Amazing Architecture

This arena was built in 1923, but was re-builded in 1941, 1966, 1978, 1999 and is being reconstructed again, to fit hard UEFA regulations. One of the most important investments in this reconstruction is totally new roof construction. Ukrainians claim they will finish this re-build in 2011 which is reasonable term. After the reconstruction the object will contain about 73.000 seats. The stadium is supposed to host group matches, quarter-final and the final game.

Kiev Olympic Stadium final look

The rebuild turned a little bit slow because of the economic problems in recent years (Ukraine is facing huge recession) and corruption problems (large amount of government’s money just disappeared without a trace). But this reconstruction is not easy, and it is visible that workers are still on the site, so I think we can be optimistic about this one. Ukraine must face worse problems than stadiums. The whole logistic base of the country is still in mess. There are not so many hotels, and existing are mostly not comparative to UEFA standards. The same things could be told about the roads (Poland have also problem with those, many investments are being forced lately) and the whole communication system. I hope that Ukraine will manage to fix all those problems and the tournament will be hosted in four Ukrainian cities.

Reconstruction photos:

Kiev Olympic Stadium reconstruction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Kiev Olympic Stadium reconstruction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Kiev Olympic Stadium reconstruction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Kiev Olympic Stadium reconstruction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Kiev Olympic Stadium reconstruction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Polish national stadium will be placed in country’s capital – Warsaw. That solution could be obvious, but not many of us know that first national stadium was placed on the south of the country, in traditionally-mining industry part of Poland called Silesia. Slaski Stadium is still there, but it is surely out of date by now and is placed on the substitution list of potential Euro 2012 objects. New national stadium is placed almost in the city center, near river Wisla.

Final look of Poland National Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

This object will contain almost 56 thousand seats. The construction stands on over two thousand reinforced concrete pillars, because of characteristic geological conditions in the area. Stadium’s grass will be placed on reinforced concrete plate, over eight meters above the ground. Two rings of tribunes will give audience excellent visibility during sport and music shows. The roof will become totally independent construction covering not only the tribunes but also pitch – that gives enormous possibilities in creating a theater of many spectacular events.

Poland National Stadium construction site. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Unfortunately this stadium will not be used by the most popular local football club Legia Warsaw. Some people say that building two big stadiums in one large city (about 2 millions residents) is not such exceptional thing, but still, every stadium could use a club appearance. In my opinion this is just a little waste of money and place that could serve more multiple purposes.

Poland National Stadium construction site at night. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

This stadium will host Euro opening game, some group matches, a quarterfinal and semi-final. The big final is decided to be played in Kiev, but with Ukrainian problems with cash flow this show is in still jeopardy. It is still unknown how many matches the Ukrainian will finally host and some of the Polish stadiums must be prepared just in case, to take some of those games.

Poland National Stadium final look. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Today we begin a new cycle of interesting new buildings being constructed especially for soccer Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

Poznan City Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The first stadium we will check is the Poznan City Stadium (used by the local club Lech Poznan). This arena was first placed in 1980. The first version of this stadium had a shape of a horseshoe and had a part opened to the city from the north side of the pitch. After installation of chairs and refitting existing tribunes the stadium could hold up to 25.000 people. I late ’90s city council decided to build the missing part of the stadium, giving the whole object new shape. This one tribune (called “The Fourth”) contains about 8.500 seats and will remain as an integral part of the new stadium. Everything else is brand new. The picture below presents the old view of the stadium (with characteristic four spotlight towers) taken from The Fourth:

Poznan City Stadium - an old view. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The old tribunes were dismantled and new ones are being currently built. New stadium will contain 41.018 seats during Euro 2012 tournament and 45.830 seats after this event. The whole stadium will be 213 meters long, 220 meters wide and 56 meters high (this is approximately the height of 18-floor building). The most interesting part of the whole stadium will be the roof (currently being constructed). This construction will be based on two main frameworks, each at weight of 1.400 tons and two auxiliary elements, each weight 450 tons. The movie below is taken from Skyscrapercity forums and shows the auxiliary element no. 1 placed on two main frameworks:

The whole stadium construction was supposed to be finished on may 2010, but this time limit will be probably shifted to autumn 2010. This is still very reasonable term – two years before the tournament starts.

Other construction pictures:

One of stadium main frameworks at night. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

One of two auxiliary roof elements. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

View on two main frameworks and The Fourth (smallest tribune). Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.