After six years of planning, preparation and construction, London's Olympic Park hosts its first non-athlete visitors. The US$ 11 billion Olympic Park contains several of the 2012 Games biggest sporting venues, including the Olympic Stadium and the Zaha Hadid-designed Aquatics Centre, as well as the Olympic Village. In addition to the Aquatics Centre, the Olympic Park also includes the Wilkinson Eyre Architects-designed Basketball Arena, a large 12 thousand-seat temporary structure that will be taken apart and recycled once the games have ended. And towering over the Olympic Park is Anish Kapoor's controversial ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower, which is made from recycled steel and has received mixed reviews from observers. Today the Opening Ceremony will mark the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics, and visitors will get their first look at the Olympic Park. Hosting the Olympics is a massive undertaking for the host city. In 2006, London demolished more than 200 buildings to make room for what would eventually become the Olympic Park. When those buildings were demolished, an impressive 98 percent of the materials were reused and recycled in the construction of the Olympic Park and elsewhere. The Olympic Park was built on former industrial brown fields, which cleaned up before the games. About 1.4 million cubic meters of contaminated soil was excavated from the site, and five enormous soil washing machines were brought in to wash the soil and filter out oil, tar and heavy metals. After the 2012 Summer Olympics are over, the Olympic Park will again be transformed. In 2013, the roughly 500 thousand square meters Park in East London will reopen as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The 114.5-meters tall ArcelorMittal Orbit will still tower over the park, and the Olympic stadium will be downsized to a permanent stadium that will seat 25 thousand people.

On April 16 in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, with the delay of 3 weeks, was completed the Baku Crystal Hall construction, where the next 57th Eurovision 2012 will take place in May. The construction of the concert hall with the capacity of 25 thousand seats (source Aliyev Foundation) began last fall, after signing the contract with German construction company Alpine Bau Deutschland AG in August 2011. The main designer of the Crystal Hall is the German GMP Architects, the author of the twin of Baku concert hall - Universiade Sports Center Shenzhen, China. Designers from the Swiss company Nussen also have been involved in the designing. The completion of such a huge building in a short term was made possible by the use of prefabricated structures and probably also Germans used the experience gained in Chinas' Universiade . The difference between the two buildings is small - Azerbaijani version has a closed roof and the facade is not transparent, but made of special metal sheets. According to some sources, the construction of complex cost about US $ 105 million, and for making a way to the complex approximately the same amount of money was spent. The new complex is located just opposite of Guinness record holder in 2010 - the Baku main Flagstaff with 162.0 meters of height. According to Azerbaijani media, a great role in implementing of the project played "Father of the Nations" - Heydar Aliyevs' Foundation. The president of the Foundation is the First lady of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva, and the vice-president is her daughter, Leila Aliyeva. Funding sources of organization is not clear, so the fact turned for country oppositionists into good tool for political struggle. During the construction, Human Rights Watch has repeatedly criticized the Baku City Authority for carrying out forced evictions against local residents, in order to allow the demolition of apartments to make way for the construction of the Baku Crystal Hall. One interesting point in this storey: in case of failure to complete this construction on time, the government parallel also organized and funded a major reconstruction of to the Tofiq Bayramov stadium with the cost of US $ 90 million.

Chicago City officials recently unveiled the proposed concepts for the long-delayed Bloomingdale Trail, a proposed park and multiuse path of nearly three miles that would be built atop a dormant elevated railroad line on the city's Northwest Side. It also would help connect other parks throughout the area, reported the Chicago Tribune. As reported The inhabitat, the Bloomingdale rail line once served as an important transport corridor, but was then abandoned in the early 1990s. Since the late '90s, the idea has been floating around to convert the elevated rail line into a public park. The Bloomingdale Trail and Park has been in the works for many years now, but significant progress has recently been made. Designed by ARUP, with the help of Ross Barney Architects and Michael van Valkenburgh Associates, the elevated trail and park will be 4.3 kilometers long and will feature bike and pedestrian paths. The gently curving and undulating trail will allow bikers to go up to 32 kmph, and there will be separate paths available for pedestrians. What is not used by paths will be available for public art, lighting, play areas, seating, and vegetation. The landscaping will encourage new wildlife to converge in the city and will contribute to an improved environmental quality. The path would be at least 3 meters wide, with 0.6 meters of clearance on each side for a total of 4.2 meters. About 1.9 kilometers of the trial would have a separate pedestrian path that would run parallel to the multiuse path. Visitors would reach the trail, now raised about 4.6 meters above street level, from eight access points. The design team is proposing 8 access points along the path spaced at about 800 meters apart. In the beginning, the rail line was built to keep people off of it, but now the line will encourage access via sloping parks. The multiphase project is expected to cost about US$ 70 million, when it's all said and done, but the first phase should cost about US$ 46 million. To date the city has collected US$ 37 million in federal anti-congestion and air-quality funding and US$ 7 million more was just donated through private funding. The design team is still working out the details, especially with regards to privacy for neighbors of the park and safety issues, but they hope to begin construction in 2013 with parts of the park open by 2014. For Bloomingdale Trail project as a starting point served the famous suspension park High Line in New York. This band of flowers, trees, shrubs, viewing platforms and walkways were built on the basis of the long abandoned "suspension" railroad. On April 10, 2006, Mayor Bloomberg presided over a ceremony that marked the beginning of construction. The park was designed by the James Corner's New York-based landscape architecture firm Field Operations and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with planting design from Piet Oudolf of the Netherlands and engineering design by Buro Happold. The park was so attractive, that in 2010 was decided to increase its length by half. In 2011 this idea was brought to life. On March 12, was unveiled the initial design concepts for the rail yards section of the High Line. Friends of the High Line released the initial design plans for the third and final section of the High Line at the Hudson Rail Yards. The renderings from architects James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro are available on the High Line's website (and our photo gallery!), and they show the final section of the elevated park incorporating familiar elements, as well as several brand new features. The design will be closely integrated to the massive Hudson Yards development. The newly revealed renderings show the architects' initial visions for the final section of the High Line, but the details are not finalized The third section's total cost will be about US$ 90 million (which comes from donors, not the city's pockets), and it will be open to the public by spring 2014.

A French theme park is being planned in honour of Napoleon Bonaparte, almost 200 years after his death, reported The Telegraph. "Napoleonland", the brainchild of former French minister and history buff Yves Jego, is being touted as a rival to Disneyland. The plan is to build the unlikely amusement park, with US$ 280 million budget, on the site of the brilliant but doomed French leader's final victory against the Austrians in the Battle of Montereau in 1814 just south of Paris. Mr Jego hopes that construction work can start in 2014 and the park open its doors in 2017. He is due to provide more details on the attraction won February 18 - the 198th anniversary of the Battle of Montereau. The park is expected to house a museum, a hotel, shops, restaurants and a congress centre. The 1815 Battle of Waterloo, in which the Duke of Wellington ended Napoleon's rule in France, could be recreated on a daily basis with visitors perhaps even able be able to take part in the reenactments. They will also be able to take in a water show recreating the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, in which Lord Nelson scored a decisive victory over a French and Spanish coalition aboard HMS Victory but died in the process. But the park will also give pride of place to Napoleon's greatest victories, in particular the Battle of Austerlitz in which the Russo-Austrian army was decisively defeated. Napoleon looms large in the French national psyche but has no national museum to his name. The park would help keep him on the map while boosting the local economy, with a potential 1.5 million visitors in its first year.

Reconstruction works in Yerevan circus will begin on August 1, said the circus director Hovhannes Gasparyan during press conference on July 24. He also added, that the whole repair budget will cost US$ 10 million. During a 2-year reconstruction it's planned to completely renovate circus building, install modern ventilation and heating systems, build a separate housing for the animals. It is also planned to upgrade the technical base of the circus and to increase sound and voice capabilities. The final performance of old circus will be held on July 31. Back in April, Yerevan mayor Karen Karapetyan signed an agreement with director of "Tashir Group" Samvel Karapetyan, for US$ 8 million investment in circus reconstruction. During latest press conference art director of circus Sos Petrosyan confirmed, that "Tashir Group" provided US$ 6 million for circus reconstruction. Yerevan circus was built in 1962, and this is the first renovation. The administration of the circus has not provided any information who will act as general contractor of reconstruction.