Main entrance space with arched glass roof opens after nine-year construction programme
The first phase of Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC’s £1.3bn transformation of the Olympia has opened to the public following a launch party held last week.
The mixed-use project has linked previously separate buildings across the historic 14-acre site, moving all logistics underground and creating 2.5 acres of new public terraces, squares and walkways.
The project was unveiled to invited guests at a launch event last Tuesday in The Canopy, a restaurant and bar-lined corridor beneath an arched glazed roof which marks the main entrance to the complex.
The 1,000sq m space sits above the site’s exhibition hall and beneath five structural steel arches, each with a span of 22m, which support a roof comprised of 520 pleated glass panels designed to reference Olympia’s grade II-listed Grand Hall.
Once fully complete, the site will feature a range of cultural and commercial spaces including the largest new permanent London theatre in almost 50 years and a variety of new hotels, restaurants and bars.
Heatherwick Studio founder Thomas Heatherwick said: “Olympia has held a strange place in the hearts of Londoners, sitting at the centre of our city, hosting so many unusual events, yet simultaneously closed off to most of us. It certainly wasn’t a place to take your family or go on a date.”
Heatherwick said the firm’s work over the past nine years had sought to open up the site “so anyone can enjoy it, whether they’re going to a play, a music concert, an exhibition, or simply wandering around”.
He added: ”What was once a lifeless perimeter is now a place where you can feel the city’s energy. The new Olympia reflects a quiet confidence, showing that we can take extraordinary British heritage and adapt it with care, imagination and purpose for the future.”
Heatherwick Studio partner and group leader Eliot Postma said: ”We haven’t sought to impose something new but learn from what’s already there, working with Olympia’s Victorian structure - its span, rhythm, and generosity.
”The real challenge was how to intervene at this kind of scale without losing the things that make this place special. The Canopy is a really complex piece of engineering that had to sit lightly within a historic setting, unlock movement across the site, and create a new space for London.
”Together, we’ve turned an inward-looking venue into something much more connected and human.”
The next phases of the refurbishment to open will include two hotels, the 204-room Hyatt Regency London Olympia and the 146-room citizenM London Olympia, both expected to open in July.
A 500-capacity music venue connected to the complex’s grade II*-listed Pillar Hall is set to open this autumn and Olympia Way, a 250m-long pedestrianised street, is set to complete later this year.
Meanwhile, a 550,000sq ft office building called One Olympia will open its doors to tenants this year including Premier League’s new content production arm, Premier League Studios.
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