After the group decided to promote the possibility of having the Olympics in Boston I decided to question their point of view with data and facts that showed corruption in past Olympics. The best way I could defend my view would be with data about how much Olympics have cost in past years along with how much “corruption” was in each of those countries. In addition to having solid data I needed a visual representation so it was easy to understand and was aesthetically appealing. My final product would be a dot graph that gave perspective between the corruption and cost of past olympics.                                                                                        

My first graph was pretty basic, but it got the idea out so my next goal was to make something that was “pretty” and still displayed the the same information. I used Illustrator re-draw lines, add color, and overall add life to the graph. After several variations I got to my final graph.

Seeing that I was not actually going to change the groups opinion about having the Olympics in Boston I made a short list of recommendations. The recommendations were based off of past Olympics that went well and what they did to stop any negative side effects from occurring.

When the Olympic Bid studio was splitting up into groups I was immediately drawn to the topic of transportation in Boston. I use public transit almost everyday so I thought that I could understand what needed to be improved.

Along with making Boston a more playful city with the Olympics we also wanted to show that Boston is a walking city and if you can’t walk somewhere it is just a short train ride. Though our system is not that bad there are still some areas that the Train does not reach. The two areas I focused on were Dorchester and several parts of Charlestown, Everett, and east Cambridge. After seeing how much unused infrastructure is left over in some Olympics, I wanted to make sure not to build anything that would be useless once the Olympics were over. I thought that the best way to do this was to reuse a freight line for the Charlestown, Everett, and east Cambridge areas, and build a train line in place of the bus line that now reaches Dorchester.

Another part of public transportation in Boston that could use some improving is the actual train stations themselves. These stations are mostly old and not very nice to look at. I thought that I would use our theme of making Boston more fun by introducing public art into different train stations across the city. I came up with two examples of station designs, one encouraged graffiti artists to come in spray paint the walls, floors, and ceiling with graphic symbols and phrases about Boston and that train stop in particular. The Brookline Hub wrote an article about our proposal in their local news column titled “NuVu Studio Students Have Olympic Dreams…For Boston in 2024”. For my second design they put my idea perfectly into words saying the stop was “decorated like a Parisian cafe, perhaps to reflect openness to a global atmosphere required for the Olympic setting”.

The goal of the studio was to imagine what Boston would be like as an olympic city of the Olympics were held here in 2024. My main concern and contribution to the project was what the economics would be like if Boston became a host city. I realized that there are three aspects to the economics of the the Olympics. The first part is the economy before, then the economy during, and eventually the economy after. I researched past Olympic cities and how they were effected when they hosted the Olympics. What I eventually concluded is that the Olympics can either help or hurt your city based on the state of the city’s economy before the Olympics start. For example, in Athens in 2000, the economy was never particularly stable to begin with, and after all the expenses it was even worse once the Olympics left. When I looked into London from 2012 I saw that London actually benefitted from hosting the Olympics, mostly because their economy was stable to begin with. 

Additionally, what I realized as I worked on this project was that to host the Olympics, the hosting city has to offer a fun environment for the incoming tourists. Going along with the theme and pitch of the entire project, united through fun, I thought of a few areas where Boston could be more entertaining. The ideas I thought of were more public art, extended T hours on weekdays, more lenient outside drinking laws, more street music, and solving some permitting issues with alternative housing. For each of these topics I made pictograms to display in the book.

Public Art: The main idea behind this was to have more street artists and art stands on the main streets of Boston. Allowing people of all ages to be artistic and enjoy more art. 

Extended T Hours on Weekdays: Boston recently just extended the T schedule on weekends allowing people to stay out later on weekend nights, but since the Olympics last over a couple weeks, extending the T hours on weekdays too would be beneficial. 

More Lenient Outside Drinking Laws: There are some laws in Boston that don’t allow people to drink off certain properties. So, in order to generate more fun for people of age, allowing these laws to change, even if its only temporary, would allow people to have a better time. 

Street Music: Similar to street art, street music will let people of all ages have a good time on the main streets of Boston. 

Alternative Housing: Many tourists and athletes would come to Boston on the occasion of the Olympics, and all of them will need a place to stay. Fixing some of the permitting issues with alternative housing will be helpful in the case that Boston needs to be more original with where people will stay. 

Throughout the whole project I can to realize that it takes a lot more than people think to host the Olympics, but with help in the right areas, Boston can certainly do it.