Olympic Village

The complex was innovative in that it contained amenities and services for the convenience of the residents, providing a model for future Organising Committees to follow. Built in a matter of months, it comprised a postal and telegraph service, an amphitheatre, a laundrette, a restaurant, a hospital, a dental clinic, baths, a fire department, a radio station and a bank.

The need to reduce expenditure in the midst of the Great Depression led the organisers to consider low-cost options for housing athletes during the Games, hence the construction of temporary wooden cottages. Though most of them were dismantled after the Games, with some of the materials being used in other buildings, some were purchased privately and are still occupied by local residents today. A handful of others were bought by the German Olympic Committee, the organisers of the next Games, in Berlin in 1936, and by Japanese officials interested in studying them in preparation for the 1940 Games, which had been awarded to Tokyo but were later cancelled following the outbreak of the Second World War.

Only male athletes stayed at the Olympic Village. Their female counterparts were put up in a private hotel in Los Angeles.