Olympic Waterfronts: An Evaluation of Wasted Opportunities and Lasting Legacies

Pedro Janela Pinto and Gustavo Lopes dos Santos
Additional contact information
Pedro Janela Pinto: Centre for Innovation in Territory, Urbanism and Architecture (CiTUA), Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Gustavo Lopes dos Santos: Centre for Innovation in Territory, Urbanism and Architecture (CiTUA), Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-32

Abstract: Mega-events such as the Olympic Games are powerful tools for city-branding and urban development, carrying the ability to create lasting physical, political, social, and economic legacies. Waterfront redevelopment has become a primary mechanism for revitalizing urban spaces, especially through brownfield requalification, and the Olympics have not been indifferent to this trend. Several recent editions have engaged in the rehabilitation of urban waterfronts. To analyze common mistakes that may impair the quality of these interventions, we apply a revised version of a binary evaluation tool to nine such Olympic Waterfronts, starting with Barcelona 1992, assessing their contexts, budgets, programs, plans, and environmental integration. The results show that the Olympic Waterfront can drastically change the image of the city, greatly contributing to the perceived success of the event’s legacy and creating new urban centralities. However, the inadequate management in the planning, delivery and, especially, legacy stages of the event can compromise this “Olympic Effect”. The test application of the evaluation tool proved successful in the context of mega-event planning and post-event transformation. It could potentially be useful in informing present and future decision-making regarding waterfront regeneration projects by highlighting pressure-points that, if not addressed, may hinder the future success of the interventions.

Keywords: urban waterfronts; urban redevelopment; Olympic Games; mega-event planning; Barcelona 1992; Athens 2004; Beijing 2008; London 2012; Sochi 2014; Rio de Janeiro 2016 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/1968/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/1968/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:1968-:d:745463

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().