ESE students visit Bloomberg

European School of Economics students visited the impressive Bloomberg offices in the heart of the City of London. The new European headquarters, completed in 2017, is the first wholly owned Bloomberg building in the world, designed by the acclaimed British architect, Sir Norman Foster. True to his style, he sets new standards for sustainability and innovation and raises the bar for future offices around the world.

Built from traditional stone and bronze it fits respectfully into the City while adding character and gives back to the community with its ground level restaurants and prosaic style.

On entering the building the students were impressed by how the space energises and welcomes staff and visitors with its aesthetics and the feeling that this environment can only enhance and encourage a new level of productivity and collaboration.

We were met by our well informed guide, Salah, who was proud to inform that the building delivers a 73% saving in water consumption and a 35% saving in energy and associated CO2 emissions. The students were able to visit the different areas of the building which provides financial software tools, such as analytics and equity trading platform and data services. It is also a major media conglomerate that is a provider of financial news and information, research and financial data. They observed the live news room in the heart of the building. The main revenue earner for the company is its Bloomberg terminal which provides snapshot and detailed information about financial markets and gives financial professionals the ability to track and analyse breaking news across the globe.

The students were offered Bloomberg hospitality in the open restaurant area providing snacks, drinks and meals constantly throughout the day. The commanding views form the seating areas are spectacular- one side is the view of the iconic old city with the imposing view of St Paul’s Cathedral and as a contrast, the view on the other side is of the modern skyline of tall, contemporary London.

The tour continued on the vortex ramp that winds in a trefoil spiral for over 200 metres through the building connecting the office floors in a meandering loop, allowing views between the levels, to connect the 4000 employees who work at bespoke sit-stand desks. The ceilings are covered with 2.5 million polished aluminium petals that serve as light reflectors, sound baffles and coolers, chilled by water from above and create a starry sky above the endless fields of desks. The ventilation system – also highly sophisticated as air flows up in a central vent and is cooled and circulated.

Our group terminated the visit in the Roman Temple of Mithras, which was discovered, along with over 14,000 artefacts, in the construction of Bloomberg, and a series of contemporary art commissions responding to one of the UK’s most significant archaeological sites.

All in all a day to remember!