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And this was also one of the lessons we got from Sydney. I first went to
Sydney back in November 1999, if I am not mistaken. I was told that they were
using a number of existing buildings, doing renovations, instead of constructing
new ones. And the example is this one. This is the existing hangar for the
maintenance of the aeroplanes. I mean, when an aeroplane needs to be maintained
or needs to be repaired, that is where it gets into. This building was
under repair. We will use this specific one - and this is the architectural design -
to be converted into a venue of 15,000 spectators to be used for basketball and for
the finals of handball. And, after the Games, it will stay there as an athletic venue
for the local municipalities. This reduced the cost of the constructions significantly
and also helped us to upgrade an existing building.
Now, this is the general view of the area of Agios Kosmas, which is the place
where we are going to have the Olympic Sailing Centre. For your help, this area,
which is not shown in the aerial photograph, is the airport, the old airport that
I have just shown you. So, these are close, very close to each other. And this is
the plan for the Games. This is going to be a modern marina, a modern port,
which is going to be used after the Games for private uses this time, so as to
collect some money to be able to support the maintenance of other areas of
public character. This will be used for private boats and private yachts. And this
is going to be another coastal part, next to the sea - the length from here to here
is 100 metres. So, this is again an intervention, which will be very important for
the city of Athens.
Another important issue is how to upgrade, through the Games, a number
of degraded areas. This is the area of Schinias in Marathon where the rowing
facilities are to be constructed. This is an image of the area. This is a "wetland,"
I mean, by terminology only. If you go there, you will see that this in not a
wetland any more. It has been very much degraded. It does not resemble what
a wetland should look like. And this is an airport in the wetland, which was
operating in the area for 30 years. So, we took the decision to remove the airport
completely from the area, and the airport has now been demolished. It does not
exist any more. It has been destroyed. And to develop at the very site, at the
exact spot of the airport, a big venue. And this is the rowing facility, exactly as
the canal, which has a length of 2.2 km, was the runway of the airport. So, we
removed the airport and at the same time, we are creating an artificial canal, an
artificial lake, in the wetland, and that is going to be the rowing facility. We have
been facing a lot of objections for that from the public and from some nongovernmental,
environmental organisations, because we have been accused that
this is going to distract the natural environment and it will be causing a lot of
burden and danger to the birds and the natural landscape. I believe that this is
not correct. I believe that we are taking a decision which will finally revive the
wetland, and as a matter of fact, what we did is that we replaced an airport,
which is polluting with respect to air emissions and with respect to noise, and we
placed at the same site an artificial canal, an artificial lake. So, I think that we are
in a positive direction, and it is a matter of times this to be proven in practice.
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