Alexandros Tombazis, architect
There are three separate issues: the infrastructure the Games bequeath to the city, the future of Olympic facilities, and the city’s living beings, which is all of us. The infrastructure, chiefly communications and transport works, constitute the largest investment in the city. As regards the new buildings, only half a step has been taken. To a great degree, they are beyond the spectrum of the city’s needs, so alternative uses must be found. The city’s human dwellers are the most important, and at the same time the most difficult issue. During the days of the Games, it was as though the world had changed into an amazingly civilized environment from any aspect one cares to view it: behavior, cleanliness, cheerfulness. How much of this can stay? One hopes for the best that it was not a small brief interval before we return to mediocrity. Could what made us proud linger in our awareness as reserves for the future?
