History of the ATV Centre
Designed by Mr. Richard Seifert and offically opened by Princess Alexandra on Thursday 19th March 1970, it was a breakthrough in British Television. Built on the site of a former cinema and car park, part of the Paradise Cirus site on Broad Street Birmingham, it was equipped to broadcast in colour and had around 11, 000 sq ft of studio space, it dwarfed their old Alpha Studios with only 4500 sq ft. The first transmission was done in September of 1969, and the first live transmission the following month, only a year earlier the centre was just a hole in the ground.
This marked the end of two years planning, building and installation work. As well as the studios, all the required departments for modern television production were on site as well. It became ATVs new company operations head quarters for the whole ATV network. All televised material went through the Paradise Centre. The company's managing director, Sir Lew Grade launched a competition to rename the complex, the winner was ATV Centre.
The three main studios were constructed as suspended concrete boxes, sat on a flexible base. This prevented sound or vibration from effecting it the recording, the gap between the studios can be seen from inside the building.
ATV lost their franchise in 1980 and ceased broadcasting at the end of 1981, with Central taking over on 1st Januray 1982. Central inherited the ATV Centre, and renamed it as Central House. It remained as Centrals main base of operations until 1996 and finally closed in 1997 when Central West's regional news moved out. The site was inventoried, and a lot of the equipment was auctioned off. It is now being demolished, as it is no longer viable to use it and the building itself is suffering from 'concrete cancer'.
There's a lot more information on SubTV's website.