2012 Velodrome Building – 17 November 2010

Today, I saw for the first time London’s 2012 velodrome building – and I was staggered by its beauty. It is, quite simply, wonderful – but also practical and well-designed.

Here’s an aerial photograph of it, taken within the last few days and posted to the BBC’s website. They say that it will be the first building to be completed, and is due to have the cranes rolled away in Spring 2011. Having never seen the designs for this specific building, it’s really made my day and has removed some of my doubts over us plucky Brits’ ability to do anything like as good a show as our Asian cousins did in 2008.

Regular readers may remember when I questioned how enthused London mayor Boris Johnson was about the Olympics, but this photo today is the symbol of Britain we want to portray – and I truly believe that it will come to symbolise the 2012 Olympics. I think that it will do for London what the Bird’s Nest did for Beijing back in 2008, that is to provide a focus point and backdrop for countless journalists’ reports.

With 617 days to go, things are really getting exciting – check out the rest of the airborne shots of its construction [external: Daily Mail].