The Olympic City is an ongoing photography project by Jon Pack and Gary Hustwit that looks at the legacy of the Olympic Games in former host cities around the world. Hosting the Olympics has become a way for a city to show itself off on an international stage and generate toursim dollars, and cities spend millions or billions for the privilege. But after the events are over, the medals have been handed out, and the torch is extinguished, what’s next? What happens to a city after the Olympics are gone?

A 240-page large-format hardcover book will be published in May, 2013, in a limited edition of 1,000 copies. The book features approximately 200 photos from the project and a foreword by New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, and is designed by award-winning graphic designer Paul Sahre. A special edition version that includes original photo prints, and an ebook version are also available.

“What links these images? They’re inhabited by ghosts. They document the remains of former Olympic sites: Athens and Rome, Beijing and Moscow, Helsinki, Lake Placid, Los Angeles and Mexico City, among others. These remains often lurk as if in the weeds; they’re obscured, entombed, metamorphosed, but still present.” –Michael Kimmelman, from his foreword to the book