The privately funded village would provide spectacular views of Lake Michigan for 16,000 Olympic athletes, but even more important is its central location -- perhaps the key selling point of Chicago's Olympic proposal, submitted to the U.S. Olympic Committee on Friday.

"Nearly a third of the athletes will live within five minutes of their venues, and roughly 85 percent will be only 15 minutes away," said Patrick Ryan, chairman of Chicago 2016, the local committee planning the bid.

"It's important for them not to be in a suburban-like setting but to be right there on the lakefront. It's critical in how they view their ability to perform, and it's really important in differentiating us from our competitors."

After the games, the Olympic Village would be converted into what Ryan called "a shining new development for residents," one that developers would compete to invest in.

"The location is sensational," he said. "And we believe the demand would be high."

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill managing partner Tom Kerwin, an adviser for Chicago 2016, said the village initially would have about 2,000 units. After the games, they would be converted to about 3,000 market-rate and affordable housing units. As envisioned in a series of preliminary concept drawings, the village would be a complex of interlocking crescent-moon shapes that could be read as an abstract reference to the emblematic Olympic rings.

The concept's curving form, designed by SOM's Ross Wimer in collaboration with one of the firm's top urban planners, Phil Enquist, creates a variety of lake views as well as a series of courtyards or "outdoor rooms" in which the athletes could congregate.

"One of the most important experiences for the participants at the Olympics, we're told, is the camaraderie of the athletes, so this provides a place for them to have those experiences," Kerwin said.

"It also takes advantage of the views, the light and the air off the lake, which could be quite wonderful."

'The missing tooth'
The village complex would be built above what is now a staging area for trucks serving McCormick Place -- which would host several Olympic events, including fencing, judo, weight lifting, volleyball and rhythmic gymnastics.

The staging area would remain intact underneath the complex, along with an additional layer of parking. During the games, transportation to and from the village would include a dedicated bus route from Millennium Park and points in between.

In its post-Olympics conversion, the complex would supply what Kerwin called "the missing tooth" of lakefront development. "There are obviously residential developments up and down the lakefront, and this is kind of the last tooth to be filled."

But the village's final appearance may be years away from being settled. Wimer's design is "very conceptual, very early -- more an idea than a real design at this point," Kerwin said.

"It's just an idea of how to accommodate the athletes, how to create a welcoming place for them to live along the lakefront."

Ryan noted that several Chicago architecture firms have been participating in the planning discussions, and that no decisions have been made about design assignments.

"The design will be of the times," he said. "And the goal is to include a breadth of architectural talent."

Whoever designs its final version, the village will be at the heart of a compact, integrated Olympic city within a city, said Doug Arnot, who has worked on operations and venues at the 1996 and 2002 Olympics and now is advising Chicago 2016.

From the Village, he noted, athletes will be able to zip to venues concentrated in Lincoln Park, Burnham Park, Washington Park and the area around the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"The idea is for the games to be woven into the lakefront, the downtown and several of the neighborhoods," Arnot said. "As opposed to the Olympic parks we've seen recently in other cities."

'An incredible journey'
The other largest Olympic venue is the previously announced 95,000-seat stadium at Washington Park, which would house the track-and-field competitions, the opening and closing ceremonies and the Olympic flame.

The stadium would have 15,000 more seats than an earlier Olympic arena concept for downtown, in part because it's now anticipated that the excitement of the Chicago Games would create "an extraordinary appetite for tickets," Arnot said.

Ryan noted that 60 million people live within a six-hour drive of Chicago. The stadium also would have about 200 luxury skybox suites, increasing both its $300 million price tag and revenue opportunities from corporations that might lease them.

The current plan calls for the above-ground portion of the stadium to be removed after the Olympics, leaving a 10,000-seat amphitheater that could be used for track and field events and other activities.

The stadium complex also would include a large command center for media as well as warm-up facilities for the athletes.

Transportation to the stadium could be handled by the current Metra and CTA systems, which Arnot said can currently deliver more than 65,000 people per hour to the area, irrespective of improvements anticipated over the next decade.

Another major Olympic venue would be an aquatic center for the swimming and diving competitions. Chicago 2016 is in discussions with UIC officials, who are in the early stages of creating a 10-year plan for their athletics department, about developing a mix of permanent and temporary Olympic venues in the area of the campus.

If those discussions don't pan out, Arnot said, the plan for the games would shift to a network of temporary aquatic venues in several neighborhoods. In the meantime, nothing is settled.

"It's going to be absolutely an incredible journey," Arnot said of the overall planning process. "And there's going to be a lot of twists and turns along the way."