After World War II, the Olympics returned to London, which had previously hosted the 1908 games. Athletes were housed in locations in and around the capital: the men in airforce camps in Uxbridge and West Drayton and ex-military barracks in Richmond Park, and the women in London schools. Although the games cost only £600,000 — a fraction of the 2012 London Olympics — they were every bit as controversial. Citizens left homeless by the war felt the government was misappropriating state funds in providing accommodations for visiting athletes without addressing the needs of its own population. Similar debates have marked this year’s games, which are estimated to cost upwards of £14.5 trillion.
[Photo by quiquemendizabal]
Los Angeles, 1932
1931 was the hottest year on record in Los Angeles, so organizers decided to build a village for male athletes at Baldwin Hills, where temperatures were 10 degrees cooler than other potential sites. The village’s 300 acres were on loan from the heirs of the prominent businessman Lucky Baldwin, so the buildings had to be removed after the games.
Early Olympians were housed wherever there was room. The nearly 3,000 athletes at the 1928 Amsterdam games were stashed in schools, hotels, boarding houses, private homes and ships. Pictured here is housing for American competitors and officials aboard the U.S.S. President Roosevelt.
[Photo from Official Report of the Olympic Games]
In the early Olympiads, there was no need for official athlete housing. Only 241 competitors took part in the 1896 Athens ceremonies — a far cry from the 17,000 expected in London this summer. At the 1928 Amsterdam games, athletes were accommodated in spare rooms in boarding houses and aboard ships. The first Olympic Village was built in 1932, in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, but it was dismantled after the games and virtually no trace survives today. Not until the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki did host cities began to plan and develop permanent structures for housing athletes. Typically, the buildings were converted to private residences after the games were over, although some became public housing. The mid-century villages are still recognizable, even as their urban contexts have undergone dramatic transformations.
A turning point in the arc of Olympic planning efforts came in 1992 in Barcelona. The city’s strategy of using the games to catalyze urban development projects provided such a spectacular return on investment that every host city since has attempted to replicate it, with mixed results. Boosterism often drowns out the concerns of social justice activists who say Olympic funding supports elite projects over the public good. In Barcelona, for example, the city council abandoned a promise to convert Olympic Village units to subsidized housing. [1] This year, as the Olympics return to London for a third time, Prime Minister David Cameron hopes to cash in: "From tourism to business, sport to investment, we are determined to maximize the benefits of 2012 for the whole country." Exactly how this vision will pan out is uncertain, but that hasn’t slowed the elaborate redevelopment plans already underway for the 2016 games in the Barra da Tijuca district of Rio de Janeiro.
1931 was the hottest year on record in Los Angeles, so organizers decided to build a village for male athletes at Baldwin Hills, where temperatures were 10 degrees cooler than other potential sites. The village’s 300 acres were on loan from the heirs of the prominent businessman Lucky Baldwin, so the buildings had to be removed after the games.
Early Olympians were housed wherever there was room. The nearly 3,000 athletes at the 1928 Amsterdam games were stashed in schools, hotels, boarding houses, private homes and ships. Pictured here is housing for American competitors and officials aboard the U.S.S. President Roosevelt.
[Photo from Official Report of the Olympic Games]
In the early Olympiads, there was no need for official athlete housing. Only 241 competitors took part in the 1896 Athens ceremonies — a far cry from the 17,000 expected in London this summer. At the 1928 Amsterdam games, athletes were accommodated in spare rooms in boarding houses and aboard ships. The first Olympic Village was built in 1932, in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, but it was dismantled after the games and virtually no trace survives today. Not until the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki did host cities began to plan and develop permanent structures for housing athletes. Typically, the buildings were converted to private residences after the games were over, although some became public housing. The mid-century villages are still recognizable, even as their urban contexts have undergone dramatic transformations.
A turning point in the arc of Olympic planning efforts came in 1992 in Barcelona. The city’s strategy of using the games to catalyze urban development projects provided such a spectacular return on investment that every host city since has attempted to replicate it, with mixed results. Boosterism often drowns out the concerns of social justice activists who say Olympic funding supports elite projects over the public good. In Barcelona, for example, the city council abandoned a promise to convert Olympic Village units to subsidized housing. [1] This year, as the Olympics return to London for a third time, Prime Minister David Cameron hopes to cash in: "From tourism to business, sport to investment, we are determined to maximize the benefits of 2012 for the whole country." Exactly how this vision will pan out is uncertain, but that hasn’t slowed the elaborate redevelopment plans already underway for the 2016 games in the Barra da Tijuca district of Rio de Janeiro.
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