Media Environments Brochure

Media Environments

We are architects, engineers, designers and urbanists.

Placemaking for a Modern World We design at every scale and at every stage in the process of placemaking, from visioning to briefing, design, delivery and operation. The places we create are distinct; social, natural, useful and beautiful – a reflection of humanity.

The practice has grown to over 1,200 people operating from a collaborative network of global studios, all creative hubs connected to the cities and regions they serve.

BDP has an enviable track record of delivering innovative, sustainable projects in a number of sectors and for a diverse range of clients – both public and private, they include Google, AstraZeneca, Netflix, PwC, The Royal Albert Hall, IKEA, Berkeley Homes, Great Ormond Street Hospital and many more.

Our global practice

19

Studios

N America New York Toronto

12

Countries

S America Lima

6

Regions

UK

Birmingham

Liverpool

Cardiff

Manchester

Bristol

Edinburgh Glasgow Leeds

London

Sheffield

Europe Dublin

Rotterdam

MENA

Abu Dhabi

Asia Pacific New Delhi Shanghai

Singapore

Professions Ar

Architecture

Ac Acoustics BSE Building Services Engineering C&S Civil and Structural Engineering DM Design Management GD Graphic Design InD Inclusive Design ID

Interior Design

La Landscape Architecture Li

Lighting

Ma Masterplanning Pl

Planning

Su Sustainability UD Urban Design

Media Environments Our media team creates exciting environments that support the creative output of the entertainment industry bringing design excellence, acoustical performance and technical integration within content-secure facilities.

We are building the spaces where digital creatives want to work. We enjoy a reputation of being world leading media environment designers though facilities in all aspects of content creation, production and the creative workplaces that support them. We work with some of the most respected media groups in the industry such as Netflix, Hudson Pacific, Hackman Capital Partners, Rogers Media, Company3 and both the BBC and CBC. As architects and designers, we integrate technical expertise, design creativity and business acumen with exceptional service. Our media environments portfolio for the past 35+ years has clearly demonstrated our ability to create exciting, effective projects that support the output of the entertainment industry.

Media Hubs

In a digitally convergent industry, many leading companies are bringing together all aspects of digital creation and output into a single media hub.

These projects leverage the co-location of data centre power and speed with all elements of content creation and distribution. These hubs are urban in nature to draw on the talent pools that cities have to offer. They often become cultural and creative workplace accelerators for their neighbourhoods.

Maison Radio-Canada

Corus Entertainment Ar ID

InD

Location Toronto, Canada

Client Corus Entertainment Completion 2010

Consolidating many dispersed Corus offices into a single space, Corus Quay features complex technical areas, barrier-free design and a LEED designation, all while reflecting the style and personality of the company’s brand. Corus Entertainment’s headquarters is an award-winning space that incorporates facets of wellness and fun with practicality and feasibility. It is a beautiful space that facilitates its high-tech function, all the while being sustainable and accessible.

Nouvelle Maison Radio-Canada Ar ID

InD

Location Montréal, Canada Client Broccolini Construction Inc Completion 2020

In the new CBC/Radio-Canada media centre, creators and programmers work within modern and versatile spaces which support the collaborative workplace strategy of the digital, multiplatform public broadcaster. The building features clear and simple wayfinding that connects its programmes around a central, sky-lit atrium, providing natural light on all floors.

Rogers Television City at Yonge Dundas Square Ar ID

InD

Location Toronto, Canada

Client Rogers Communication Canada Inc. Completion 2009

Renovation of this five-storey building created a visually engaging focal point for one of Toronto’s most vibrant and intense urban meeting places. Adaptive reuse of an existing building involved major structural moves to create a column free ground floor studio onto Yonge Dundas Square. A plug-in backbone infrastructure supports the open, interactive style of programming pioneered by Citytv.

299 Queen Street West Ar

ID

Location Toronto, Canada

Client CHUM Television Completion 2004

An iconic heritage building repurposed as the headquarters of the CHUM television empire, 299 Queen Street West is both a content-producing centre for multiple channels and a social hub for fans and viewers. From the content it produces to the parties held outside its doors, its revitalisation integrates a symbol of the past with a vibrant contemporary context.

Sportsnet Studios

Broadcast

We work with many private and public broadcasters. We have built everything from single radio studios in remote communities to the recently completed new headquarters for the Canadian Broadcast Centre consolidated French language services at the Maison Radio Canada in Montréal.

Sportsnet Studios Ar ID

InD

Location Toronto, Canada

Client Rogers Communication Canada Inc. Completion 2021

When Canadian telecom giant Rogers Communications moved to consolidate their Sportsnet studios at their main campus in downtown Toronto, BDP Quadrangle designed a new space dedicated to the iconic Hockey Night in Canada programming. The design team adapted space in the existing heritage building to suit the needs of a television studio, which included strategic interventions such as maximizing ceiling height, levelling the floor slab, and adding an internal acoustic barrier along the exterior façade to both assist lighting control and block noise infiltration from the busy urban street outside.

Rogers Centre of Excellence Ar ID

InD

Location Toronto, Canada

Client Rogers Communication Canada Inc. Completion 2018

Rogers Centre of Excellence (COE) consolidates master control facilities for television, special events and radio networks into a non-traditional open plan design. The master control area is the focus of the facility with support spaces located on the periphery. The open plan permits “follow me monitoring”, allowing staff the ability to monitor various signals from anywhere in the space, and can be customized to support special programming events without affecting the day to day operations of the facility.

Basin Media Hub

Film and Television Studios

In a world where entertainment is now across all consumption platforms, feeding a global appetite for increasingly more content, production centres for film and television can’t be built fast enough. We are working with industry leading investors, developers and operators across the sector to create innovative fast-track delivery processes to meet the demands of an exponentially growing sector. We specialize in developing conceptual feasibility through to multi-phased build-outs for film and TV studios.

Pinewood Studios Ar

ID

Ma

UD

Location Toronto, Canada Client Filmport Studio Completion 2008

Pinewood Toronto Studios was developed as FILMPORT in 2008 with the largest clear span stage of 60,000 SF. The facility includes stages, productions offices and support shops and service facilities. The complex has hosted Academy Award winners such as The Shape of Water and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Basin Media Hub Ar ID

InD

Location Toronto, Canada Client Hudson Pacific Properties Completion Ongoing

Stemming from a CreateTO competition, Basin Media Hub is a television and digital media production studio with a secure and reconfigurable six-stage studio complex as well as an additional 23,000 sf sound stage, addressing content providers’ skyrocketing demand for production space. A complete suite of generous support and back-of-house facilities is also included in the design alongside thoughtful adaptive reuse of the existing heritage Sun Oil building and integrated with environmental and planning challenges at this site located in Toronto’s Portlands.

Canadore College Sound Stages Ar ID

InD

Location North Bay, Canada Client Canadore College

Study Completion 2021

Canadore Studios will provide new production space for the film and television industry with three sound stages that can support two productions at a time. In addition to the production stages, there will be a full slate of support facilities connected to the sound stages. The 135,000 sf facility will include two 25,000 sound stages and one 10,000 sf flex stage to accommodate a fully-virtual LED studio.

Partnering with Canadore College for workforce training, the facility will bring North Bay and Northern Ontario production capabilities to a new level.

Hamilton Film Studios Ar

InD

ID

UD

Location Hamilton, Canada

Client Aeon Studio Group Completion Ongoing

A live-work-play community consisting of three components: a film studio hub aimed at film, television, gaming, animation and music; multifamily residential buildings with streetrelated retail uses; and commercial space for businesses, events, learning and training and events for the film and related creative industries.

First Studio City Ar ID

InD

Location Markham, Canada Client 4 Entertainment Group

Study Completion 2020

First Studio City has ten sound stages and associated facilities that can support up to two feature films at a time. Supporting the productions is a full slate of support services with two atria spaces providing weather-protected connections within the studio blocks. The Super Stage would be the largest purpose-built sound stage in North America. 10 soundstages including one 80,000 sf super stage, production offices, retail promenade, facilities for set design, wardrobe, equipment, post-production, edit suites and VFX.

Pre and Post Production

Pre-vis and post-production spaces can be stand alone facilities and are increasingly forming part of consolidated media hubs to allow for seamless content creation. These types of facilities are a particular specialty of ours, involving the most challenging aspects of adaptive reuse, renovation and technology integration. These spaces often combine the needs of creative workplaces and large-scale data management and security.

Deluxe Toronto

Deluxe Ar ID

InD

Location Toronto, Canada

Client Deluxe Entertainment Completion 2014

Deluxe occupies a three-storey space in a renovated 1990s data centre that contains open concept workspaces, a welcoming atrium and highly specialized post-production facilities for movies and videos. Boasting a custom private cinema for client screenings on the top floor, Deluxe exemplifies how an underused office building can be tailored to accommodate even the most unusual and specialised clients.

IMAX Testing Theatre Ar ID

InD

Location Mississauga, Canada Client IMAX Corporation Completion 2015

An overall rebranding and refreshing of the IMAX office, lobby and common spaces.

A 200 seat state-of-the-art testing theatre was added, designed to accommodate evolving projection and sound technologies as well as new acoustic treatments, providing IMAX with a much-needed facility which supports their quest for the most enthralling movie experience in the world. Client IMAX Corporation Providing IMAX with a much-needed facility to support the company in their quest for the best immersive movie-viewing experience in the world.

Maison Radio-Canada Central Technical Equipment Room

Data Centres

Supporting advances in digital technology and capacity, data centres have become both the backbone of a studio facility providing high-capacity fibre network from stages and postproduction offices and standalone data centres serving cloud computing.

All modern industry now depends on some form of data management.

Data centres are a critical part of any businesses operation and can be created within an existing facility, or be built as new purpose-built facilities.

Understanding the business goals, local codes and the needs of a given market are key to making these projects a success.

Corus Entertainment Ar

ID

Su

Ac

Location Toronto, Canada

Client Corus Entertainment Completion 2010

Consolidation of 11 business locations was central to the vertical planning to optimize cabling and distribution in the facility. Comprised of 250+ racks, the center supports live to air radio and TV studios, pre- and post-production rooms and animation studios. It was one of the first facilities designed to house all CPUs for ~1,000 employees that provided a fully centralized, digital plant that allows staff to work how and where they want without being tied to a specific desk. The facility is fully redundant from a cooling and power standpoint to ensure it never goes dark and supports 24/7 operations.

Creative Workplace

The ingenuity and creative force of an industry that informs and entertains requires great workplaces.

The design of creative workplaces, particularly those that support production facilities, need to foster creativity, comfort and productivity.

They must generate emotional comfort and reduce stress. These spaces must be high-performing yet feel informal and inspiring as the workforce in these industries work under intense pressure for long hours.

Artscape Launchpad

Google UK HQ Ar

Ac

GD

ID

Li

Su

Ur

Location London, UK Client Google UK Cost £650m

Completion 2024

The first wholly owned and designed Google building outside of the United States, provides 1 million sq ft of purpose-built space and combined with its current building at 6 Pancras Square, and an additional third building, will create a Google campus. We are lead consultant, design delivery architect, lighting and interior designer, and workplace planner, working with concept architects Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingels Group to deliver the scheme.

House of Cool ID

InD

Location Toronto, Canada Client House of Cool Completion 2019

House of Cool, an animation company with a unique niche in digital storyboards, lives up to its name in their new home at the Toronto Waterfront Daniels City of the Arts. The space is bright and inviting with a tongue-in-cheek ‘house’ design feature at the heart of the studio that houses their kitchen and entertainment space. The family-room comfort and quirky touches are mixed with highly functional and flexible furnishings throughout the studio to respond to their project work flow. Within their first year, they are already expanding, creating space for more animators and offline edit suites.

OCAD U CO Ar ID

InD

Location Toronto, Canada

Client OCAD University / The Daniels Corporation Completion 2018

The first off-campus outpost for OCAD University, OCAD U CO is an all-in-one design research lab and design-thinking facilitation and training space that features four large innovation studios, an open plan transit space, private niches and meeting spaces to suit any project’s needs. The design echoes the Sharp Centre for Design, visually linking the project to OCAD’s strong brand identity.

Artscape Daniels Launchpad Ar ID

InD

Location Toronto, Canada Client Artscape

Cost Confidential Completion 2018

Launchpad is a first-of-its-kind incubator where creative entrepreneurs can learn the skills and create the work to launch their careers, providing affordable access to equipment, programming and an environment that fosters collaboration.

With over 90 distinct rooms that each have their own unique feel, the space is amongst the most complex assembly occupancies in Toronto and features wood, jewellery, prototyping and fashion workshops, high-tech media labs, meeting, event and social spaces.

Creative Arts Hub Ar

Ac

C&S

Li

Location Norwich, UK

Client City College Norwich Cost £215m

Completion 2013

The Creative Arts Building provides state of-the-art facilities and supports City College Norwich’s vision to deliver outstanding and innovative creative arts in purpose built facilities.

The inspiring new building, with a Norfolk timber shed typology, provides three purpose-built floors for performing arts rehearsal spaces, digital arts and traditional art and design including fashion.

Oldham Town Hall

Theatres

Classic performance spaces vary greatly in size and sophistication.

BDP has a wealth of experience in delivering the range of these spaces from traditional performance, public cinemas to specialty testing theatres for new IMAX technology. The need for exceptional acoustical performance along with the highest standards of comfort are common to all these projects. Our theatre experience brings together architecture, interiors, inclusive design into often complex restoration and renovation projects.

Royal Northern College of Music Concert Hall Ar Li

Ac

Location Manchester, UK

Client Royal Northern College of Music Cost £7m

Completion 2014

The concert hall is located at the centre of the college and had remained largely unchanged since the building’s construction in 1972. The dramatic redevelopment included the construction of an additional balcony, to increase its capacity from 460 to 650 and to enable the college to maintain its international standing. The structural support of the new balcony was designed to sit almost entirely within the building’s original walls, incorporating a cantilevered structure and limited intrusions into the existing building fabric. The result is an elegant design which also creates a feature at the back of the hall, highlighted with architectural lighting.

Oldham Town Hall Ar

Ac

La

Li

Location Oldham, UK

Client Oldham Council Cost £32.5m

Completion 2016

The award-winning restoration of the iconic Grade II listed old town hall, bringing the building back into use as a cinema. As much as possible of the historic fabric of the building was conserved, whilst creating a new cinema and restaurant complex and a symbol of regeneration for Oldham.

Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York One of four academic buildings forming part of Ar

Location York, UK

Client University of York Cost £16m

Completion 2010

the Heslington East Campus at the University of York. The building for the department of theatre, film and television offers a full range of technical facilities designed to professional standards including a variety of performance spaces. The facility includes two TV studios with adjacent control rooms, a 150-seat screening theatre with digital projection and Dolby surround sound, a flexible black box theatre space doubling as a shooting stage for film and TV work, and a 200 seat scenic stage theatre.

Greg Livingstone Principal

greg.livingstone@bdp.com

Jeff Hardy

Principal, North America jeff.hardy@bdp.com

Cover: Artscape Launchpad

Photography: Nick Caville, Craig Auckland/Fotohaus, David Barbour, Ant Clausen, Doublespace Photography, Bob Gundu, Roland Halbe, Hufton + Crow, Richard Johnson/10X10 Frames, Arasah Moallemi, Michael Muraz, Scott Norsworthy, Ben Rahn/A-Frame, Barry Roden, Philip Vile, Michael Whitestone, Adrien Williams, Terrence Zhang

Mark Simpson

Key to professions:

mark.simpson@bdp.com

Ac Acoustics

Principal, Chair of Design, Head of Workplace, London

Ar

Architecture

BSE Building Services Engineering C&S Civil and Structural Engineering DM Design Management GD Graphic Design InD Inclusive Design ID

Interior Design

La Landscape Architecture Li

Lighting

Ma Masterplanning Pl

Planning

Su Sustainability UD Urban Design

bdp.com

“ BDP creates environments to support the creative output of the media industry in exciting design spaces with robust acoustic performance, seamless technical integration all within content‑secure facilities.”

Greg Livingstone and Jeff Hardy Co-heads of Media Environments

We are architects, engineers, designers and urbanists.