History

At the invitation of the Austrian Federal Government, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) established their headquarters in Vienna in 1958 and 1967, respectively. In the 1970s, the Austrian Government provided a permanent residence for these two organizations, the Vienna International Centre (VIC). To make full use of the new facility, other United Nations units were transferred from New York and Geneva to Vienna. Many of them were consolidated in the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV). Transferred from Beirut in 1978, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in West Asia (UNRWA), was provisionally headquartered at the VIC before it was relocated to Gaza City in 1997. In March 1997, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) was established at the VIC.

The VIC complex covers an area of 180,000 m² and has extraterritorial status. It was handed over by the Austrian Government to the United Nations and the IAEA for a symbolic rent of 1 Austrian Schilling per year (or, now, €0.07) for 99 years. Maintenance and operating costs for the VIC (in 2003 about $19.5 million or €15.5 million) are born by the four VIC-based Organizations (VBOs). The VIC comprises about 4,500 offices, 9 conference rooms and, in 2004, accommodates about 3,600 international civil servants from about 100 countries. The Y-shaped office towers are between 48 m and 120 m high. The construction costs of approximately € 640.000.000, were shared by the Federal Government (65%) and the Municipality of Vienna (35%). Vienna, together with New York, Geneva and Nairobi, is one of the four headquarters duty stations of the United Nations.

In 1966, the Austrian Federal Government made an offer to the United Nations to construct an international headquarters centre in Vienna. In 1967, the Federal Government and the Municipality of Vienna, in a joint decision, designated an area on the left bank of the Danube as the site of the Centre. An international competition for the design of the buildings at Vienna’s Donaupark was organized by the Government of Austria in 1968. It produced world-wide interest among architects and resulted in 288 submissions. In September 1969, the international jury awarded four prizes but declared that none of the prize-winning designs were suitable for immediate execution in their original form. The jury recommended that the four be commissioned to revise their designs and provide detailed plans for the first building phase. Accordingly, the Austrian authorities invited the four to submit revised projects, retaining the fundamental ideas of their design, but taking the jury’s comments into account. The revised designs were submitted in April 1970. A nine-member expert committee was appointed by the Austrian authorities to review the revised designs in the context of the detailed specifications issued for the second stage of the competition. At the conclusion of these detailed reviews, the Austrian architect, Johann Staber was designated the winner and the winning design was announced on 18 December 1970 by the Federal Chancellor of Austria. Construction having begun in 1972 under the general direction of the Internationaler Amtssitz und Konferenzzentrum Wien (IAKW), the VIC was inaugurated on 23 August 1979. Separate agreements were signed by the IAEA and Austria and between the United Nations and Austria on behalf of UNIDO and the other United Nations offices at Vienna on 28 September 1979.