By transforming a 250-hectare blot on London’s landscape into a permanent sports village, after a fortnight for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games, the shapers of the $11.5-billion park hope to leave a green mixed-use development that lives on well into the future. Furthermore, with the 75%-complete project on schedule and very close to its 2007 budget, they are touting the success of a collaborative contractual model that relies heavily on project management and involves sharing risk and reward among the main building team members.

“For us, planning the Olympic Park was about legacy first,” says Dan Epstein, who heads the sustainability and environment team at the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the local and central government agency in charge of construction. “It wasn’t about creating a big event for about three weeks and having a huge hangover at the end of it,” he says.