Gensler鈥檚 plans for a snow resort have been ruled out by the Olympic Park Legacy Committee

Margaret Ford, chair of the Olypmic Park Legacy Committee, has all but ruled out Gensler鈥檚 plans to turn the Olympic media centre into a giant snowdome.

Speaking at Mipim, Ford said that the plan was 鈥渘ot going to happen. That鈥檚 not the plan.鈥�

鈥淭he primary objective is to achieve a high tech vision. We will look at it if we have to but that鈥檚 not the plan. The real goal is employment generation,鈥� she said.

In February architects Gensler, along with Acer Snowmec and ASL Developments proposed to turn the building, which has yet to find a tenant, into a 28,500m2 indoor snow complex with hotels, lesiure and entertainment facilities.

Andrew Altman, chief executive of the OPLC, said that expressions of interest to take over the Olympic broadcast and media centres were sought last November.

鈥淲e want to have key anchors [tenants] in place in 2012 before the Games,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t would be great to fill it all immediately, but鈥t will fill up over time.鈥�

The centres will go out to market in May, and are to be part of London鈥檚 Tech City, where companies including Google support smaller start-up firms to thrive on the site.

Altman said that the centres were likely to be split between smaller tenants and larger anchor companies, and that several major media organisations had expressed an interest in taking on some of the site.

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