O’Rourke is now starting construction work for the £1.3bn redevelopment of London Olympia by Yoo Capital and DFI, after completing a year’s worth of enabling works at the site.
Olympia Central Hall will be demolished to be replaced by a 1,575-seat theatre, while Olympia National and Olympia Grand, both Grade II listed, are being incorporated into the site’s overall redevelopment and will continue to host events while works are taking place.
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Across the development, work is beginning on a total of seven new buildings – including the previously announced citizenM and Hyatt Regency hotels, plus the 4,400 capacity live music venue that will be run by AEG Presents – and will be completed in 2024.
Laing O’Rourke will use its design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) capability, to manufacture the buildings’ walls and floors, and a large proportion of its M&E services offsite in a factory.
The developers anticipate a total of 80,000 cu m of bulk excavation at the site – the equivalent of 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Due to the size of the site and the number of buildings included in the works, construction will involve 13 tower cranes and 10 hoists. This includes the tower crane currently installed to construct the Olympia West Hall which, at a reach of 75 metres, is the biggest on a non-infrastructure project in the UK.
Meanwhile, a new energy centre that provides heating for the whole development and cooling for the exhibition areas is nearing completion.
Laing O’Rourke’s enabling works have also involved structural strengthening to the West Hall exhibition space, to allow for the two-storey music venue to be constructed above, which will be completed in the coming weeks.
Laing O’Rourke’s director of UK building, Paul McNerney, said: “This marks a significant milestone, allowing our team to progress to the main construction work after a year of successfully delivering significant enabling works, through a pandemic. We are proud of our appointment as construction partner. By harnessing our experience of complex and city-shaping projects together with our focus on modern methods of construction, we look forward to delivering this world-class complex for London and bringing Yoo Capital and DFI’s compelling vision to reality.”
Lloyd Lee, managing partner at Yoo Capital, said: “This is an important and historic moment in the redevelopment of Olympia. Olympia Central first opened in 1930 and now we bid farewell as we usher in an exciting new era for the site and London as a whole. Despite the challenges of the covid-19 pandemic, works are well on schedule. In fact, from a construction perspective, we have been really fortunate and have taken maximum advantage of the exhibition areas being vacant so everyone on site has been able to spread out and maintain social distancing.”
The Olympia redevelopment is due to be completed in 2024.
