The BBC commissions Jaume Plensa

The BBC has commissioned Spanish artist Jaume Plensa to create a steel and glass ‘light sculpture’ to grace the top of its new Broadcasting House complex in central London. ‘Breathing’, which is expected to be inaugurated in 2005, will be a memorial to journalists and crews who have lost their lives in the course of their work. The 10m-high inverted glass spire will be lit at night and will at ‘key’ times project a 900m beam of light. Breathing takes cues from Broadcasting House’s radio mast and the spire of All Souls Church. It is part of the BBC public art programme that also spawned sculptor Rachel Whiteread’s plaster cast of Room 101.