Vanoc Insider

[pedablogue]

No, but all-staff meetings tend to be more value-added. Guest speakers etc. And nothing over email either.

Has your staff had meetings yet about this issue?:

from vancouversun.com

Indoor Olympic flame poses problem for organizers

Miro Cernetig

Vancouver Sun

Monday, January 28, 2008

Lausanne, we may have a problem.

We all know the global epicentre for the Winter Olympics in 2010 is going to be BC Place, our mushroom in bondage.

All the medal ceremonies and flag raisings will unfold inside our domed stadium. The world's TV cameras will be beaming images of those gold, silver and bronze medals glinting under the Olympic flame, safely out of the winter rains.

But here's the dilemma the International Olympic Committee brain trust, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, is now facing. Exactly how do you fire up the Olympics' perpetual flame -- the main cauldron cannot be extinguished for 17 days -- inside a covered stadium?

If Mr. Wizard was giving you an analogous science experiment to try at home, he might say it's a bit like sparking up a very big candle inside your family's tent. It wouldn't seem much at first, but if you do it for 17 days non-stop, better bring lots of antiperspirant -- and a gas mask. It's going to get hot and smelly in there.

This gives rise to a dilemma for the IOC -- which likes to have its iconic flame near the globally televised medal ceremonies -- and the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee.

The committee aims to have the most memorable flame-lighting ceremony of any previous Winter Games.

Never before has anyone tried to put the torch inside an enclosed building for the duration of the Games. It's an Olympic first. But it's also going to be an Olympian exercise in air conditioning.

To give Olympic organizers a helping hand, I called one of the top experts in the field, to see if it can be done. His name is Sam Shelton, a mechanical engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who helped design the cauldron in Atlanta, the one that was lit by Muhammad Ali.

"You want to put the flame inside? That's a first," he said, when reached at his office. Then he laughed. Then he said, "You'd have a fair bit of heat and you'd have to deal with the air quality. But I guess it can be done. But it will be expensive."

Then he laughed again.

What would probably be needed, it turns out, would be a mega-ventilation system, one that might be especially designed to sit just below the Olympic flame, to suck out the heat and any contaminants the flame might cause. It wouldn't be unlike one of the negative pressure fans on those fancy new stoves that suck the air downward and out of the house.

Of course, that gives rise to another problem in a covered stadium, where the roof is held up by pumping in massive amounts of air. Any sudden change of pressure and the roof could go saggy, or even collapse. Not something you want when the world is watching.

Still, with the proper engineering -- and enough money -- the quandary can be solved.

But there's another notion being floated, too, it turns out, that would be much more expensive. Why not put a retractable roof on BC Place, maybe in time for 2010?

This idea is now being blue-skied at high levels of the provincial government. It's being kept top secret for obvious reasons: After the retractable-roof debacle at the Montreal Olympics, and the cost overruns at Toronto's Skydome, stadium roofs are a tricky business to sell to Canadian taxpayers

But a retractable roof at BC Place is being considered as part of the plan to revamp the stadium and keep it around for at least another 30 years. The taxpayer wouldn't likely be on the hook, either, since a development plan for BC Place unveiled last week would give developers a chance to build highrise towers around the stadium in exchange for revamping the inside of BC Place and replacing its aging roof.

A retractable roof is an idea that sits well with Olympic officials, now worried about the torch. It would solve all the engineering problems associated with putting the Olympic flame inside for the duration of the Games. An open roof could also make for a better show, opening up more possibilities for pyrotechnics and fireworks exploding out of BC Place. As well, it guarantees the stadium would be cool enough during the Games so that the world wouldn't see Vancouverites watching the Olympics opening ceremonies in their T-shirts, as if they were holding a Summer Olympics.

A retractable roof for BC Place would be a pretty good legacy for Vancouverites, too.

Permanently enclosed stadiums are pretty well passe, a failed experiment from another age. Transforming BC Place into a modern, retractable-roof stadium would add utility and value to this public asset -- and avoid the tens of millions of dollars it would cost to tear it down. Opening up the stadium to the possibility of sunshine also means a chance at hosting a baseball franchise and perhaps even offering a new home for professional soccer.

But there's another problem here: Time.

The clock is ticking down fast on the arrival of the Games, which begin here Feb. 12, 2010.

Can a retractable roof be built on such a tight timeline?

Or is this a good idea that came too late and will need to be delayed until after the Olympic cauldron is extinguished and moves on?

Nothing, after all, would be worse for Vancouver, and Canada, than demonstrating to the world we're a nation that can't finish a roof on time.

mcernetig@png.canwest.com

[Orangevest]

Post a picture of the photocopier on the 2nd floor, you can take a picture with your cellphone w/o anyone noticing.

My friend installed it and can confrim it it's legit.

[baron-pierreIV]

Post a picture of the photocopier on the 2nd floor, you can take a picture with your cellphone w/o anyone noticing.

My friend installed it and can confrim it it's legit.

He'll probably say, oh, it's in the red zone; and "I don't have security clearance for the red zone."

[pedablogue]

LOL. No, I would not ever say that.

But I also am not naive. Walking up to a photocopier and taking its photo? Especially since I don't work on that floor?  That's a little too high profile.

Besides, unless the third floor is different, mostly we got Ricoh printers. There's one colour in each area; the rest are black and white.

Is it Regina or Whitehorse? Because all printers are named (on the network) after major Canadian cities and towns. Ask your friend that (not you baron, the other person)

He'll probably say, oh, it's in the red zone; and "I don't have security clearance for the red zone."

[Jamie25]

The building you're in used to house what company?...

[Hobart]

You mentined that there are "gamers" working there that just move onto the next Olympics so is this the 1st games you have worked at?

[Orangevest]

The copiers are not on the network, nice try. In fact there isn't even a copier on the 2nd floor at all.

Here's an easy on for you. Which company supplies the photocopier and printer paper?

If that one is too tough, how many levels of underground parking are there?

[Kenadian]

Are you from Vancouver or an transplant from another city?

Edited May 8, 2008 by Kendegra

[pedablogue]

Dunno. But I was told the City of Van bought it and rents it to VANOC at a special rate, since they are a partner.  There is/was an architectural company on one floor. Otherwise its all VANOC

The building you're in used to house what company?...

[pedablogue]

Yes. I'm a local

You mentined that there are "gamers" working there that just move onto the next Olympics so is this the 1st games you have worked at?

[pedablogue]

Hahahahaha

All the "copiers" as you call them, are mutlifunctional. Well, all the ones I have seen/used. They are printers, photocopiers, scanners and fax machines.

Nice try yourself

Ricoh. But I'm sure you'll tell me there's a Xerox in the men's washroom under the parking garage behind hte low rise. 

And I think it's 5 levels. By the time I started there were no more underground spots available. Now people get spots at the Sikh temple and shuttle (or walk) to campus.

The copiers are not on the network, nice try. In fact there isn't even a copier on the 2nd floor at all.

Here's an easy on for you. Which company supplies the photocopier and printer paper?

If that one is too tough, how many levels of underground parking are there?

[pedablogue]

Vancouver. See above.

Are you from Vancouver or an transplant from another city?

[Kenadian]

Glenayre Technologies had the space before. They are no longer around - dissolved quite a few years ago. The building was vacant when VANOC took up the lease in 2005 and moved in 2006 after the Torino Games.

[baron-pierreIV]

2 final questions to decide pedalblogue's authenticity:

- where's David Atkins billeted in Vancouver for this time?

- what did John Furlong have for lunch yesterday?

[pedablogue]

Youth Hostel on Thurlow

Lemon curry

2 final questions to decide pedalblogue's authenticity:

- where's David Atkins billeted in Vancouver for this time?

- what did John Furlong have for lunch yesterday?

[baron-pierreIV]

Lemon curry

I have it on the best authority that he had ginger chicken that day.

[Hobart]

Any chance our insider has been found out? He has asked the GB Mod how to delete his account

[baron-pierreIV]

Any chance our insider has been found out? He has asked the GB Mod how to delete his account

Was it 'zenica' or 'james'?

[Techno Dragon]

Oh there are definite insiders on these forums - my sig is linked to my site so I get a nice list of visiting IP's, and the amount that are traced back to the BC Government is amazing.