London's "Lego" Olympics

Not only will some of the venues be adaptations of pre-existing sites, but much of the new construction for the games will be capable of disassembly or downsizing for other purposes -- like giant Lego structures -- thereby avoiding the potential for "white elephants" in years to come. As the Globe and Mail reports,

"When the Games are gone, many of its buildings will be taken down, sold or repurposed. Qatari developers have struck a deal to buy the athletes' village for £557-million (about half of what it cost to build, critics have pointed out). The basketball and water-polo arenas will disappear, and the BMX track will be dismantled and moved to a new location. The handball stadium becomes a multi-use sports centre, although it's unclear who will use it.

The third of the three Rs, 'recycle,' will be in evidence all over London. Instead of building new venues, the idea was to use world-famous locations in fresh, and sometimes jaw-dropping, ways. Horse Guards Parade, where you can normally see Changing the Guard and various sombre military ceremonies, becomes home to beach volleyball...Archery will be held at Lord's Cricket Ground...At the end of the Games, the steel trusses and spectators' stands will be taken down and sold, the debris hauled away and Greenwich will look the same as it has since Charles II ordered the Royal Observatory built more than three centuries ago. That, at least, is the plan."