The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced two major changes that will help it restructure and rebound following recent economic losses.

The institute will shed staff and sell its surplus property as it looks to redevelop its 66 Portland Place headquarters according to reports published today in The Architect’s Journal and Building Design.

RIBA is currently facing a budget deficit after reported earnings for the year 2020 failed to match its £28.2 million expenditure by a figure of about £8 million ($10.8 million).

The organization is now looking to sell its offices at 76 Portland Place in order to reduce overhead after an internal audit reportedly revealed that approximately 89% of full-time staffers feel more comfortable working upwards of three days a week outside of the redesigned administrative center.

In addition to the sell-off, RIBA has also announced a new competition that would completely overhaul its adjacent 87-year-old art deco office originally designed by George Grey Wornum.

The redesign project is part of newly-elected RIBA president Simon Allford’s campaign promise to make the organization’s headquarters a “House of Architecture.” Allford said the building must be upgraded to better accommodate people with disabilities in addition to complying with its own environmental challenge that would reduce carbon emissions to net-zero by the year 2030. 

In addition to the renovations, Allford has said the institute will look to add three new public gallery spaces that will be overseen by a new director of programming, which the former Sterling Prize winner will look actively to recruit.

Allford told a meeting of RIBA’s governing council that the institute hopes to break even by 2022 or 2023 if all goes accordingly. A final version of the annual financial report will be published by the end of the month. Archinect will have more on the redesign competition once the brief is officially announced.