The Olympic Delivery Authority has appointed LDA Design and US-based landscape architects Hargreaves Associates to design the Olympic Park for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The designers will be tasked with developing detailed proposals for the open spaces in the Olympic Park for the Games.

A significant aspect of the design brief will be to incorporate usage for the legacy of the park.

The 2.5sq km Olympic Park is currently being been cleared and cleaned ready for construction to start in the summer.

In 2009 work will start creating the parklands and public spaces, forming the largest new urban park in London since the Victorian era of park building.

Early plans for the legacy Olympic Park envisage nine character areas that enhance the ecology and biodiversity of the park, and create a mix of leisure and recreational activities.

The areas include meadows, wetlands, wooded valleys, new wildlife habitats and facilities for a range of sports such as canoeing, mountain biking, climbing and cricket.

The waterways within the park will be revitalised, natural amphitheatres and lawns for events and festivals will be created and a network of new cycle and footpaths will connect the Lower Lea Valley with the Thames for the first time.

ODA chief executive, David Higgins, said: “We want to create an Olympic Park that enhances the experience of the London 2012 Games for spectators, athletes and the global audience and then becomes a living, breathing new urban park in legacy.

“The design team will help develop our plans to transform this former industrial area into a thriving park that boosts sustainable and active living, creates new wildlife habitats and anchors the regeneration of a neglected part of east London.”

LDA Design’s managing partner, Andrew Harland, said: “The Olympic Park is the UK’s most significant landscape project in years, and is likely to be so for many years to come.

“It is the centrepiece of Europe’s largest regeneration programme and will have a positive economic and social impact on the area while also demonstrating exemplar sustainability.”