Olympic Stadium Research Articles

Bringing the Revolution to the Dam Site: How Technology, Labor, and Nature Converged in the Microcosm of a Northern Mexican Company Town, 1936–1946

Bringing the Revolution to the Dam Site:How Technology, Labor, and Nature Converged in the Microcosm of a Northern Mexican Company Town, 1936–1946 Mikael Wolfe (bio) Long after they are built, grand infrastructure projects—renovated city centers, parks, overpasses, Olympic stadiums, freeways, mass-transit expansions, suspension bridges, mega-canals, dams—often come to stand as monuments to specific moments in history and to the prevailing social, cultural, and ideological values and technological prowess associated with them. Among these, large dams, as structures explicitly designed to fundamentally alter complex and fragile natural processes—namely, rivers and their hydrological cycles—for the purposes of agricultural modernization and industrialization, particularly represent the social, economic, and political goals at the heart of a nation's development agenda. For example, the historian Marc Reisner described (with some hyperbole) the dams of the New Deal era in his classic book Cadillac Desert as the United States' "temples"—with the Hoover Dam symbolizing the fight against the Depression and the Axis enemy during the Second World War.1 Similarly, the Mexican anthropologist and historian Claudio Lomnitz, citing the Brazilian literary critic Beatriz Jaguaribe, called dams and other infrastructure designed to legitimize Mexican presidents "modernist ruins," regardless of whether they were completed, or were even useful if completed.2 While there is a large literature on dam-building and its place in economic development and state formation, as well as its attendant social and ecological consequences,3 there are far fewer histories focusing on dam sites—that is, the temporary locales where workers, technicians, and their dependents and others live and work during the time dam construction [End Page 1] is under way. This is especially so for Mexico, which undertook considerable hydraulic development in the twentieth century.4 In this article I examine the postrevolutionary period of the 1930s and 1940s and how the Mexican government's National Irrigation Commission (CNI) brought the Mexican Revolution to remote dam sites by constructing "company towns" adjoining them. I argue that these towns served as microcosms of the larger national efforts of the Mexican state to deploy technology, labor, and nature in the name of a reified revolution.5 As a case study, I detail the process by which the CNI attempted to transform "El Palmito," or the Lázaro Cárdenas, dam site deep within the Sierra Madre of Durango. From 1936 to 1946 this dam site was the flagship laboratory for the CNI's revolutionary social mission of uplifting and civilizing its hired hands as they toiled to tame the torrential flow of the Nazas River. The Nazas was the lifeblood of the Comarca Lagunera, or Laguna, a region of lagoons located in southwestern Coahuila and northeastern Durango in north central Mexico (see map 1). Its name belies the arid desert landscape through which the Nazas flowed, delivering rich upstream sediments and organic detritus to vast irrigated fields of cotton grown hundreds of kilometers downstream since the early nineteenth century. In the first section, I contextualize the Palmito dam project as part of the larger postrevolutionary Mexican project of state- and party-building within which hydraulic engineering played a prominent role.6 In the second, I describe the working and living conditions, labor organizing, housing, services, law and order, and jurisdictional issues during the life of the town as it faced the continual inclemencies of nature. I conclude the article with how the fate of the dam site largely mirrored the fate of the dam, and by extension, Mexico's radical postrevolutionary project of social betterment under Lázaro Cárdenas: a mixed legacy of unfulfilled expectations alongside little local antipathy towards a technological structure considered to have been absolutely necessary to regulate an unwieldy river. El Palmito and Engineering as Nation-Building El Palmito dam on the Nazas River was one of five large dams launched under the populist presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas (1934–1940) as part of the National Revolutionary Party's Six Year Plan of 1934. In addition to El Palmito, these included the Solís Dam on the Lerma River in the [End Page 2] Click for larger view View full resolution Modern Laguna Watershed Map. This map displays the Nazas...

Planning and Reconversion of Olympic Heritages: The Montreal Olympic Stadium

For hosting cities, the summer Olympic Games (OG) has become an extremely expensive and complex urban project, partly used for urban regeneration. We can also observe that the Olympic stadium's problematic of reconversion is recurring as this infrastructure, the most significant of the Olympic park, needs colossal financing for its construction and its management. However, despite a few planning measures, we notice that after the OG a considerably low percentage of these stadiums are actually utilized. Through an in-depth study and historiography of the planning and reconversion phases of the 1976 Montreal Olympics' heritage, this article aims to demonstrate how such a facility, central to the hosting of the OG, has become a model of post-Olympic failure. Within a few years, although it was initially planned in a modest way and as a means to regenerate the entire neighbourhood, this facility had become a ‘white elephant’, costing triple what was originally planned, while we still wonder to this day what we should or could do with this mega-infrastructure.

Utilization pattern of Olympic parks and its application in Beijing

With great promotion of mega-events in both quantities and qualities in China, the research of Mega-events has been increased. As a global hallmark event, the Olympics, with their enormous scale, universal attraction for the media and tremendous political significance, have increasingly drawn attention from the researchers. It is obvious that Beijing has been greatly impacted by the 2008 Olympic Games as the host. The event aroused close attention of researchers, especially the problem how the Olympic stadiums and facilities can be utilized after Olympic Games. The paper employed 3 methods to conduct a survey, that is, sending questionnaires to tourists, interviewing with government officers, and collecting information about former Olympic Parks from Internet and literatures. The utilization of former Olympic Parks after Games was summarized and some experiences were refined. Besides, 3 main bodies including government, business operators and visitors which formed basic driving forces to influence the park’s use were analyzed. At the same time, the paper believes that 3 topics affect the park’s utilization involving ‘prepare to use’, ‘how to use it’ and ‘how to manage it’, and Beijing Olympic Park can also follow that thinking and reference in the further practices. Based on it, suggestions are given that Beijing Olympic Park can be planned spatially from 3 layers, the point, line and area, based on their function and infrastructure in the Games, and the area would be shaped as a new urban center with multi-functions while Mega-events and sport events are still the main content of the park.

Air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympics: secondary pollutants and regional impact

Abstract. This paper presents the first results of the measurements of trace gases and aerosols at three surface sites in and outside Beijing before and during the 2008 Olympics. The official air pollution index near the Olympic Stadium and the data from our nearby site revealed an obvious association between air quality and meteorology and different responses of secondary and primary pollutants to the control measures. Ambient concentrations of vehicle-related nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at an urban site dropped by 25% and 20–45% in the first two weeks after full control was put in place, but the levels of ozone, sulfate and nitrate in PM2.5 increased by 16%, 64%, 37%, respectively, compared to the period prior to the full control; wind data and back trajectories indicated the contribution of regional pollution from the North China Plain. Air quality (for both primary and secondary pollutants) improved significantly during the Games, which were also associated with the changes in weather conditions (prolonged rainfall, decreased temperature, and more frequent air masses from clean regions). A comparison of the ozone data at three sites on eight ozone-pollution days, when the air masses were from the southeast-south-southwest sector, showed that regional pollution sources contributed >34–88% to the peak ozone concentrations at the urban site in Beijing. Regional sources also contributed significantly to the CO concentrations in urban Beijing. Ozone production efficiencies at two sites were low (~3 ppbv/ppbv), indicating that ozone formation was being controlled by VOCs. Compared with data collected in 2005 at a downwind site, the concentrations of ozone, sulfur dioxide (SO2), total sulfur (SO2+PM2.5 sulfate), carbon monoxide (CO), reactive aromatics (toluene and xylenes) sharply decreased (by 8–64%) in 2008, but no significant changes were observed for the concentrations of PM2.5, fine sulfate, total odd reactive nitrogen (NOy), and longer lived alkanes and benzene. We suggest that these results indicate the success of the government's efforts in reducing emissions of SO2, CO, and VOCs in Beijing, but increased regional emissions during 2005–2008. More stringent control of regional emissions will be needed for significant reductions of ozone and fine particulate pollution in Beijing.

Steel research int. 7/2010

steel research internationalVolume 81, Issue 7 Cover PictureFree Access steel research int. 7/2010 First published: 29 July 2010 https://doi.org/10.1002/srin.201090137AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract Cover Photo: Slender columns made of high strength steel support the roof of Berlin's renovated Olympic Stadium. Copy by courtesy of Stahl-Informations-Zentrum, Düsseldorf. Volume81, Issue7July 2010 RelatedInformation

The Impact of the London Olympics Announcement on Property Prices

This study estimates the impact of the London 2012 Olympics announcement on property prices. Using a self-constructed dataset of a sample of property transactions, it is estimated that properties in host boroughs are sold between 2.1 and 3.3 per cent higher, depending on the definition of the impact area. A similar investigation based on radius rings suggests that properties up to three miles away from the main Olympic stadium sell for 5 per cent higher. It is estimated that the overall impact on the price of properties in host boroughs amounts to £1.4 billion, having substantial social and financial implications for existing residents.

Possibilities of Chinese Professional Baseball: From an Investigation of the Spectators in Beijing Olympic Stadiums

Possibilities of Chinese Professional Baseball: From an Investigation of the Spectators in Beijing Olympic Stadiums

Music and Architecture: Architectural Projects, Texts, and Realizations (review)

Reviewed by: Music and Architecture: Architectural Projects, Texts, and Realizations Martin Iddon Music and Architecture: Architectural Projects, Texts, and Realizations. By Iannis Xenakis. Translated, compiled and edited by Sharon Kanach. (Iannis Xenakis Series, no. 1.) Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2008. [xxii, 337 p. ISBN 9781576471074. $48.] Illustrations, bibliography, index. As the ten-year anniversary of his death approaches, more than fifty years since the premieres of the pieces that brought him to international attention, Iannis Xenakis continues to cut an apparently paradoxical figure within the world of new music. On the one hand, though definitely (and sometimes defiantly) not of Darmstadt, Xenakis was resolutely of the European avant-garde, as musically and mathematically uncompromising as any of the scions of serialism. Yet, for whatever such a term may mean within the frame of “new music,” Xenakis’s music is, comparatively speaking, [End Page 308] popular. Perhaps Xenakis’s “outsider” quality—always seemingly more plausible in his case than in others, like Kagel or Ligeti, who took on a similar mantle—really does continue to play a part in his remarkable ability to transcend the sometimes violent infighting of the cultures of new music. For all this, in terms of the English-language discourse, Xenakis continues to seem curiously underrepresented. The present volume hardly fills all the gaps (nor is it intended to) but it does provide much new material that will be vital for future research. Particularly, it allows the non-French-reading scholar access to an aspect of Xenakis’s work that can hardly be regarded as anything other than central: his relationship with architecture and the ways in which architectural thinking permeate his compositional output. Even for those readers who have linguistic access to Xenakis’s own Musique, Architecture (Tournai: Casterman, 1971), or its translations into Japanese, Italian, or Catalan, the present volume brings the extant portion of Xenakis’s writing on the subject fully up to date. The volume is divided into four sections, dealing in turn with Xenakis’s tutelage in the Le Corbusier studio, his writings on architecture, projects undertaken as an independent architect following his acrimonious split from Le Corbusier, and his various Polytopes, which perhaps represent Xenakis’s most comprehensive and coherent synthesis of music and architecture. Each of the sections is made up, in the main, of Xenakis’s own writings, many of which are drawn from the previously unpublished documents held within the Iannis Xenakis Archive at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and, in the case of the first large section, from Paris’s Fondation Le Corbusier. Each section, too, contains insightful commentaries on and introductions to the various texts by Sharon Kanach, who translated and compiled the volume as a whole (and who is also the translator of Pendragon’s revised edition of Xenakis’s still-formidable Formalized Music). The first section, focussing on Xenakis’s time working in Le Corbusier’s architectural studio in Paris is, perhaps inevitably, the most biographically focused section, though it is also the most diverse. A wide variety of archival materials is presented, including Xenakis’s own explanation of Le Corbusier’s “Modulor” (and a separate document explaining its direct relationship to the composition of Metastaseis), Le Corbusier’s patent application for the “undulating glass panes” (which Xenakis devised, based againon the principle of theModulor), correspondence between Xenakis and Le Corbusier regarding the Olympic Stadium in Baghdad, Xenakis’s formulation of a “climactic grid” to permit “the enumeration, coordination and analysis of the climactic conditions of a place” (p. 25), and documents from the negotiations surrounding the construction of the convent at La Tourette, for which Xenakis was chief architect. The section as a whole is fulsomely illustrated with numerous pages of original texts, plans, sketches and photographs of the various buildings on which Xenakis worked. Inevitably, too, there is a wide range of documents detailing Xenakis’s precise involvement with the design of the Philips Pavilion. The juxtaposition, in the context of that project, of Xenakis’s furious letter to his mentor Hermann Scherchen, regarding Le Cor busier’s removal of his name from what he regarded (quite rightly, on the evidence presented here) as his project with contemporaneous documents by Xenakis...

The UltraS: An Emerging Social Movement?

In recent years, there has been a rise in the conflict between the Italian police forces and football fans. This situation is a result of the resurgence of the UltraS (the S capital is a neologism of this study to suggest neo-fascist oriented fans' and to differentiate them from the wider hardcore football supporters -ultra’). However, despite their popularity among the Italian curve (football terraces), the UltraS have been the subject of fairly little ethnographic research. This paper is the result of ethnographic research conducted continuously between 2003-2006 and updated from 2007 to the first part of 2009. The research sought to evaluate the UltraS phenomenon via an examination of the internal and external dynamics of two nationally well-known groups located in the Italian capital of Rome (the Italian centre of the political power). The groups are the Boys Roma and the Irriducibili of Lazio who enact their performances on their respective curve (football terraces) of the city’s Olympic stadium. The present paper argues that the ideological alliance between the UltraS of Lazio and Roma (followed as example by other UltraS groups throughout Italy) , the death of Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri in 2007 (and concomitant violent UltraS’ reaction against the police) together with the existence of the UltraS Italia (a national organisation which unites the main Italian Ultras groups) are all elements that signify the beginning of a common meaningful opposition to the perceived repressive Italian State. Most importantly these elements appears indicating the UltraS as an emerging social movement.

Structural vibration passive control and economic analysis of a high-rise building in Beijing

Performance analysis of the Pangu Plaza under earthquake and wind loads is described in this paper. The plaza is a 39-story steel high-rise building, 191 m high, located in Beijing close to the 2008 Olympic main stadium. It has both fluid viscous dampers (FVDs) and buckling restrained braces or unbonded brace (BRB or UBB) installed. A repeated iteration procedure in its design and analysis was adopted for optimization. Results from the seismic response analysis in the horizontal and vertical directions show that the FVDs are highly effective in reducing the response of both the main structure and the secondary system. A comparative analysis of structural seismic performance and economic impact was conducted using traditional methods, i.e., increased size of steel columns and beams and/or use of an increased number of seismic braces versus using FVD. Both the structural response and economic analysis show that using FVD to absorb seismic energy not only satisfies the Chinese seismic design code for a “rare” earthquake, but is also the most economical way to improve seismic performance both for one-time direct investment and long term maintenance.

Etiological analysis of enteric infectious diseases during Beijing Olympic Games

To understand pathogen patterns of enteric infectious diseases and its impact on this pattern due to aggregation of a great deal of foreign visitors during Beijing Olympic Games. The diarrheal patient's rectal swabs and stool specimens were collected from Olympic stadium and hospitals of four districts, including Dongcheng, Xicheng, Haidian and Chaoyang. Enteric multiple pathogens were detected from the total 45 specimens. The culture method was used for the enteric bacteria, ELISA and RT-PCR for the enteric viruses. Molecular typing of Salmonella Enteritidis isolation was completed by PFGE. It was found that 26 out of 45 cases were positive with 57.8 percent for pathogen detection, and 24 were identified as enteric pathogenic bacteria, including Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Salmonella, diarrheagenic Escherichia coli and Campylobacter jejuni, two as norovirus. There were mixed infections of two pathogenic bacteria for three cases. Ten kinds of pathogens were detected from foreign cases, while five kinds from Chinese cases. A total of 5 PFGE patterns were identified in 10 Salmonella Enteritidis isolates from national and foreign diarrheal cases, which were concentrative in some extent. Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Salmonella, diarrheagenic Escherichia coli and Campylobacter jejuni were found to be the primary bacterial pathogens during the Olympic Games. Enteric virus infection existed in summer diarrhea.

National and Post-national Dynamics in the Olympic Design: The Case of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games

Following Arjun Appadurai’s call, this paper will attempt to pinpoint the “crisis of the nation” as revealed in the representation of a “new Greece”2 at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Taking as a case study Santiago Calatrava’s design of the Athens Olympic Stadium (Figure 1) and its use during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, I will examine questions of selfhood, otherness, and national identity in contemporary Greece as a means of proposing that alternative types of allegiances must be envisaged. As has been the case with most modern Olympic Games, Athens 2004 was conceived as a national rather than a civic event. The redesign of national identity was a conscious goal of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games organizers, who saw the Olympics as an opportunity to brand the look of a “New Greece.” The aim of the organizers was to overhaul the country’s outdated image as a nation caught between a glorious antiquity and technological backwardness, as well as convince the international community of Greece’s modernity and Europeanization in both cultural and economic terms. The image of a “new Greece,” it was thought, would stimulate new foreign and domestic investments and increase the country’s prestige. Footnotes for this article begin on page 90.

From Windsor Castle to White City: The 1908 Olympic Marathon Route

In 1908, London hosted the fourth Olympic Games. A centrepiece of the Olympics, still in a nascent form after their creation in 1896, was the marathon, a foot-race of approximately 40 km. The race was run from Windsor Castle to the Olympic Stadium at Shepherd's Bush in July 1908, and quickly became famous for its controversies, such as the judges' assistance that helped Dorando Pietri over the line, and the questionable amateur status of Canadian runner Tom Longboat. This paper will concentrate on the route of the race: on how it was planned by the Polytechnic Harriers, how it was managed on the day, how it contributed to the development of 'marathon fever' after the Olympics, and what it tells us about the growing suburban landscape of Edwardian London and its hinterlands. The paper will end with a survey of the route today.

Olympics watch [structural engineering

The Olympic stadium is the focal point of any games. It is the place where, arguably, all the highest profile events take place, and where the world's top performers set about smashing the iconic records set by the legendary athletes of the past. The stadium is also the place that remains etched onto the memory long after the Olympic torch has passed on. Memories of 2012 will be of a stadium in London. The paper takes the readers on a tour of London's main stadium and points out the impressive engineering behind it.

Characterising the human-structure interaction effect of the Olympic Stadium in Cali, Colombia

This paper presents the results of analysing the human-structure interaction effect of the Olympic Stadium in Cali, Colombia. Acceleration in the southern and western grandstands due to ambient vibration, free vibration and forced vibration tests were measured during football matches and musical performances. The data was processed using the power spectrum and time-frequency distribution, thus characterising the crowd motion for each of these events. A laboratory setup consisting of a rigid single stand was tested for characterising the jumping and damping effect of a person with regard to their posture. The loads obtained from such characterisation were incorporated into a finite element model of the southern and western grandstands to calculate the structures’ structural response. A coupling effect was observed between the loads caused by the crowd and the corresponding structural response. An increase of up to 200% in the damping of the human-structure system was observed when the structure was fully occupied by a crowd. Colombian national building code provisions for the dynamic loading of structures due to crowds are discussed.

Bayer and AkzoNobel supply materials for Chinese Olympic stadium

Bayer and AkzoNobel supply materials for Chinese Olympic stadium

W4A 2008

The 5 th annual International Cross-disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A for short) took place alongside WWW 2008 in Beijing, in April 2008. The conference venue was Beijing's International Convention Centre, next door to the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium, and given the closeness of the conference - in location and timing - to the world's most famous sporting event, it was fitting that the conference theme looked at how accessibility can be addressed as Web user become more active, as content creators. Our theme was "One World, One Web: Surfers become Designers?

New York City politics: governing Gotham

A first-rate study of New York City's complex politics, with careful attention to interesting battles--such as the fight for an Olympic Stadium in Manhattan and the effort to redevelop Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn--and to important themes--such as the changing patterns of immigration and ethnic diversity and the conflicting interests among the city's many business organizations.-Jameson W. Doig, Princeton University This study is essential reading for students and scholars who want to understand New York City politics--its structure and decision-making process.-Jewel Bellush, professor emerita, Hunter College, CUNY Most experts consider economic development to be the dominant factor influencing urban politics. They point to the importance of the finance and real estate industries, the need to improve the tax base, and the push to create jobs. Bruce F. Berg maintains that there are three forces which are equally important in New York City politics: * Economic development. * The city's relationships with the state and the federal governments, which influence taxation, revenue, and public policy responsibilities. * New York City's racial and ethnic diversity, resulting in calls for representation, recognition, and equity in the delivery of services. Berg's focus is on all three forces, as well as the interplay among them. Along the way, Berg covers a range of topics, including the Dinkins, Giuliani, and Bloomberg administrations; the battles over sports arenas; party politics; rising immigrant groups and the role of their leaders; changes to the city's charter; and New York City politics in the post-9/11 era. An engaging look at the complex nature of urban politics, this book is the only one of its kind to offer a comprehensive narrative of the challenges, frustrations, and successes of New York's governing institutions, and their prospects for meeting the city's long-term needs. Bruce F. Berg chairs the political science department at Fordham University, where he is an associate professor.

Nonlinear F.E. analysis of Montreal Olympic Stadium roof under natural loading conditions

The roof over the Montreal Stadium is composed of a pre-tensioned membrane combined with an eccentric cable-stayed system, i.e. the structure is non-symmetric, which leads to a non-uniform structural response under variable static loads. The Montreal Stadium roof is modelled by finite element method as a three-dimensional structure, accounting for geometrically non linear behaviour. The paper begins by analyzing the free vibrations of the structure, then goes on to consider the static as well as the dynamic effects of wind and snow. The loads induced by wind are simulated as deformation-dependent forces, i.e. follower loads. These analyses enable the structural mechanisms that caused the failure of the roof membrane to be described and better understood. In particular, the paper deals with the first failure, which occurred in an apparently unexceptional condition of wind velocity.

Carrying the Torch

Over the centuries, the Olympic torch has come to symbolize much more than an athletic event. As the torch travels around the globe to the site of the next Olympic Games, it seems to embody the ideals and aspirations of an entire generation. Perhaps for this reason, the highest of expectations are placed on Olympic stadia, which are asked not only to host the games but somehow to embody their spirit. Carrying the torch this year is an iconic structure that boldly rises to those expectations: Beijing’s new National Stadium.