At the end of May a competition for the town-planning vision sketches of the New Centre of Riga in Tornakalns, the Riga City Council and the State Administrative Complex was announced.

Applicants can submit their offers up to 3rd September.

“With the help of the New Riga Centre Project, the Riga City Council would like to obtain not only a modern administrative complex but also to develop the Tornakalns territory in general, arranging new residential areas and the public area with a recreational zone accessible to all residents of Riga,” indicates Director of the City Development Department of the Riga City Council Peteris Strancis.

The aim of the competition is to create the preconditions for the optimal development of the territory in Tornakalns, by obtaining architectonic sketches of the 21st century New Riga Centre town-planning and the Riga City Council and the State Administrative Complex. The sketch obtained as a result of the competition will become the basis for development of the detailed planning and the New Riga Centre construction programme in Tornakalns. The total area of the competition territory is 457,151 m².

Historically, the situation has been established that the Riga City Council Departments and other structural units are located in different parts of Riga. In order to increase efficiency of the Municipality operation and to reduce expenses, which directly (transport expenses, phone call expenses, etc.) and indirectly (time spent by employees for travelling, hampered communication between the employees, information flow between the departments, etc.) appear as a result of different locations of the departments, the decision has been is taken to unite the Riga City Council administration in one building. The new administrative facility of the Riga City Council is planned to be built beyond the Riga Centre, facilitating the infrastructure arrangement at the undeveloped territories.

In accordance with the Riga territory planning for the years 2006 - 2018, the territory determined for arrangement of the New Riga Centre, the Riga City Council and the State Administrative Complex is the public construction, the centre construction, the technical construction, plantation and the natural site. Implementation of the Riga City Council complex is planned to be completed by 2013.

Awards
First Prize: 35.000 LVL (lats)  
Second Prize: 25.000 LVL
Third Prize: 10.000 LVL
Fourth Prize: 5.000 LVL
Fifth Prize: 5.000 LVL