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The Messenger Headquarters building extension The Messenger The ALMA Correlator Wolf-Rayet stars with VLTI Galaxy mass assembly at z ~ 2 No. 135 – March 2009 –March 135 No. The Organisation An Extension for ESO Headquarters Robert Fischer1 who also designed the neighbouring Institute for Plasma Physics in a building Jeremy Walsh1 Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics. It located about four minutes walk away had 120 offices, an auditorium, work- from the Headquarters. In 2007 more shops, laboratories and storage rooms. offices were rented from the Max-Planck 1 ESO The generous curves and lack of Institute to house the ALMA staff, whose 90-degree corners are two of its defining numbers were increasing rapidly during characteristics. The original building the construction phase. By the end of The ESO Headquarters was completed had four floors and some basement area. 2008 the ESO “campus” consisted of the in 1980, but is now too small to house By the end of the 1980s, however, with Headquarters building, two temporary all the ESO staff and currently only about the gradual increase in numbers of ESO buildings and two locations of rented 50% reside in the original building. staff as the number of telescopes at offices with a staff complement of 444, A decision was taken to seek an exten- the La Silla Observatory increased and only 230 of whom were actually located sion to the Headquarters building in with the development of the Very Large in the original Headquarters building. close proximity to the current one and Telescope (VLT) project, the addition of a a competition was launched for archi- fifth floor was necessary. When the VLT The difficulties of working closely on joint tectural designs. Three designs were became operational in 1998 and as more projects with offices spread over an shortlisted and the process of selection ESO member-state countries joined, ex tended area were not just perceived. In for the final design is described. Con- more staff were recruited; the need for 2007 a decision was made to try to im­­ struction will begin in 2010 and is due more offices had to be satisfied by a pre- prove the scientific atmosphere by bring- for completion in 2012. fabricated office block (“portakabin”) in ing all faculty astronomers, fellows, stu- the car park. As more VLT Unit Telescopes dents and science visitors together in the came online, new instruments were main building. Logistically this proved When ESO moved from temporary offices commissioned and the ALMA project en­­ possible only for a short while and new at CERN, Geneva, in 1980 there were a tered its planning phases, staff numbers total of 40 staff members. The Headquar- increased again and a second temporary Figure 1. Montage of the 20 entries for the Architec- ters building was designed by the archi- building had to be erected. In addition, tural Competition for an extension to the ESO Head- tects Hermann Fehling and Daniel Gogel, offices were rented from the Max-Planck quarters. 2 The Messenger 135 – March 2009 scientific staff, e.g., for ALMA, are increas- received and all are shown in Figure 1. The Figure 2. The three prize-winning architectural con- ingly located in offices in the ALMA jury assessed the designs, and awarded cepts for the Headquarters extension building in their revised form. Left: Koch and Partner, Germany; building. The situation is exacerbated by two first prizes (€25 000 each), a third Centre: RISCO, Portugal; Right: Auer + Weber, the small number of meeting rooms and a fourth prize (€15 000 and 10 000 Germany. and the limited size of the auditorium, respectively) in October 2007. One addi- which can only seat about 100. The tional very innovative design, which did (see the aerial photograph on p. 26 of instrument assembly hall and laboratories not however meet the local building regu- The Messenger 130) and the original are also too small for the level of develop- lations, was recognised with a “purchase” com petition had specified this position. ment and the typical size of second prize (€5000). This land is owned by a consortium generation VLT instruments. An important of local farmers. However negotiations issue was the need for further expansion The top three prize-winning concepts, could not be concluded by the time of the after the European Extremely Large shown in Figure 2, did not fulfill all the revised tender and it was decided to Telescope (E-ELT) design study was ap­­ re quirements and further technical clarifi- site the building to the southeast on land proved in 2007 and a substantial increase cation was required, such as the link to owned by the Max Planck Society. in scientific and engineering staff is re­­ the current Headquarters building and the The rent for this land will be paid by the quired to develop Phase B (see Spyromilio realisation of the instrument assembly German Federal Ministry of Education et al., 2008). In order to improve com- hall/laboratory complex (whether as a and Research, just as is done for the land munication and the proximity of the sci- separate building or integrated into the on which the current building is sited. ence, operations, engineering, software extension). The baseline proposal would and administration groups working only have been sufficient to provide towards common goals, to raise the team 476 work places together with the current Final selection focus and to provide ESO with a hallmark Headquarters building. Given the building that embodies its profile, an expected increase to 520 by the time of In the final round of the selection process, increase of office, conference and work- completion, an expansion of 1100 m2 was the three prize-winning architects could shop space by an extension to the considered necessary. The new office revise their original concepts to take into present Headquarters building was pro- and conference extension would then pro- account the decision to have two build- posed. Provision of an extension to vide a total floor area of 9500 m2 and ings as part of the extension — separate the existing building was confirmed by the the technical building 2900 m2. For com- office and workshop/integration build- ESO Council. parison the existing building has a floor ings. The three concepts were assessed area of 10 200 m2 and the storage hall a between June and October 2008. On surface area of 770 m2. Thus the exten- 28 October the ESO Contract Award Architectural designs sion almost doubles the existing area of Committee agreed that the design by the current Headquartes building. By the Auer + Weber best met all the high level The specifications for an extension to time the new building is completed, the requirements by providing, in particular, the ESO Headquarters building were de­­ current one will be more than 30 years old the very important parameter of one fined with careful consideration of future and is in need of major maintenance and signature ESO Headquarters building. expansion and enhancement of the upgrading; it was decided to include this This recommendation of the committee current facilities and a Call for Tender for upgrade in the revised concept. This con- was approved by the ESO Council on architectural concepts was drawn up. cept was then submitted for revised ten- 2–3 December. The same architect’s This was sent to 24 architectural offices der to the three prize-winning architectural office was also responsible for the award- in the ESO member states on 11 July firms with a closing date of 13 June 2008 winning design of the Paranal Residencia. 2007 with a deadline for entries of 24 Sep- with the aim of achieving “one signature tember. An international jury consisting headquarters”. A fixed fee of €75 000 was of eminent architects, representatives of awarded for each submission. The new extension the town of Garching and ESO was constituted to judge the designs. Twenty Initially it was planned to build the exten- The first concept submitted by Auer + responses to the Competition were sion to the south of the current building Weber was already marked out by its The Messenger 135 – March 2009 3 The Organisation Fischer R., Walsh J., An Extension for ESO Headquarters laboratory is a circular building and, although separate, will be accessible by a tunnel from the existing building. A large cleanroom will be housed within the workshop building. As part of the process of approval for the building plans, a presentation to the local authorities took place at ESO Garching in December 2008. The ESO Director General Tim de Zeeuw outlined the rea- sons for seeking a new building and the proposed architectural solution was presented by Professor Fritz Auer from the office of Auer + Weber. The planned extension received the full support of the town of Garching and the District Office of Munich. The final aspects of the design are cur- rently being agreed and construction work is expected to begin in early 2010, with the new extension ready for occupancy in 2012. With the ESO flag flying above its signature Headquarters, the staff will be in pole position to manage the current activi- ties — La Silla Paranal Observatory, ALMA, construction of the E-ELT — and Figure 3. Ground plan of the Auer + Weber design for further in the dimensions of several to forge the next large astronomy project. the ESO Headquarters. The single circular building to aspects, such as internal light wells that the north is the technical building. are identical to those of the ESO tele- scope mirrors (2.2, 3.6 and 8.2 metres). References harmony with the existing building; the The two buildings will be connected Spyromilio, J.
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