One of Hungary’s largest commercial TV channels, RTL Hungary, has moved into a new home in downtown Budapest, the Liget Center, which is developed and is owned by the WING property development and investment group.
WING describes the reconstructed Liget Center, which is located next to Budapest’s City Park (Varosliget), as “a listed building of outstanding artistic and historical value … reborn in the form of a unique office complex, where WING preserved the original modernist architectural features, while incorporating the latest technology and the special functional needs of RTL’s broadcasting activities.”
During its recent renovation, the listed building complex — consisting of Liget Center Auditorium and Classic — was reborn as a modern and sustainable office complex, preserving its architectural values at the same time. According to WING, “one of the key elements of the development concept is the reconstruction of the Liget Center Auditorium, whose façade facing Varosligeti Fasor is adorned with a relief sculpture titled “Epítomunkasok” (Construction Workers). The building, which has been modernized for RTL’s newsroom and studios, was the congress block of the former MEMOSZ (the National Federation of Hungarian Construction Workers) headquarters, which has been enjoying protection since 1999. The renovation focused on preserving the historic character of the building, the special technological needs of RTL Hungary along with ESG considerations.] [The Liget Center Auditorium is a unique development in the Hungarian office market: a more than 70-year-old facility has been transformed into a near-zero energy building with an ‘A’ energy efficiency and an ‘A+’ CO2 emission efficiency rating.”
The Liget Center Auditorium is home to RTL’s news directorate and the studios for news and other programs, and the new base will be used for broadcasting widely known programs such as RTL News, the Weather Report and Fokusz. The Liget Center Classic building houses the commercial media company’s business premises in the Dozsa Gyorgy ut part of the complex.
The media company has named its downtown base RTL Liget, which is reflected in the green RTL logo on the roof of the building on Dozsa Gyorgy ut.
”We are delighted that RTL Hungary has chosen Liget Center as its new downtown base,” said Noah Steinberg, Chairman & CEO of WING. “The Liget Center fits perfectly with our office development goals of building state-of-the-art, high-quality, sustainably operated headquarters that meet the needs and vision of renowned domestic and multinational tenants in good locations. Our Group has delivered a number of major headquarters projects over the past 25 years, tailored to the specific needs of large corporations. However, a commercial media company has specific technological needs, which also presented us with a significant professional challenge, but I believe our team successfully met these challenges. We thank RTL Hungary for their trust and wish them a lot of success in their new home!”
”The RTL Liget is another important step in our company’s long-standing transformation,” said Gabriella Vidus, CEO of RTL Hungary. “This modern environment enables us to further enhance RTL’s efficiency, increase our speed, and fully capitalize on the opportunities of cross-functional collaboration, allowing us to respond to consumer demands even faster.”
The designer responsible for the renovation of Liget Center Auditorium was TIBA Architect Studio, and the general construction was carried out by WORKUP, a specialized division of FITOUT Zrt. The interior design was executed by LAB5 architects.
The Liget Center project will be completed this autumn, when a brand new boutique office building called Liget Center Vitrum will be built next to the buildings that serve as RTL’s main base.
Image source: Property-forum.eu