Studio Project Progression

By Sean Williamson

Within ARC 551, our studio class was assigned to develop a section of the master plan designed for the Legacy project proposed by AECOM after the 2016 Olympic Games. The Legacy project consists of a plan for the Olympic site after the Olympic Games are held. Figure 1 (AECOM) displays AECOM’s original Legacy Plan for the site while figure 2 displays the part of the site we are working with highlighted in blue.

The main concept behind my group’s idea consists of the separation of commercial and residential. Within figure 3 you can see my group’s final master plan. In general, residential is found on the west of the site, commercial is found centrally located along Olympic Way (the thick walking path running down the middle of the site). An interesting design element found within our plan is the implementation of a walkable boardwalk that extrudes into Lake Tijuca. Because the lakes pollution is so high, this boardwalk will serve as a buffer that will allow the area within this boardwalk to be cleaned up much faster than the rest of the lake. Within these boardwalk areas will be public beaches that will give a place for the people of Barra De Tijuca a safe place to swim and interact along the water’s edge.

Another concept driving the design of our master plan is the reduction of traffic into our site. Along the edge of our site we have placed multiple parking garages to encourage people to park their car and walk. To promote pedestrian activity, walkable paths were developed to safely separate traffic vs. pedestrian activity.

Olympic Site for 2016 games

Figure Ground- Site proposal

Our groups model proposal

Rio in 2016. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://www.aecom.com/News/Sports/Winning Vision for the Rio 2016 Olympics