Sochi 2014 - Venues Updates Gallery

[yoshi 352]

It certainly looks like A cauldron, but there'll surely be another one, as it doesn't look from that pic like you can see the it through the open end of the stadium. I can't think of anything else it could be.

[runningrings 678]

Does it circle the pool at the centre of all the venues of the park. Early concepts showed an observation wheel there or something that never materialized. Is this the earliest cauldron leak ever!

Technically no - I think most (if not all?) pre 2000 cauldrons were revealed in the weeks and months leading up to the Games with little or no fanfare- often just as an expected architectural element of the stadium, permanent or not.

I believe Sydney was the first to really make a big secret out of it - and as for the Winter Olympics, only Vancouver has had a secret cauldron - SLC and Turin were more or less similar to what Sochi is doing. It's actually quite a lot like Athens.

[yoshi 352]

New pick of the thing, from the darkside (SSC)

The result of a one-night stand between a giraffe & a ski-jump

[ofan 696]

Looks an awful lot like the Montreal Olympic stadium cauldron

I mean tower not cauldron

[cslopes54 36]

It's an alien penis

[runningrings 678]

It's an alien penis

Or a butt-plug.

This is what happens when Russians suppress their inner homo. They know they want it.

[intoronto 650]

ATR reports that the Stadium will not be ready before the end of the year

[ofan 696]

ATR reports that the Stadium will not be ready before the end of the year

Doesn't surprise me one bit tbh.

[baron-pierreIV 1693]

ATR reports that the Stadium will not be ready before the end of the year

Well, the teams wouldn't really assemble there from Moscow and the other 3 cities until after New Year anyway. So they'll have a month to bring it all together. And there'll be enuf time for the Closing & the Paras too.

[Rob. 2040]

ATR reports that the Stadium will not be ready before the end of the year

We all said the stadium was behind schedule, you only needed to look at the photos.

[Rob. 2040]

With 4 Months Left, Main Sochi Stadium a 'Disaster'

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/olympic_coverage/article/with-4-months-left-main-sochi-stadium-a-disaster/487702.html

Lots of stuff in this article but I've copied the salient points which relate to the deadline for the project....basically contractors have been holding up the project to get more money from the government, and it's likely they'll only have five weeks to install the equipment for the ceremonies as the completion deadline has slipped....do-able but very tight...

It is the only major Olympic facility still under construction.

"They have not even started to paint the walls inside or lay floors on the concrete staircases," said Alexander Valov, editor of local news website Blogsochi.ru.

....

Started in 2009, Fisht was supposed to be finished by this summer to give ceremony planners, led by powerful Channel One television head Konstantin Ernst, ample time to rehearse. But the completion date has now been pushed back to the end of the year due to safety-driven alterations in the design and a desire to produce an exceptional opening show Feb. 7.

That leaves organizers little more than a month to conduct rehearsals and install equipment for the extravagant program.

The stadium's building contractors also face blame for the delays, with a government agency last year accusing them of intentionally impeding progress to create leverage in negotiating prices for their work.

.....

By requesting changes to the stadium, the organizers of the opening ceremonies may have inadvertently assisted the venue's contractors in extracting more money for the project.

Last year, the Audit Chamber said it suspected that construction was being held up by the builders to drive up costs.

"The contractors are deliberately procrastinating in order to create a situation in which the government will have to finish the project at any cost," auditor Alexander Piskunov said in a letter to the government, according to an Izvestia report in August 2012.

These delays brought with them significant risks, Piskunov said.

"In August 2013, the stadium must be ready for test events and ceremony rehearsals. However, those involved in the project are not confident that the leadership has a firm determination to finish the work within the set deadline," he said.

.......

A Sochi 2014 representative said the stadium's projected completion date was now the end of 2013, although Dzhus gave a more optimistic estimate, saying the current plan was to finish it by the end of November.

That leaves artists and technical staff as little as five weeks to prepare the premises for the ceremonies, which is less than the typical amount of time compared to recent Olympic Games. The stadium built for the 2012 Summer Games in London held its first public event in March 2012, six months before the opening ceremonies. And while the National Stadium in Beijing, better known as the Bird's Nest, was officially opened in June 2008, just a few months before the Summer Games, all structural work was completed by the beginning of that year.

Dzhus defended the late completion date, emphasizing that Fisht was a special case because no sporting events will take place there. "Fisht Stadium is a venue that will only host the opening and closing ceremonies, and as such could be finished later," he said.

......

The source, who has been involved in planning the opening ceremonies, pinned the blame for the delays squarely on Olimpstroi, noting that the state corporation has gone through four chief executives since being founded in 2007. These changes of leadership have made it nearly impossible for the company to maintain control over the dozens of contractors working on the stadium, the source said.

With less than four months left before the opening ceremonies, it seems that the builders are finally making a push to finish the venue — but they are not displaying much confidence that they will succeed.

"Before, I used to see only a few dozen workers there, but now there are a few hundred," said Valov, the editor of Blogsochi.ru, speaking after a recent visit to the construction site.

"I saw Olimpstroi president Sergei Gaplikov running around the stadium, looking perplexed and anxious," Valov said. "He even asked me to delete all the pictures of the stadium that I had made, but I told him he had no right to force me to do that."

[Ikarus360 602]

Russian bureaucracy and corruption at it's best. It was very obvious since a couple of months ago the Olympic Stadium was having lots of problems. At this rate we'll probably have cranes as part of the show.

Hey, it happened once already *stares at Montreal*

[yoshi 352]

Geez, they're turning into India

[Rob. 2040]

India was such an unmitigated disaster in the final few months - that's a bit unfair on Sochi!

This feels more like Athens to me. Who else remembers the 50 page thread we had for Athens' stadium roof being moved into place? Slightly different pictures from the same low-res webcam being posted every few hours?

"Ooh, I think it's moved?!"

[yoshi 352]

I was thinking more of the corruption in the building & the lead-in, the actual progress is a contrast to London, I don't really remember the build-up to Athens.

[baron-pierreIV 1693]

It's the Russian branch of the USA Tea-partyers. Holding the Olympics hostage and threatening it with a shutdown just so they can shake more rubles from Vlady baby and his rich friends.

[world atlas 72]

Unfortunately no much updates from Olympstroy since August

Sochi Olympic Park - October 2013

[yoshi 352]

Nothing since August?? Might that suggest an opening ceremony spread all over the park?

[yoshi 352]

Got this pic from SSC, it shows the stage & the bizarre roof well:

There's loads more stadium pics in here:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=430690&page=24

[angiodan 0]

So much for the "Zero Waste".

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131029/DA9NV8Q02.html

[world atlas 72]

November 2013

Olympic Park Railway Station

[world atlas 72]

The Olympic Park

[world atlas 72]

[world atlas 72]

Fisht Olympic Stadium

[flamey 0]

This guy has many recent photos of venues in coastal cluster, and of Adler as well.