London Update -- Pins Sell Out; Olympic Village Shaping Up

3 Years to Go Pin Sells Out

The Three Year to Go pin issued July 27 for London 2012 is close to sold out, says an executive with Honav, pin licensee for LOCOG. Some 3,000 of the pins were made and sold at 20 retail outlets in the London area.

The pin sells for about $11.

The three-year pin is the 127th design created by Honav for London since the Beijing-based firm was awarded the license from LOCOG last year. The firm has established Honav U.K. since then to conduct its London operations, minutes away from LOCOG headquarters in Canary Wharf.

The next big countdown pin will be released at the end of October to mark 1000 days to the London Games.

Honav plans to release 2,012 different pin designs through the next three years, many of them limited to editions of 2,012.

In addition to retail pins, Honav also is working with sponsors to create pins for their Olympic programs. The company was one of four pin licensees for Beijing and created all of Coca-Cola's pins for the Olympic torch relay.

The company has just been given a license to make products for the Olympic Museum store in Lausanne as well as for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games and 2010 Asian Games

Honav grew out of a company that manufactured pins for Olympic licensees as far back as Atlanta, entering the licensee business with Beijing Games.

Honav's claim to fame may be the metallic replicas of the Bird’s Nest stadium which became popular high-end souvenirs. The models were cast with leftover steel from the stadium, as were other products made for Beijing by Honav. The company has a large supply of the steel, supposedly 450 tons of it, purchased as scrap from the stadium constructor. Plenty still remains, ATR is told.

Olympic Village Takes Shape

The Olympic Delivery Authority released images Tuesday showing construction progress on the $1.6 billion Olympic Village project.

Building work is now under way on all of the 11 residential plots each of which are roughly the same size as a football pitch.

Each residential plot is made up of six to eight buildings built in a rectangular layout around a courtyard area.

Work started on the site adjacent to the Olympic Park in east London last summer.

There are more than 1,000 workers on site at present, which is set to rise to 3,500 at the peak of construction.

The Olympic Village will accommodate 15,000 athletes and officials in 2,800 flats during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Post-2012, it will leave a legacy of new homes and family housing, together with new parklands, courtyards and open space and a mix of education and community facilities.

Australian company Lend Lease is the development and construction manager for the athletes' village.

Cross Country Course Builders Named

LOCOG has appointed the team to build the cross country course for the 2012 Olympic equestrian eventing competition at Greenwich Park.

London Eventing is a consortium made up of U.K. horse trials course builders Jonathan Clissold, Adrian Ditcham, Andrew Hunter and Scott Brickell, who between them have developed cross country tracks at many British Eventing one day events and some international events.

They will support LOCOG's equestrian manager Tim Hadaway and course designer Sue Benson by developing plans for and building the cross country courses for the test event in 2011 and the Olympic Games in 2012.

"This is a stunning venue and we can’t wait to develop a course that will showcase Greenwich and its unique heritage," said Clissold, project manager for London Eventing. "Our team has a lot of experience of developing courses in historic Parks including Burghley and Windsor Park and we will be looking to this as we work in this beautiful environment."

Beijing Olympic Accommodation Recycled for 2012 Games

Temporary accommodation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be shipped to London and recycled for the 2012 Games, according to the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission.

BSTC will work on the project with De Boer Group, a provider of temporary accommodation, to reuse accommodation facilities at the Olympics, the Beijing Daily reported. Temporary facilities at the 2008 Games were an essential part of the security infrastructure, broadcast facilities and competition venues.

Beijing Urban Construction Group, which reportedly has 120,000 square meters of temporary accommodation, 80,000 seats and 240 km of security railings used in the 2008 Games, is said to have inked an agreement with De Boer to offer the facilities to the London Olympic village as part of BSTC's recycling program.

With reporting from Ed Hula and Mark Bisson