London Olympics Media Centre 2.4

The London Olympics Media Centre is a large complex located in the Olympic Park in East London, built specially for the 2012 London Olympics. It is located at the site of the former Hackney Wick Stadium close to the Riverbank Arena.Following the Olympics and Paralympics, the centre was renamed Here East.DescriptionAt the time of the Olympic bid it was intended that the complex would be privately financed on the basis that the building would have residual value from alternative uses after the games. As of December 2009, the Olympic Delivery Authority had allocated £702 million of Programme and Funders’ contingency, largely to cover the decisions to publicly fund the Village and Media Centre after it became clear private funding could not be secured on acceptable terms during the 2008 to 2010 economic crisis.The complex is a 24-hour media hub that caters over 20,000 broadcasters, photographers and print journalists facilitating broadcasts to 4 billion people worldwide. It contains an International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and a Main Press Centre (MPC).The design of the complex, which is long, was by Allies and Morrison. It has a catering village and a multi-storey car park to link the two main venues (the IBC and the MPC) together. The construction cost was £355 million and the main contractor was Carillion. It was completed in July 2011.