Administrator
|
This is taken from the Guardian:
And here is today's news … BBC's state-of-the-art building BBC executives hope £1bn enterprise in central London will be symbol of corporation's openness and accountability by Tara Conlan Wednesday 15 December 2010 21.19 GMT
After a decade in the planning and six years of building work, the BBC's Broadcasting House in central London has reopened as the "building that never sleeps", centred on a converged, state-of-the art newsroom.
An official handover party was fronted by news anchor Huw Edwards on Tuesday evening, attended by BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons and other top executives who hope the £1bn enterprise will be a symbol of the corporation's openness and accountability.
The newsroom will be visible both from the street and through a large glass window in a BBC Media Cafe open to the public; to avoid a security breach, the room has toughened glass which can be darkened to frustrate telephoto lenses.
"One of the big challenges is to make it open but secure. The design was conceived pre-9/11," BBC Workplace chief Chris Kane told the Guardian, the first newspaper to see inside the glass walls and open-plan offices; the building will start to be populated next year, with up to 6,000 people in total and up to 320 journalists in the newsroom.
Around 2,000 camera positions around the building mean it can double as studios. Broadcasting House will house the BBC News Channel, World Service, radio news, television news and online together for the first time.
With prime views across Regent Street and London, the redevelopment (at the back of the original 1932 building) is undeniably a step up from the dark and often cramped conditions many BBC journalists have been used to.
The BBC plans to save £172m by 2015 by transferring staff from 15 buildings in London, including historic Bush House and Television Centre, to two: Broadcasting House and the Media Centre complex, down the road from TV Centre in west London.
|