The VIC, designed by Austrian architect Johann Staber, was built between 1973 and 1979 just north of the river
Danube. The initial idea of setting up an international organization in Vienna came from the
Chancellor of Austria Dr.
Bruno Kreisky. Six Y-shaped office towers surround a cylindrical conference building for a total floor area of 230,000 square metres. The highest tower ("A Building") stands 127 metres tall, enclosing 28 floors. These office towers were among the first modern skyscrapers to be built in Austria. About 5,000 people work at the VIC, which also offers catering and shopping facilities (see
Commissary below) and a
post office (postal code 1400 Wien). Two banks (
Bank Austria,
BAWAG P.S.K. and
United Nations Federal Credit Union offices),
travel agents and other commercial services have offices on the premises. Complementing the early 2000s
asbestos removal works in the VIC, a new conference building, previously designated “C2”, now termed “M Building”, was constructed over the existing parking deck near the southern perimeter of the campus, and put into service in 2009. The M building hosted all conferences during the renovation of the C building (previously the main conference facility) from 2009 to 2013. Both M and C buildings are now being used for meetings. Very large conferences can be accommodated in the neighbouring Austria Center Vienna (ACV), a separate conference and exhibition centre with a capacity of 6,000, which has an indoor link to the VIC buildings. The VIC is served by
Kaisermühlen-VIC station on line U1 of the
Vienna U-Bahn (underground railway). The UN Vienna Visitors Service offers guided tours of the VIC for the general public Monday-Friday. ==Organizations==