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The contract for the supply of workplace and interior design services for Phase Two of the Â鶹Éç Broadcasting House development in central London has been awarded to HOK following a competitive public procurement process.

The Â鶹Éç was looking for a design partner with leading-edge, innovative solutions to support and encourage a creative, flexible and agile workforce and create an inspiring, exciting and vibrant environment for people to work in.

Andrew Asbury, Programme Manager of the Â鶹Éç's W1 Project, said: "We had a fantastic response from our short-listed bidders and it was a tough decision to make.

"However, we are confident that we have found an exciting and dynamic team who will support us in delivering a transformational workplace that will add considerable value for the licence fee payer."

The 45,000 square metres state-of-the-art media centre at Â鶹Éç Broadcasting House will be an iconic home for the Â鶹Éç's national and international journalism from 2012.

It will bring together Â鶹Éç News, Global News, including the Â鶹Éç World Service, and Audio & Music for the first time in a new live multimedia environment.

This will enable transformational opportunities for creativity, collaboration and value-for-money to the benefit of audiences across London, the UK and around the world.

The building will achieve a BREEAM 'Excellent' rating.

The new Broadcasting House building will house more than 5,000 staff – nearly a quarter of the Â鶹Éç's workforce. The vast majority of them will be programme-makers providing public service broadcasting via three 24-hour TV news channels, nine radio networks and 32 foreign language services to a worldwide audience of more than 285 million people.

This unprecedented co-location of Â鶹Éç staff and services will create one of the world's largest newsrooms.

Notes to Editors

• The Â鶹Éç published a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in November 2008 to procure a design consultant for the supply of workplace and interior design services for Phase 2 of Â鶹Éç Broadcasting House.
• The closing date for pre-qualification was in January 2009 and a shortlist of nine companies was announced in February 2009.
• HOK's design team is: Aileen Asher (project director); Andy Warner-Lacey; Beate Mellwig; Barry Hughes; Brett Shwery; Daniel Herriott; Emma Wharton; Sam Bradley and Tim Hatton.
• HOK has extensive experience in interior design and workplace strategy and has recently advised The Guardian News and Media on its new working environment. Other award-winning projects in the UK and abroad include: Cisco; SJ Berwin; Dechert; Severn Trent Water; Biogen Idec; MTV; Exxon Mobil; AOL; Bloomberg; Warner Music and Time

HM2