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Atlanta's cauldron draws little respect - and the others?


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Atlanta Games’ caldron draws little attention

By Jill Vejnoska

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Nearly every family has one: The eccentric old relative stashed away in a corner. The person everyone tends to ignore and conveniently forget about.

Atlanta, meet yours: The 1996 Olympic caldron.

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They should dismantle it, trash the iron structure and keep only the upper part, the cauldron itself and put in a public part where it could be easiliest accessible...

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Take away the steel part and move the actual cauldron to Centennial Park with the rest of the Olympic themed stuff, then they can light it and draw more tourists

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It's just horrid - you have the magic of Mohammed Ali and then if the cauldron wasn't ugly enough already, they stick it on some scaffolding - although Vancouver has given it a run for it's money in terms of ugliness.

A nice whistlestop tour here of all the Summer Olympic cauldrons:

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It's just horrid - you have the magic of Mohammed Ali and then if the cauldron wasn't ugly enough already, they stick it on some scaffolding - although Vancouver has given it a run for it's money in terms of ugliness.

If you visit Atlanta's site at night, you'll be spared seeing that base; and barely the cauldron. Or they should just dump it on Ginger Watkins's backyard (She was the ACOG woman who chose that dumb Siah Armajani as the designer.)

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I enjoyed the '96 Games as the first I remember watching, and will defend them and indeed the stadium concept. But the cauldron I'm afraid I only love for its symbolism and for seeing Mohammed Ali lighting it.

That said, this was and is a symbol of when this city was very briefly the centre of the World. It would be nice if it was brought to life - either completely or like Sydney's, partially in a different guise - rather than languishing doing nothing.

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I never really liked the Atlanta 1996 Cauldron.

What it should have been was the same top, perhaps with the Olympic rings in gold on the base (or perhaps the leaves pattern used in the game's look), with that ghastly supporting structure (yes I am aware it was intended to have someone climb up, but was changed to Ali in the last minute), not looking like sloppy scaffolding. I would have made it an elegant looking Greek style column, with a spiral staircase (with leveled "break" platforms on the way).

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I never really liked the Atlanta 1996 Cauldron.

What it should have been was the same top, perhaps with the Olympic rings in gold on the base (or perhaps the leaves pattern used in the game's look), with that ghastly supporting structure (yes I am aware it was intended to have someone climb up, but was changed to Ali in the last minute), not looking like sloppy scaffolding. I would have made it an elegant looking Greek style column, with a spiral staircase (with leveled "break" platforms on the way).

perhaps they can move it the olympic park and remake the pedestal of the cauldron to resemble the emblem of the games?

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It's just horrid - you have the magic of Mohammed Ali and then if the cauldron wasn't ugly enough already, they stick it on some scaffolding - although Vancouver has given it a run for it's money in terms of ugliness.

A nice whistlestop tour here of all the Summer Olympic cauldrons:

Uh Atlanta is the ugliest hands down IMO. I actually kinda liked Vancouvers cauldron :D

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I actually don't mind the cauldron itself, not so much the support tower obviously. I think the problem was the burning system on the cauldron wasn't overly flattering to it. As soon as it was lit, it was almost just a string of small flames, didn't have the powerful firey look that it should have had. It also looked quite *dirty* very quickly , the soot showed.

But aside from all of that, I kinda liked the different shape - just should have been executed far better.

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I actually don't mind the cauldron itself, not so much the support tower obviously. I think the problem was the burning system on the cauldron wasn't overly flattering to it. As soon as it was lit, it was almost just a string of small flames, didn't have the powerful firey look that it should have had. It also looked quite *dirty* very quickly , the soot showed.

But aside from all of that, I kinda liked the different shape - just should have been executed far better.

I kinda liked the little baby flames -- somewhat different. The thing is it's a 1-dimensionally designed-cauldron. Pretty much just designed for the front...not an all-around look. Anyway, overall, it's a dumb cauldron (design) picked by that ACOG woman who thought she knew it all. She think she be all dat!!

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Actually, I think the design would work much better if the scaffolding didn't looked so large under the cauldron itself. Maybe if the burning thing were bigger, the scaffolding would look somewhat like a column holding the cauldron... It was too little and out of proportion. Besides that, nothing wrong with Atlanta's Fries Box.

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Actually, I think the design would work much better if the scaffolding didn't looked so large under the cauldron itself. Maybe if the burning thing were bigger, the scaffolding would look somewhat like a column holding the cauldron... It was too little and out of proportion. Besides that, nothing wrong with Atlanta's Fries Box.

With the bridge, it didn't look too bad; but minus the bridge, it looked worse. Really a poorly thought-out design.

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<_< Hated the tower structure, looks so temporary...a classic example of a design committee. The Cauldron its'self is pretty cool Americana, at least save that and bring it down to ground level. It would be appreciated more.
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At least the Atlanta cauldron was good enough to inspire the Beijing organisers (at least a bit) for their own cauldron. ;)

That said, I think the scroll shape and especially the shape of the flame were much better executed in Beijing than in Atlanta.

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Speaking of Atlanta, here's a National Public Radio article I came across:

The Economic Legacy Of Atlanta's Olympic Games

Posted: August 4, 2011

Fifteen years after the games, the city still benefits from revitalization efforts downtown, like the Centennial Olympic Park with its popular fountain. But overbuilding has contributed to a declining housing market — and many poor communities never got the economic boost they hoped for.

Bringing the 1996 Summer Olympic Games to Atlanta was a long shot. Athens, Greece was the sentimental favorite to host the centennial games, and tension was palpable as IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch made the announcement back on September 18, 1990.

"The International Olympic Committee has awarded the 1996 Olympic Games to the city of ... Atlanta," Samaranch revealed.

That announcement launched more than $1 billion of construction projects, from Olympic venues to housing for the athletes. Now, on the 15th anniversary of the games, Atlanta sees both gains and losses from the international event.

One of the most prominent legacies of the games is Centennial Olympic Park in the heart of Atlanta. The 21-acre plaza glistens in what was an area of urban decay, and children run and linger in the fountain.

Harvey Newman, a professor of public policy at Georgia State University, says the park brought economic development downtown.

"The area surrounding the park has added major hotels, condominiums, new office structures and, of course, people continue to flock to enjoy the Olympic rings fountain," Newman says.

The park is part of the Olympics' $5 billion economic impact on the city. The games also planted the seeds for new tourist attractions, including the Georgia Aquarium.

A couple of miles north is what once was the Olympic Village, where 10,000 athletes ate and slept. The buildings have been turned into dorms for two universities. Newman says the games brought housing and infrastructure projects that would not have happened as quickly — or perhaps at all.

"It certainly put Atlanta on the map as a place to be taken seriously among cities throughout the world," he says.

Economic Transformation

The Olympics is at least partly responsible for a huge population increase, from 3.5 million people in 1996 to nearly 5.5 million in the metro area today. But that spectacular growth also has had a down side: increased traffic and a declining housing market.

Property values are way down and hundreds of condos, apartments and lofts that were built are for sale or vacant. But experts say that's because of the larger recession, not a post-Olympic crash.

"People had very unrealistic expectations of what the Olympics could do," says Ken Bernhardt, a marketing professor at Georgia State University. He says it was not practical to count on a long term economic boost.

"The impact was big," Bernhardt says. "It was short term with some infrastructure improvements and cleaning up downtown. What reason would anybody have to expect that that expenditure would have a big impact 15 years later?"

Atlanta's unemployment rate is 10.5 percent — much higher than the national average, and a recent study says the region has lost more than 200,000 jobs since 2007. So while an economic transformation is evident in parts of the city, many poor communities were overlooked, says Michael Leo Owens, a political science professor at Emory University.

"We still have tremendous unemployment, and so it's one of the reasons why people have used the phrase that Atlanta is a paradox," Owens says.

Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

http://www.ideastream.org/news/npr/138926167

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The Atlanta cauldron was kind of like the Tokyo 1964 cauldron melded with the Beijing 2008 cauldron. Like many other posters, I didn't mind the cauldron's scroll-like red part, although I didn't care for the mini-flames around the edge. Would have preferred a single plume shaped flame burning from the center. But that scaffolding? YIKES. Fifteen years later and I still wonder what they were thinking!

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The scaffolding is horrid, the Cauldron is only ok. What it should have been is my proposal, or at the very least, since Ali was chosen in the last moment, a huge banner with either the logo or the look of the Atlanta Games draped over all sides of the scaffolding.

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You mean Turner Field. Atlanta Olympic Stadium doesn't exist anymore. ;)

Really, couldn't it just be a simple piece of public art down in some corner at Centennial Olympic Park? And then recycle the metal in the dismantled tower. :)

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Well, sort of. The stadium was downsized into Turner Field. You can see the shape of the ballpark stands in the original Olympic configuration.

I agree with the majority here: the cauldron design is different, but the metal support is... not so good. I would favor moving the cauldron to either Olympic Park or the Congress Center.

And come on, it is NOT the ugliest Cauldron of all time. That prize has to go to Athens. I mean, was it a message for the legalization of Mary Jane or a symbol for male impotence?

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