to access the side of the river where the Olympic stadium was due to the renovation of the area from a temporary Olympic park to one that could be used for years to come. But we were able to have a conversation with a worker there. As it turns out he was a fellow architecture student! He pointed out this design feature of the swimming arena. See the steep stepped grass wall,- it was intended to be a 'green' or environmentally friendly aspect to the design. Very all good and happy intention. But in reality it doesn't work. Each steep step of the hill has grass on the side. But unfortunately it is s steep that it does not hold water, and the grass will not survive on its own. They have to put waayyy more energy into keeping that grass alive than if it were just a concrete form. A green idea that isn't really 'green' at all!
Olympic Stadium and crazytower.
Giant mall complex built just north of the swimming arena. It was huge. Totally not Italian sized. Almost too big.
And then there was this new block of hosing apartments. So huge. Zero context. The scale was so big. It was just gynormity. I didn't like it whatsoever.
But despite my criticism of some of the new developments, there were some areas that were pretty darn cool. Like this playground/park, where Forrest, Aaron and myself played a classic game of 'Don't Fall Into the Lava'
Forrest climbed this thing the fun way, by running up the steep side of it. I propped myself up between two of the intersecting planes. Soon many english schoolchildren jumped on our bandwagon. Forrest did it again, showing off his awesome parkour skills, and many of the kids tried to do the same, but were quite unsuccessful.
Once we decided we had plenty enough fun, we decided to check out the Olympic Velodrome. It was technically closed, set to open next week. It was being reopened as 'Lee Valley Velopark', where one would be able to rent out time on the track.
We went to the front desk and explained that we were architecture students and very interested in stadium architecture. The lady working told us it was not yet open. But she then left and got permission to show us the facility.
We were able to walk all the way around on the concourse.
A very beautiful arena in my opinion.
This non-panorama photo gives a better idea of the roof structure. It is a long shallow curving arch running in the long direction. Between the two grandstands, it hangs kind of like a suspension bridge. The cool part is that they both do it at the same time. It is a very unique and clean form. In fact, this is one of the cleanest-designed arenas/stadiums I have ever seen.
There is the outside of the velodrome. OLYMPICS, YO!
The big Olympic stadium and cawayzee tower, all hazy in the distance.
Can someone please give this guy a gold medal already?
The same worker who we talked to earlier suggested we go to this restaurant across the river. This area had a much different feel, despite close proximity to the Olympic park.
I would describe it as a hipster paradise, Essentially it was an old industrial area, but many of the old warehouses, garages and other buildings were converted into new and unique urban living. Of course there was a plethora of cool and unique artwork all over the place.
Murals everywhere!
The place we were directed to was this pizza shop/microbrewery. The pizza was made from scratch and wood fired. The beer was also brewed in house. Both were exceptionally good. The crowd/staff there seemed very friendly too.
This was the entrance to the shop. You had to go down the steps from where the bridge was and their location was right along the river.
As we left there and were walking to the overground station, I had to get a picture of this colorful building. Bonus points for the photo shoot going on in the bottom right area.
This is that area as seen from the overground station. From there we would make our way all the way to the other side of London to make a horrible attempt to go to our scheduled tour at the Harry Potter Warner Bros studios. Unfortunately here, we would learn how big this city really is.
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