A major refurbishment of the IET’s London home, Savoy Place, transforming it into a global engineering hub, will include a brand new roof terrace. The venue will reopen in October 2015.
The announcement comes as the IET moves into the final months of a £30 million refurbishment. The IET has been closed since July 2013 and the refurbishment includes a number of permanent exhibitions celebrating the central role engineering plays in our everyday lives.
New permanent exhibitions will include “100 ways engineering has changed our lives”. A range of items such as the computer and mobile phone to robots and the railway to refrigeration and the internal combustion engine and the 100 most popular, as voted by IET members, will be on display at Savoy Place.
Another one of the exhibitions – in the building’s two central stairways – will celebrate engineers who have impacted on society since 1871, when the IET was formed. The likes of electrical pioneer Michael Faraday; codebreaker, Alan Turing; famous female engineer, Caroline Haslett; and radio pioneer, Guglielmo Marconi have all been voted for by IET members and will take their places in the exhibit. And, they will be joined by some of the most recent winners of IET awards such as the Faraday Medal and Young Woman Engineer of the Year.
Nigel Fine, IET Chief Executive, said: “Engineering and technology have transformed all our lives and continues to advance our health and wellbeing.
“Boasting state of the art facilities, the refurbished Savoy Place will provide a global engineering hub for IET members and the wider engineering and technology community.
“The IET has been at Savoy Place for over 100 years and the completion of the refurbishment will mark the beginning of an exciting time – we are confident we that we are building a first class venue that the industry will enjoy.”
Along with the roof terrace and permanent engineering exhibitions, key improvements to the venue will include cutting-edge technology, an enlarged riverside suite, a brand new second lecture theatre, state of the art boardrooms and a ‘sesame lift’ at the front of the building, enabling the stone steps to retract automatically for wheelchair access. There will also be an improved members’ area including a resource centre and meeting and work space.
IET London: Savoy Place will open its doors for internal events on October 15, with the venue fully opening on 1 November 2015.