Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) chair Baroness Ford has expressed hopes that the London 2012 site will provide a 'new piece of city' for the capital. Speaking at the Business in Sport and Leisure (BISL) conference on 10 November, Ford said the Olympic Park was more than just about sports venues and parkland following the Games. According to Ford, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has the potential to have the

The US$150m (£93m) expansion of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, US, is to open on Friday 26 November. The five-storey, 100,000sq ft museum will boast three floors of core exhibition space, which will explore more than 350 years of American Jewish history, while another floor will be dedicated to changing exhibits. The concourse will be entirely devoted to education: with classrooms, a theatre and a resource

Plans for a major £5.5bn redevelopment of London's Battersea Power Station have been given the green light by Wandsworth Council. Real Estate Opportunities (REO) has secured planning permission for the Rafael Viñoly-designed scheme, which includes a pledge of more than £200m towards the extension of the Northern Line. Battersea's Grade II*-listed power station building is to be restored as part of the plans, which include 700,000sq ft (65,032sq m) of

A groundbreaking ceremony has been held to mark the start of construction work on the new £19.1m ArcelorMittal Orbit tourist attraction in London. The 115m (377ft)-tall landmark sculpture, which will be sited at the heart of the 2012 Olympic Park, was designed by artist Anish Kapoor along with structural engineer Cecil Balmond. London mayor Boris Johnson was joined by ArcelorMittal chair and CEO Lakshmi Mittal and Andrew Altman, chief executive

Design and AV specialist Sarner is to begin the on site construction of the first ever immersive Doctor Who Experience for BBC Worldwide. Sarner was appointed to design, create and produce the attraction following a competitive tender at the beginning of 2010 and is currently working on the pre-build prior to going on site at the beginning of December. The exhibition is scheduled to open at London's Olympia on 20th

A new £8m 'leisure and learning' centre, which aims to teach young people about citizenship, has been opened in Sutton, south London. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg attended the launch of the Sutton Life Centre, which includes one of the largest climbing walls in the UK - 20m x 10m - and sports courts. London-based Curl la Tourelle Architects and Land Design Studio were behind the design of the new

A report compiled by consulting engineers Posford DATRYS has revealed that it will cost £5.5m to renovate Colwyn Bay's historic pier. Findings from the Caernarfon-based company's appraisal of the attraction's structure were presented to the Colwyn Bay Pier Task and Finish Group earlier this month. Conwy County Borough Council is working in partnership with the Pier Pressure Group - a community organisation - in a bid to progress the renovation.

A new 2,000sq m aquarium is being planned for Batumi beach in Georgia. Denmark-based Hennig Larson Architects won the contract for the museum, which will replace the port's previous aquarium. Featuring a dolphinarium and a zoo, the Batumi Aquarium is designed to replicate the beach's characteristic pebbles. The formation constitutes four self-supporting exhibition areas where each of the four stones represents a unique marine biotype - the Aegean Sea &

Hanoi Museum, a museum dedicated to Hanoi's history, has opened in Vietnam. The 30,000sq m museum is located in a specially laid out park with water features, exhibits from the history of Hanoi, and a reconstructed traditional Vietnamese village. The museum is next to the National Convention Center, opened for the APC Summit in 2006, which, like the Vietnamese Ministry of the Interior and the national parliament in Hanoi, were

Leisure sector organisations have issued a mixed response to the chancellor's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) published yesterday (20 October). George Osborne announced a 25 per cent cut in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) budget, which will run over the course of the review period to 2014-15. Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt insisted it was a 'good settlement' and will help enable the government to "protect our sporting and

The US$19m Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust has opened in the US city. The 14,000sq ft museum, designed by architect Hagy Belzberg, features nine galleries that attempt to tell the story of the Holocaust "as objectively as possible". Interactive exhibits, such as the 18 displays in the combined Deportation & Extermination and Labour/Concentration/Death Camps room, depict the "breadth, depth and severity of the world the Nazis created". Wall displays

Work has got underway on the £16.3m construction phase of the new £35m Mary Rose Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Hampshire. The Mary Rose Trust (MRT) has selected Warings Contractors - part of the Bouygues group - to build the new museum, which has been designed by a team that includes Wilkinson Eyre Architects. Due for completion in autumn 2012, the scheme will see a boat-shaped building constructed over the

Real Estate Opportunities (REO), the group behind the planned £5.5bn redevelopment of Battersea Power Station, has secured agreement over the deferral of debt repayments. The developer has reached a deal with its loan note holder that will see "all principal and interest payments" put on hold until 31 May 2011. It follows an announcement on 7 September that REO had been given an extension on a combined £262.5m loan facility

Newham Council has approved plans for the Siemens Pavilion - a new £30m exhibition and conference centre to be built at London's Victoria Docks. The venue will be developed on land owned by the council and the London Development Agency and will be at located at the centre of a new green enterprise district spanning six London boroughs. International technology firm Siemens is leading the scheme, while Locum Consulting has

Chester Zoo's plans for a major £225m expansion have been handed a boost after Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWCC) recommended the scheme for approval. The council's strategic planning committee has submitted its decision - along with 36 conditions - to the secretary of state, who is to have the final decision whether the development can proceed. A new £90m bio-dome - called the Heart of Africa - is at

Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey, US is to install a new Green Lantern-themed rollercoaster. The 154ft-high ride is named after the DC Comics character and boasts a 45-degree drop and five loops. The ride is being designed by the Swiss firm Bolliger & Mabillard. The opening of the ride will coincide with the release of the Green Lantern movie, starring Ryan Reynolds, in June next year.

The Photographers Gallery in London's West End is to close on 19 September ahead of the redevelopment of its Ramillies Street site. Plans by architects O'Donnell + Tuomey will see the former Edwardian warehouse turned into a photographic gallery and include the addition of textured acrylic render, Angelim Pedra hard wood and anthracite coloured terrazzo to elements of the existing structure and fabric of the building. The end result will

Cardiff Council has chosen Planet Ice to design, build and operate a new permanent ice arena at the International Sports Village in Cardiff Bay. The council, Planet Ice and the Cardiff Devils have agreed to work together to deliver a first class facility for the city which can be enjoyed by recreational skaters, the Cardiff Devils and their fans. Cardiff Council leader Rodney Berman said: "I welcome this decision, which

Siemens, the international engineering and technology firm, is to build a £30m visitor attraction in London. The Siemens Pavilion will include exhibition space, a 300-seat auditorium and facilities for educational tour groups. There are plans for interactive exhibits, seating areas, a café and a shop, as well as outdoor seating areas and exhibition space. The centre, which will be located at the western end of the Royal Docks, is expected

The British Postal Museum and Archives (BPMA) has appointed Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS) to lead the development of its new £19m home in Swindon. Work will now get underway on the restoration and repair of a Grade II*-listed property at the former Great Western Railway Chain Testing Works that will house the new attraction. Among the items included in the BPMA's collection to be made available to the public

A new visitor attraction has opened to the public at the historic Louisiana State Capitol in the US. Designed by BRC Imagination Arts, the US$6.6m (€5.1m, £4,4m) addition includes exhibition galleries, restored public spaces, and a 12-minute interactive theatre experience featuring a Pepper's ghost presentation. There is also a The Legacy of Huey Long exhibition, a series of galleries that offer guests an insight into the controversial political legacy of

The museum commemorating the victims of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York is set to open to the public in 2012. The US$45m (£29m, €35m) Memorial Museum, designed by Davis Brody Bond architects, will cover 120,000sq ft (11,100sq m) and will be located beneath the memorial plaza. Visitors to the museum will enter through a glass-cased visitors' orientation and education centre located on the

Senator Ted Kennedy - the youngest brother of JFK - who died last August, is to have an Institute for the Senate built in his name, next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum on the University of Massachusetts at Boston campus. According to its website, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate is "dedicated to educating the public about our system of government and enhancing civic

Merlin Entertainments has appointed PCL Construction Services and Morris Architects to design and build the Legoland Florida attraction, which is scheduled to open in 2011. The 145-acre family attraction, which will be located on the site of the former Cypress Gardens theme park in Winter Haven, is set to include more than 50 rides, shows and attractions. Merlin acquired the park – which also includes the Splash Island Waterpark –

A new multimedia experience has opened at Yan City, a mixed-use development in China's Chun Zhu Province that includes a number of attractions. Called Yan Yu Chun Qiu Water Show, the new attraction was designed in partnership by Australia-based multimedia company Spinifex Group and Chinese directors Han Lixun and Yvonne Ho. The 45-minute water show features Spinifex's multimedia rendering of "The Past Meets the Future." The content begins on the

The US$72m (€55, £46m) renovation project of Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose, California, US. has been awarded LEED gold by the US Green Building Council. The attraction is one of the first in the country to be certified LEED gold, which is given in recognition that a building project meets the "highest green building and performance measures". Points towards the award are earned across six categories: sustainable

The Israel Museum in Jerusalem has reopened following a 3-year, US$100m (£64.5m, €77m) redevelopment programme involving new galleries, orientation facilities and public spaces. Led by James Carpenter Design Associates of New York and Efrat-Kowalsky Architects of Tel Aviv, the project also included the renovation and reconfiguration of the museum's three collection wings and the reinstallation of its encyclopedic collections. The museum's architectural footprint has increased considerably since its opening in