Olympic Village architects chosen but AHMM off masterplan team

Lend Lease has appointed seven new architects to help design the £2bn Athletes Village for the 2012 Olympics in London.


Olympic Village

But it has emerged that Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) is no longer on the masterplanning team for the Village.

Caruso St John, Denton Corker Marshall, dRMM, DSDHA, Eric Parry, Ian Ritchie, and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands have all been appointed to design buildings within the Village.

The seven join architects Patel Taylor, Glenn Howells, CF Moller, Niall McLaughlin Architects, Panter Hudspith, Penoyre and Prasad, AHMM, Make and Ian Simpson Architects, all of whom have already been commissioned to design residential blocks, towers and other buildings in the Village.

Lend Lease also announced that landscape architect Vogt had been appointed to assist Fletcher Priest on the Village’s masterplan. But there was no mention of AHMM, which was appointed to the masterplan team in June 2007.

Patel Taylor has now been appointed to the masterplan team, though it is not clear whether or not it has replaced AHMM. Planning documents drawn up as late as last November have AHMM’s name on them, but not Patel Taylor.

A Lend Lease spokesperson said AHMM’s role on the masterplan design team had concluded, but that the practice would still be designing an educational academy for the Village. AHMM was unavailable for comment.

Lend Lease announced the appointments as the International Olympic Committee visited London to check on the progress being made to prepare for the Games.

The lack of an agreement between the Olympic Delivery Authority and Lend Lease as to their respective financial contributions to the project was expected to be high on the list of the IOC’s concerns. The £800m build cost will be shared between the two, but the Australian developer is reportedly trying to negotiate a larger contribution from the ODA.