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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