Contractors have "successfully installed the first piece" of roof paneling at the Populous-designed Olympic Stadium as works continue to convert it into a permanent home for EPL side West Ham, according to Colin Marrs of ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. The announcement comes a month after the London Legacy Development Corporation agreed to increase the amount paid to contractor Balfour Beatty from £35.9M ($44.8M) to £154M ($192.1M) to complete conversion of the stadium. Much of “that leap in costs” was to cover strengthening work on the main roof truss. Populous Project Architect and Principal Mark Craine said, “We were commissioned to make the roof much larger in order to cover the new lower tier seats which will be installed for some events.” At around 45,000 square meters, the new roof has been designed at “twice the size of the original,” in an attempt to improve acoustics for spectators, while “minimizing noise leakage” to surrounding residents. At 84m at its deepest point, it will be the “longest single span roof of its type” in the world (ARCHITECTS JOURNAL, 11/30).
