Three bids to redevelop the building after the games being assessed

Allies & Morrison and RPS’s Olympic Media Centre will not end up an embarrassment like the Millennium Dome, legacy chiefs have insisted.

The claim was made at a London Assembly planning committee this week, where Kathryn Firth, head of design at the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), and two colleagues were questioned about the Olympic Park’s long-term future.

Tory member James Cleverly asked of the press and broadcast centres: “What is being done to prevent a repetition of the early years of the Dome?… It’s a huge space… It’s quite Bauhaus in its form following function. Is it going to stay a huge white square?”

Firth said the three bids — to turn the two buildings into a hub for fashion, sport or IT — were being assessed against a set of design guidelines whose goal was to create urban streets rather than a suburban business park.

“There are many ways to architecturally articulate the facade so you don’t have a big blank wall,” she said.

Whoever takes on the running of the facility will have to spend at least £100 million converting it for legacy use, the meeting heard.

The OPLC also promised that the “pepper-potting” of social and private housing throughout the legacy neighbourhoods was fully accepted by the six shortlisted developers.