London's £500 million Olympic Stadium will have a glossy makeover for next year's Games with the steel girders and grey concrete that form its exterior being covered by a decorative wrap.
Chemical giant Dow, the newest worldwide partner of the International Olympic Committee, will foot the bill for temporary fabric wrap which will consist of 336 individual 25-metre high vertical panels.
The sleek 80,000-seat bowl-like stadium, completed in May, was originally designed to be covered by a wrap but the plan was ditched last October to save around £7m from the project unless a private partner could be found.
Dow would be allowed to advertise on the wrap until a month before the Games, after which, all venues must be clean, organisers said.
"Having the wrap is the icing on the cake," London Organising Committee chairman Sebastian Coe said in a statement. "The stadium will look spectacular at Games time."
In an image released by LOCOG, the wrap resembles a series of white vertical blinds. A spokesman said exactly how they would be decorated was still being discussed.
However, after criticism in some quarters that the stadium looked rather stark compared to the eye-catching Bird's Nest in Beijing, the wrap will allow coloured lights and images to illuminate the structure which has now become a landmark on the East London skyline.
In line with London's emphasis on providing a 'green' Games, organisers said Dow's Performance Plastics Division were working on resins that would make the wrap 35 percent lighter than using conventional materials.
The wrap would also include post-industrial recycled material and environmentally friendly inks.
Vice-president of Dow Olympic Operations, George Hamilton, said the company was investigating "several options" for the post-Games use of the wrap which will adorn the stadium by early 2012.
London celebrated the year-to-go milestone last week with the official opening of the Aquatics Centre - the last of the five permanent Games venues in the park to be completed.
Organisers are now in the middle of a series of test events although the stadium, which is yet to have the track installed, will not see its first action until next May with the British Universities and College Sport Championships.also
London 2012 - London to have 27,000 security officials
Some 27,000 police and security guards will be on duty to protect the Olympic Games in London, officials said on Monday as the operation to try to ensure next year's event passes off smoothly gets under way in earnest.
Police estimate they will have some 12,000 officers on duty for the 2012 Games while the London organising committee (LOCOG) estimates it will have between 10,000 and 15,000 private security guards.
The Games are expected to be Britain's biggest peacetime security operation and the police's National Olympic Security Coordinator Chris Allison said it would place demands on forces across the country as they dealt with cuts to their budgets.
He admitted there was concern about whether the nationwide spending reductions for police would leave the Olympic team short of certain expert officers, such as firearms units and close protection teams needed to guard dignitaries.
"At the moment we can provide them. At the moment, we are satisfied there are those skills up and down the country," he said.
"I've spoken to all chief constables and asked them to consider whenever they're considering reducing specialists, can they delay any reductions until after the Games."
Last month Britain lowered its international terrorism threat level, but the Games will continue to be policed on the assumption it would be at the second highest grade "severe", meaning a militant attack was considered highly likely.
Allison said the policing operation had now begun and London's most experienced public order officer Commander Bob Broadhurst had taken up the full-time role of running it.
Ian Johnston, Director of Security and Resilience at LOCOG, said there would be thousands of closed circuit TV cameras at venues, while there would be about 400 search arches and x-ray scanners at the main Olympic stadium alone.
He said spectators would probably have to queue for about 20 minutes before getting through the airport-style security at the 34 venues although exact wait times would not be clear until nearer the Games.
"Queue times will vary from venue to venue. But we're looking in many places minutes within single digits, a norm of around 20 minutes," he said.
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