The AP’s Tom Withers noted the arena hosting the “preliminary round of basketball at the London Games, its mammoth steel frame covered by recycled white PVC fabric, is a 12,000-seat temporary facility built for these games -- and beyond.” Erected in “less than 18 months, it will be dismantled afterward and could reappear for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.” Stuart Buss, the venue’s Deputy Media Manager, said, "I suppose it's like something you might get from Ikea. You can pack it up and reuse it. It's been cleverly designed so you can put it up quite quickly and take it back down" (AP, 7/26).
PURPLE & LIME: The AP’s Steven Wine wrote the Wimbledon grounds have "never been so colorful.” The Games’ tennis tournament “will be unlike any before at Wimbledon, a gold medalist when it comes to tradition.” From one end of the grounds “to the other, the club's distinctive dark green has given way to patches of Olympic purple and lime green.” The colors “even adorn the building that houses the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum” (AP, 7/26).
LIGHT AS A FEATHER: POPULAR SCIENCE’s Tim Newcomb noted Olympic Stadium is the “lightest, most flexible and most sustainable ever built.” Populous' Tom Jones, whose firm designed the venue, said, "The agenda for London 2012 was very much looking at pushing forward environmental design and sustainable approaches to major stadiums. The drive was to construct a small, compact, lightweight stadium" (POPSCI.com, 7/26).
TALKING BUSINESS: In London, Roland Watson notes U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday opened “Business Olympics” talks and took questions “from 200 chief executives.” Cameron said the event was “the biggest business summit any British government has ever hosted.” The U.K. government is “aiming to secure” an extra US$1.6B “of investment in the coming year.” Cameron on Friday was expected to welcome “a high-powered Chinese delegation to Downing Street” (LONDON TIMES, 7/27).
