A couple years back while visiting Greece, I took a trip out to visit the site of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Athens is filled with fascinating ancient ruins, and the once-incredible Olympic complex (only 8 years old) has become a modern ruin in the historic city.
The sprawling site is scattered with a series of stadiums and structures designed by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava. Painted in Calatrava’s signature white, the dynamic structures gleam under the brilliant Athenian sun. The massive complex designed for expansive crowds is surreally devoid of any activity and completely abandoned. Visiting the site feels like stumbling upon the ruins of a lost civilisation; buildings run down and graffiti laden, fringes overgrown with arid vegetation, littered and vacant.
The Olympic Games have recently come under scrutiny as unsustainable, and as wasteful exercises that fail to provide the post-games economic gains that are often promised. The 2004 Athens Olympic site seems to be physical evidence of this. Calatrava’s exuberant and extravagant structures are a sight to behold as are all of his works. But are they worth the $11 billion price tag that is alleged to have played a part in the Greek financial crisis?
Images by Jonathan Choe
