"The BBC has always called itself a temple of the arts. Now it's getting the buildings to match. By Jonathan Glancey."
Glancey writes a nice piece in The Guardian today. I've said a couple of things about the BBC's buildings programme recently, particularly in terms of the new Broadcasting House, where I work. I hadn't mentioned the new Music Centre though, but will be involved in the work directly there too, I hope. Here's more (John Smith is the BBC's Finance Director, btw):
"The most hotly debated of the new BBC buildings is the Music Centre at White City. Due to open in 2006, this will house the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers in two concert hall studios. As this will be the gateway to the vast White City campus, the BBC is looking for an eyecatching design, "an iconic building", says John Smith, "which makes a statement and creates a buzz both inside and outside the BBC. We're not afraid to champion a controversial design; indeed, we relish the opportunity to rise to this challenge. We already attract the very best broadcasters, writers, actors and technicians. Now we want to add architects to the list ... Architects shortlisted for the Music Centre are Foreign Office, Future Systems, MVRDV (from Holland), Ushida Findlay and Zaha Hadid. Any one of these is capable of shaping an "iconic" building. All five have submitted what Smith describes as "thrilling" designs, and all five have been told to have another go because Smith and his team of judges believe they have all gone way over budget ... The point about the BBC is that it belongs to all of us. It is, in a cynically privatised world, a public corporation. Nothing, Lord Reith liked to say, "is too good for the public". Whether standards of broadcasting or of architecture, art and design."
