Olympic Urbanism in Tallinn: Preparations for the 1980 Olympic Regatta

As the Sailing Regatta of the 1980 Summer Olympics was going to takeplace in Tallinn, it was accompanied by a large-scale and ambitiousplan for urban development, which shaped the city’s constructionalimage remarkably. This article studies the preparations for the TallinnOlympic Regatta within the framework of the concept of Olympicurbanism, treating the construction plans linked with the regatta asan autonomous type of city planning. The aim is to analyse how theplanned, partially realised and unrealised building projects reflect the construction dynamics and spectacle characteristic of the Olympic cities. The article does not concentrate on the architecturalanalysis of single objects, but on the building programme as a whole– its political background, planning process, and impact.