London 2012 officials have unveiled the much-anticipated design for their new £496m Olympic Stadium.

The design features a 'stadium bowl' holding the 25,000 permanent seats, surrounded by 55,000 demountable seats.

Officials also announced construction of the venue will start ahead of schedule in April 2008.

Once the Olympics are over, it will be turned into a 25-000-seater athletics stadium and will host a variety of sporting, educational, cultural and community events.

According to officials, the stadium will be a sustainable and vibrant facility, attracting other businesses and investment and acting as a hub for the communities living in and around the Olympic Park.

Lord Coe, the chairman of the London Organising Committee, told a press conference that the venue would be "inspiring, innovative and sustainable".

He said "We talk a lot about milestones, but few will be more exciting than this, the unveiling of the Olympic Stadium, which will be the centre piece of our Olympic Park.

"The stadium will stand for everything we talked about in the bid - it will be inspiring, innovative and sustainable - the theatre within which the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will be played out and leaving behind top class sporting and community facilities after the Games.

"We genuinely believe that this creates a new blueprint for building Olympic stadia - one which integrates Games time requirements with a long term legacy vision."

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell MP added: "The designs unveiled today are stunning - a truly imaginative and original concept.

"But this is only part of the story. We will ensure that the Olympic Stadium leaves a lasting legacy for London and the UK - a flexible venue with athletics at its heart, but also capable of multi-sport, educational and community use.

"This is the strength of London 2012 - the fusion of planning for Games time and legacy from the outset, which will ensure that the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be a force for good for generations to come."

The new stadium - to be built in Stratford, east London - will be constructed by summer 2011, leaving time for test events to take place before the 2012 Games.

The main features of the design are:

• Bowl - a sunken bowl built into the ground for the field of play and lower permanent seating, designed to bring spectators close to the action;
• Seats - 25,000 permanent, 55,000 demountable;
• Roof - a cable supported roof will stretch 28 metres the whole way around the Stadium, providing cover for two thirds of spectators;
• Wrap - a fabric curtain will wrap around the stadium structure, acting as additional protection and shelter for spectators;
• Pods - facilities such as catering and merchandising will be grouped into self-contained 'pod' structures.

The stadium build is being led by construction firm Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd in a partnership including architects HoK Sport and planning consultants Savills Hepher Dixon.

HoK Sport has previously worked on high-profile sporting projects such as Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, Wembley Stadium, the Millennium Stadium, the O2 Arena and Ascot Racecourse.

The Olympic Stadium was initially expected to cost just £280m but this figure has had to be revised due to rising inflation and VAT.

The article London unveils 2012 stadium design originally appeared on 999 Today