WHO opens sleek new site as iconic building cleansed of asbestos

WHO opens sleek new site as iconic building cleansed of asbestos

GENEVA- The World Health Organization, which is leading the fight against the COVID pandemic, has relocated its operations to a new building while its 1960s structure is refurbished and cleansed of asbestos. The United Nations agency held its first in-person news conference since July 2020 on Monday. Journalists were ushered into the sleek new premises through a connecting passageway and open space cafeteria to the state-of-the-art conference room. "The last time we hosted you, in July last year, none of us could have imagined that almost 18 months later, we would still be in the grip of the pandemic," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. Jean Tschumi, a renowned Swiss architect who designed the original 1966 building with its glass facade and aluminium sun visors, also designed the award-winning Nestle headquarters in Vevey at the other end of Lake Geneva. Both structures are considered gems of modernism. His architect son Bernard Tschumi was on the jury that selected the design for the expanded WHO campus. "Our Sunday morning walks were on construction sites", he told the Geneva daily Le Temps. Significant safety issues including fire risks were identified at the main building, the WHO website says. "The appropriate precautionary