Olympic planners in Boston unveiled a blueprint, known as version 2.0, to create two new Boston neighborhoods, billions in private development and an extension of the Emerald Necklace as part of its bid for the 2024 Olympic games. The bid extends beyond the Olympics and has been recast as a city development proposal.
The bid includes development of 8,000 units of housing among 12 million square feet of new, permanent development at Widett Circle and Columbia Point, new hotels, neighborhood amenities, and a city park where a temporary Olympic stadium would be should Boson host the 2024 Summer Games.
The plan includes investment in transportation projects such as improving the MBTA, replacing the Kosciusko traffic circle, creating a new Broadway T station entrance and rehabbing the JFK transit station.
The new plan builds in a 5 percent contingency into the construction costs of each venue and will require developers to insure their performance and guard against cost overruns.
The plan for the Olympic stadium and athlete's village call for an 83-acre Widette site to be redeveloped into a mixed-use, transit-oriented neighborhood with 18 blocks of new construction modeled after the Hudson Yards project currently under construction over the rail lines of New York City.
A temporary stadium planned for the southern end of the property would be removed and recycled after the Olympics. The stadium's footprint would be converted into a permanent park with building developed around it.
The athlete's village would be converted after the games to 2,700 new student beds for UMass Boston and 3,000 units of housing as well as shops, restaurants and community spaces across a new 30-acre waterfront neighborhood.
(more on Boston's plans for its Olympics bid and economic redevelopment...)
