By Cynthia Koons
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, surrounded by a slew of press photographers, milled around the designs before addressing the crowd of media at the official designation of the five finalists.
In December five design firms were winnowed from a field of more than 130 international architects who vied for the chance to design the village in preparation for the city's bid for the 2012 summer games.
“They each truly rose to the challenge this project offers,” Bloomberg said. “It's only fitting that the site of the Olympic Village would be in our most international borough – Queens is where the world comes to see the future.”
The exhibition was part of a two-week public review period, which is part of the selection process before the winner is announced in May.
The proposed location for the Olympic Village is on the water in Hunters Point directly across from the United Nations in Manhattan. It will fall within the area covered by Queens West Development Corp., a public agency redeveloping the entire Long Island City waterfront. Competitions at the Games would be held at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, on the West Side of Manhattan and in six Queens locations including Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
The Olympic Games would bring 125,000 jobs and $11 billion into the city's economy, Bloomberg said.
“It would spur the largest investment in parks and recreation facilities in the city's history – all privately paid for,” he added.
Marshall said Queens would also benefit from the construction of the village because of the amount of housing that would be brought into the area.
“The Olympic Village will become part of an already growing community,” she said.
She also said she was urging developers to consider including affordable housing in the project after the village, which will house 16,000 athletes and coaches during the Games and could be home to as many as 18,000 New Yorkers after the Olympics, is left to the area residents.
The five developers selected as finalists included Henning Larsens Tegnestue of Copenhagen, Denmark. The firm's plans include creating a sustainable village in five quarters, similar to the trademark Olympic rings.
From Morphosis, a Santa Monica, Calif. firm, architects designed a village that reflected the principles of sustainability, or development that has a low environmental impact, connectivity and interdependence.
A Rotterdam, Netherlands-based architectural firm, MVRDV, called its design “Weaving Village on the Beach.”
“By creating a huge public beach on the East River, the Olympic Village becomes dramatically intense and visible,” architect Winy Maas said.
The only New York firm selected, Smith-Miller+Hawkinson Architects, said its plan included natural and constructed landscapes as well as a new park called the Olympic Green.
Its proposal also included a new transit hub for the connection between the Long Island Rail Road and the river taxi.
Architect Zaha Hadid, of Zaha Hadid Architects in London, said her firm's design would consist of a “constellation of towers.”
Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff said the construction of the Olympic Village was integral to the city's presentation of the games.
“The Olympic Village would lie at the center of the games,” he said. “It has enormous symbolic power. The Olympic Village is the embodiment for 17 days for the hopes of a more peaceful world.”
After the press conference, Marshall said she was not concerned about the potential traffic impact the village could impose on western Queens.
“The way it's being designed, there won't be a dramatic traffic impact,” she said.
Plans will remain on display in Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal for the public to view for two weeks. The city will learn whether it is selected to host the games in July.
Reach reporter Cynthia Koons by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.
