THE cladding of the international media centre being built in East London for 20,000 journalists and broadcasters covering the 2012 Olympics has been completed. It has now reached its full height at the site in Hackney Wick
THE cladding wrapped’ around the international media centre being built in East London for 20,000 journalists and broadcasters covering the 2012 Olympics has been completed this week.
It has now reached its full height at the site in Hackney Wick, half-a-mile from the main stadium.
The complex will be the nerve-centre of the huge media operation communicating the Games to an audience of four billion around the world.
Afterwards it will be managed by the Olympic Park Legacy Company which is giving evidence next Wednesday to a Commons Select committee in Parliament about what the Olympics will leave behind for East London beyond 2012.
“The media centre is a cornerstone of the Olympic legacy,” said the company’s chief Andrew Altman. “It has been designed with flexibility to meet the needs of tenants by being reconfigured, depending on market demand.”
The legacy means 900,000sq ft of sustainable’ future business space with the potential to generate thousands of jobs.
Hackney’s local mayor Jules Pipe can’t hide his enthusiasm at the prospect for his depressed corner of London.
He said: “It will bring a vital economic legacy after 2012 for Hackney and East London, allowing the digital, creative and media industries space to expand.”
The four lift shafts under construction have reached their full height and work is underway on the third floor of the building.
The structure, with its 150,000sq ft of wall topped with 260,000sq ft of roof covering, has involved contractors all over the UK, as well as East London.
The roof cladding was made in Wales. The steel was produced in Scunthorpe and Teesside for the huge frame which was manufactured in North Yorkshire. The half-million sq ft of concrete flooring was laid by a Midlands company. The 30,000 tonnes of concrete currently being poured into the frame of the four-storey structure is being carried out by a firm in Teddington, the other side of London.
But the concrete foundations holding everything up were built by a company in Greenwich, one of the five local host’ boroughs for the Games.
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