Sun Pours Upon Olympic House

(ATR) It’s the building of the future for the IOC. The ultramodern, cutting-edge headquarters is officially open for business.

The four-story edifice is a blend of glass, metal and wood that undulates along the shore of Lake Geneva. Presented as one of the most sustainable office buildings in the world, IOC President Thomas Bach says the new headquarters of the Olympic Movement should set a standard for excellence and efficiency.

With the sun pouring down upon a two-hour inauguration ceremony, Bach and IOC colleagues, leaders of sports federations and NOCs, sponsors and past denizens of IOC headquarters sat under a huge tent outside the new building.

The program hosted by IOC staffer Jochen Faerber included chats with Olympians such as Katarina Witt and Yu Na Kim. Barbara Hendricks, the operatic soprano, strayed from her repertoire to sing John Lennon’s "Imagine" and later a melody from "Porgy and Bess".

Close to 700 were invited for the inauguration timed for Olympic Day 2019, the 125th anniversary of the founding of the IOC.

Olympic House, as it will be known, has been in the works since 2012. Designed by architecture firm 3XN to replace the 1982 headquarters building which could only hold a fraction of the current staff of the IOC, the $140 million building now has room for more than 600. Currently about 500 staff members are working in the new building.

Created with the idea of open workspaces, there are few assigned desks or workspaces. A circular wooden staircase spirals through the core the building, meant as a vehicle for staff to easily interact with other teams on the IOC staff.

For phone calls that need to be kept quiet, booths are set up on every floor. Unlike phone booths of the past, these need no coins – but they also have no phones. And indeed, few land lines are spotted anywhere in the building.

The IOC president makes no apology for the forward-thinking design. He says the efficiency and teamwork that the new headquarters will encourage is something that will pay off throughout the Olympic Movement, right down to athletes, no matter how far removed they might be from Lausanne.

While not opulent or overly decorated, Olympic House is still not a humble abode. Leaders of some small NOCs expressed disbelief when they heard how much went into the new property.

And it comes with a mortgage, too. But the debt is said to be covered in large part by the rent the IOC had to pay to put staff in other buildings around Lausanne. In 50 years, the IOC will own the building free and clear.

In this reporter’s first visit to Olympic House, I recognize little from my history in the old headquarters, which opened in 1982. A little of the artwork, statuary and flags have made it from old to new. The marble archway that defined theprevious headquarters is now a gateway to the green space outside Olympic House. And as much as possible, the remains of the old building were recycled for use at Olympic House.

Vitaly Smirnov, the honorary IOC member in Russia, says he remembers the days 50 years ago when the IOC operated out of the Château de Vidy, the quaint two-story cottage that remains on the site. He tells me about Executive Board meetings that were held at the house and the half-dozen staff members who ran the IOC of that era, led by Avery Brundage. There are stories to tell, he says.

So it goes for the 1982 headquarters where Juan Antonio Samaranch took charge of the IOC the next 19 years.

There were battles over boycotts. Drama over drug testing. The vote-buying scandal involving Olympic bids. Sponsorship announcements, host city press conferences. Heads of state came to visit.

Olympic House may be headed for a Pritzker prize. Perhaps its transparent design inspires institutional transparency. And it may be a prudent investment that pays off.

For now, it is a building without much of its own history, without the stories to tell from its predecessor. For me and others who have spent countless hours at IOC headquarters, Olympic House is a radical break from the past.

But in the time that this new headquarters has been built, some 50 new members have joined the IOC. Most have no memories of the past building, no connection at all.

For them, this is the headquarters of the future IOC.

Reported in Lausanne by Ed Hula.