The
Music Centre at White City - background
For
the first time in its history, the BBC has commissioned a Music
Centre to house its world-class orchestras, singers and chorus and
to provide a showcase facility for the screening of its many award-winning
programmes.
The
Music Centre will house the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony
Chorus, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Singers, and will
allow the BBC to consolidate the activities of its musical ensembles
in London and vacate existing inefficient and unsuitable accommodation
in Maida Vale.
The
Centre will comprise rehearsal and broadcast studios, with support
areas and facilities for invited audiences.
The
BBC's unique funding arrangement, through the television licence
fee, makes it very conscious of the obligation to be visible, open
and accessible to the public.
In
line with the responsibility for arts patronage of the highest standards
in all its programmes, the BBC is now seeking to reaffirm the highest
standards of architecture and design in its buildings.
Val
Myer's Broadcasting House was enthusiastically received in 1932.
The BBC recognised that its new building had to encapsulate the
sense of adventure at the dawn of a new age in broadcasting, and
it needed the best architects and artists to achieve that aim in
producing this gem of the age.
Eric
Gill, Serge Chermayeff, Wells Coates and Raymond McGrath were all
involved.
There
are only a few other examples of good architecture in the BBC's
500-building property estate and most of the buildings are in need
of heavy investment to bring them up to date.
The
BBC has now embarked upon an ambitious, large-scale property strategy.
This includes the new centre for BBC Scotland at Pacific Quay, Glasgow,
designed by David Chipperfield, and bases being established in the
Michael Hopkins' Forum building in Norwich, in the Mailbox
shopping centre in Birmingham, and in MacCormac Jamieson Prichard's
Priory Place in Coventry.
In
London, the BBC's operations will be focused on three sites: Broadcasting
House, White City and Television Centre.
The
Broadcasting House redevelopment, designed by Sir Richard MacCormac,
will house the entire network radio and news operation together
with the World Service.
Television
Centre will be returned to its original use as a TV programme production
centre, and White City, planned by Allies and Morrison, will take
on a new life as a vibrant media village.
These
developments are all designed by world leading architects.
The
new BBC Media Village complex, and the adjacent BBC Television Centre,
will play an increasingly central role in the regeneration of the
wider urban area in W12.
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