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24 September 2014
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The Music Centre at White City - background


For the first time in its history, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ 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 ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Symphony Chorus, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Concert Orchestra and the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Singers, and will allow the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ 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 ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'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 ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ 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 ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ 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 ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s 500-building property estate and most of the buildings are in need of heavy investment to bring them up to date.


The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ has now embarked upon an ambitious, large-scale property strategy. This includes the new centre for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ 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 ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'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 ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Media Village complex, and the adjacent ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Television Centre, will play an increasingly central role in the regeneration of the wider urban area in W12.


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