Will Boston be ready for a possible Olympics in 2024? Private investors are not the only group with hopes of bringing the games to the city.
The students of NuVu Studio recently devised a proposal for the 2024 Olympic Organizing Committee. A modern learning center in Cambridge, Nuvu offers themed, project-based programs for teens without the boundaries of a typical classroom space and grade-based evaluations. NuVu defines the purpose of the studio as a way to “teach students how to navigate the messiness of the creative process, from inception to completion.”
The presentation, which can be found on NuVu’s website, includes cleaning up the Charles to make the Esplanade a more attractive beach, increasing the city’s public art, and adding a track to the silver line. The students not only want make better use of these public spaces, they want to make Boston more fun.
What’s most impressive about NuVu’s plan is its imaginative effort in designing a more artistic and internationally friendly Boston. One slide presents a subway station decorated like a Parisian cafe, perhaps to reflect openness to a global atmosphere required for the Olympic setting.
Other fun ideas include beanbags in Harvard Stadium and modern-looking electric rickshaws constructed from retired motorcycles.
In regard to security issues, the presentation devises policies based on the previous Olympic missteps, including the low-level security of Munich and the intensity of Sidney, and shows how Boston can avoid them.
With concerns regarding transportation, housing, and security, the ultimate process to prepare the city would be an ambitious challenge. Boston’s Mayor, Martin J. Walsh, who previously seemed cautious to the idea, in a recent Boston Globe article expressed the possibility as “a tremendous opportunity for the city of Boston in so many different ways.”
Hosting the Olympics would be the city’s chance to drastically improve Boston’s infrastructure. Just one issue on the list of hurtles is a badly needed upgrade in the transit system in terms of efficiency and capacity.
The public will hear in the next few months the venues under consideration from the private decision committee, indicating a serious optimism from investors who will take most of the financial responsibility for the project.
The students clearly want to make Boston more hip, while taking the opportunity to improve infrastructure in the long-term. Their plan has the creative inspiration to do so, Olympics or no.
– Adriana Hammond