(ATR) The IOC is renovating its headquarters at Chateau de Vidy, hoping to move all of its departments to one central location.
Sandrine Tonge, a spokesperson for the IOC, tells Around the Rings around 150 staff work at the current headquarters, while 300 staff members are located in five offices throughout Lausanne.
"The idea is to extend and transform the existing headquarters to centralize the IOC's operations," she said, explaining the decision to ATR.
Under the current setup, she said the result is "a loss of synergy and additional operating costs."
An international architecture contest was kicked off on March 28. A jury of IOC members and technical experts will make a recommendation on submissions, with the IOC Executive Board to make a decision at its meeting in December. The EB has been briefed on the initial progress of the competition, Tonge said.
The extension of the IOC headquarters was approved in principle by the EB last December.
Shortlisted candidates will receive $32,000 to develop their designs, and an IOC document says more than $100,000 is available for three prizes.
Few aesthetic guidelines are given to potential designers, other than: "Whether or not to retain Olympic House, built in 1986, and the multifunction centre, built in 2005 between the Château and Olympic House, is left to the choice of the candidates in the framework of developing the future headquarters,provided that evidence of these is left."
The IOC wants a new building that is "roughly" 70,000m3 and ground surface area of 18,000m2. The campus has an available 2.4 hectares of land.
The new building comes after renovations of a flood that damaged the current headquarters last year. Tonge said all damages were repaired and all staff were repatriated.
"The last step is for the cafeteria to be fully operational again," she said. "This will happen at the end of this month."
Written by Ed Hula III.
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