ABSTRACT
The office and studio building designed for the BBC in the heart of London faced two challenging tasks: it had to meet the requirements of an extremely diverse programme and at the same time integrate itself into an exceptionally rich urban environment. The BBC expected above all an analysis of and a strategy for a project that is tailored to the organization of a radio broadcasting service with its various departments: music, theatre, news, school programmes and, of course, administrative facilities, archives, etc.55 The old building is spatially and acoustically no longer adequate. In his scheme Foster retains this building to provide ancillary accommodation beside his new building on an adjacent site belonging to the BBC. The site is on the double bend where Portland Place joins Upper Regent Street, opposite All Souls Church. It is occupied by the Langham Hotel, a listed historical landmark, a bulky and visually awkward nineteenth century building; this was to be replaced by a building that would consciously mediate between the calm atmosphere of Portland Place to the north and busy Oxford Street to the south.
