Last week was the Superbowl, an exciting game to watch with some not so exciting commercials. This evening starts the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, BC. The 2008 Summer Games in Beijing provided a lot of modern, high end architecture eye candy, so we decided to see what British Columbia, the sixth province of Canada, has to offer. Here is a little tourism video to get you in the mood for the rest of this post. I have to say after this little bit of research on Vancouver BC, I am really looking forward to watching these Winter Games.

It seems that there are three main focus items in these games when it comes to design.

Number one: The Richmond Olympic oval. The Richmond Olympic Oval is located on the banks of the Fraser River, 14 kilometres south of downtown Vancouver. Located in the northwest corner of Richmond, the Oval is across the river from the Vancouver International Airport and near Richmond city centre.

Venue Capacity : 7,600

Elevation : sea level

Number two: Whistler Blackcomb Peak to Peak. Whistler Blackcomb’s award-winning big mountain experience just got a whole lot bigger! The record-breaking new PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola links together Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains for the first time. Boasting the longest unsupported lift span in the world at 3.024 kilometres (1.88 miles), it’s also the highest lift of its kind at 435 metres / 1,427 feet.

Peak to Peak in Whistler from Tourism Whistler on Vimeo.

Number Three: Last but not least. The actual Olympic Medal design. The Organizing Committee asked Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer and artist and Omer Arbel, a Canadian architect and industrial designer to join their creative talents on the medal project after they submitted separate design proposals that both contained compelling elements. In an Olympic first, each medal will be unique, featuring part of an image cropped from two large master artworks by Corrine Hunt. For example, each medal will include its own signature elements of the orca and raven artwork, such as the suggestion of the orca’s eye, the curve of its dorsal fin or the contours of the raven’s wing, said officials. A silk scarf printed with the master artwork will be presented to each Olympian or Paralympian with the medal, enabling them to see how their medal connects with those awarded to other athletes at the Games. Also interesting is the fact that the medals are all made from recycled metals from old electronic components.  The video also does a good job of showing the desire of Vancouver and Canada to incorporate sustainability throughout the planning of the Games.

A special thanks to VBS.TV for the video and to Design Boom for the images below. Please follow the link to read about each picture in the design process.