Olympic media centre in redesign as contractors bid for athletes village

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has made last minute revisions to the design of the £350m media centre after design watchdog Cabe (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) slammed the scheme.

Sources close to the media centre scheme told Building that Cabe wrote to the ODA in recent weeks saying the design was ‘unsatisfactory’. It’s thought its 2012 design review panel was unconvinced that elements of the broadcast centre met Building Regulations, were disappointed with the cladding and raised questions over the legacy strategy for the building’s use after the Games.

It is also understood the ODA was reluctant to allow Cabe to review the design, despite this being normal procedure, and only did so after the Olympic planning committee requested it. ‘It wanted to rush it through,’ one source said. The revised design, which addresses some of Cabe’s concerns, was submitted to the Olympic planning committee on Tuesday.

Pushing ahead with its plans for the £1bn Olympic village, developer Lend Lease has invited five firms to bid for work, reports Construction News.

Bouygues, Galliford Try, Barratt East London, Wates and Ardmore Construction are understood to have been asked to submit tenders to develop the first residential plot.

A spokesman for Lend Lease said Bovis Lend Lease would continue to carry out construction management on the job, but it had not been decided how much of the construction work it would do itself. CN said industry experts claim Bovis will build up to two thirds of the Olympic village.

Finally, Morrison Construction has won the contract to build the White Water Canoe Centre for the Games. Work on the £11m project in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, will start in June and involves creating a 300m canoe course, warm-up course and finish lake.