Welcome to our new quarterly BH Newsletter, sent to you electronically in order to be both greener and speedier. Read it for a quick construction update as well as any community stories connected with the BH Project.
C O N ST R U CT I O N
U P DAT E .
BBC logo adds final touch to facade. There is a new destination at the north end of Regent Street: it is the BBC’s new Broadcasting House headquarters. From behind the blue hoardings has risen a state-of-the-art production and broadcast facility to house the BBC’s national and international journalism. The scaffolding has been removed to reveal the magnificent rounded glass facade and, last month, three glass panels etched with the BBC logo were hung over the new entrance, adding the finishing touches to the cyclorama. Walking along Portland Place, Duchess Street and Hallam Street the cladding operations and the cornice cantilever that can be seen on the west, east and northern elevations of the building, are also now complete. Inside, work is also progressing at a pace. The basements, the TV studio and technical facilities are all nearing completion and are being acoustically tested. The fit out of the upper floors from Ground to level 8 are also coming to a conclusion and final inspections and decorations are now underway. The commissioning of the building systems is progressing well which will coincide with the conclusion of the building works. Andy Griffee, Director BBC W1 Project says: “We are at an exciting phase in the redevelopment of Broadcasting House. With the construction phase near completion, we are looking forward to beginning the fit-out phase that will turn the building into a dynamic new home for the BBC”.
Traffic Circulation.
Main entrance into the new home for BBC journalism
The level of construction traffic has now reduced significantly and the external works operations are underway to the “World” piazza, the new public space, and around the perimeter of the site.
A typical space on one of the upper floors with glass-fronted atria either side
Television’s flexible rig studio in the basement has the largest suspended floor in the world, designed to eliminate vibrations from underground trains
Main multimedia newsroom with one of two helical staircases being installed
Radio studio on 3rd floor
Testing times at BH. Construction work on the new Broadcasting House is ahead of schedule and moves to an end this Autumn. This means that the W1 Project team are now finalising plans for the BBC to take over the site from Bovis Lend Lease, the main building contractors. A critical piece of work that needs to be done as part of this handover is Integrated System Testing (IST). This involves a series of tests on power supplies, fire alarms, heating/cooling, lifts and other life systems which need to work across the new building as well as old Broadcasting House and Egton.
Artist’s impression of new reception space and public walkway
These tests are planned for ten weeks beginning in September and include a continuous high risk period of 3 weeks in November. Due to the level of disruption and our need to safeguard BBC staff and its programmes, it has been decided to move operations currently in Broadcasting House and Egton to other BBC buildings for this 3 week period, when testing will be at its most acute. The BBC is confident that it has the best possible solution which will not only allow it to keep its programmes on air, but will cause minimal disruption to staff.
New public spaces opening in 2012.
Artist’s impression of new media café
Close-up of one of the World piazza paving slabs
When the last of the hoardings are finally removed in 2012, a new public space will be revealed. Situated at the heart of the development, the piazza is an open air space in front of the glass façade, which features a major new artwork called World by Canadian artist Mark Pimlott. World is a new art pavement, reflecting the global dimension of the BBC’s broadcasting. It consists of over 750 stone flags inscribed with place names from around the world, and enhanced by elegant steel lines of longitude and latitude. In addition, there is a subtle scheme of small embedded lights and some audio installation linked to key output from the World Service. This unique public arena will provide a place to linger and see the BBC in action, a performance and exhibition space, a 300 seat media café, a BBC shop and access to the Radio Theatre. The public will also have access inside the building. Through the main revolving doors, there will be a public walkway going through the centre of the building from which the public will be able to view the BBC Newsroom through a huge glass window. There is also further access to the media café which will also be the starting point for BBC Tours of the building.
COMMUNITY
U P D AT E .
Window dressing.. Look out for the new window displays in Broadcasting House, which have been created by local school children as part of RIBA London’s 2010 London Festival of Architecture. BBC History teamed up with BBC Learning’s 21CC (a new media workshop team), to create an installation for the window of Broadcasting House which tells the story of the building, past, present and future. Working with local schoolchildren from both primary and secondary schools, a total of three silent animations
and three integrated window designs have been produced, each one illustrating a different era. As part of the research for this project, groups of children visited the building, researched archive photography, looked at the new architectural designs, and listened to clips of output – from the Edward VIII abdication speech to contemporary news bulletins in Arabic and Farsi! Some of the pupils also interviewed each other about the experience, while sitting in Jenni Murray’s seat in the BBC Radio 4 studios!
The W1W Street Tree Initiative.
Weymouth Street tree planting complete
The W1W Street Tree Initiative’s project to bring trees to Weymouth Street is now complete. Over 50 chanticleer pear trees now line both sides of the Street – all the way from Marylebone High Street to Great Portland Street. This marks the extensive return of trees for the first time since Weymouth Street was laid out in the mid to late 1700’s. In addition, Devonshire Street and New Cavendish Streets have been included into the programme for street tree planting in Marylebone. The objective is to plant
approximately 150 more trees in the area by the end of Spring 2011. Please see: http://w1w-trees.spaces.live.com/ for more information. The local community has also been celebrating the uniqueness of the neighbourhood around Broadcasting House with the publication of a new web site entitled www.portlandvillage.co.uk. This website outlines the characteristics, amenity, and history of the area for those curious to know more about its development.
Get in touch. If you have any questions about the construction of Broadcasting House, contact: Paul Sims (Project Director), Chris Carey (Construction Director) or Graham Stark (Project Manager) on 0207 034 5700. Or visit our website: www.bbc.co.uk/broadcastinghouse. If you need to contact someone urgently outside office hours, please call the BBC Duty Manager on 020 7765 4242.
