Three recent project signings — Melbourne’s Regent Theatre, Her Majesty’s Theatre in Ballarat, and Hobart City Hall in Tasmania — highlight our long and continuing track record of working in the specialised field of theatres, and event and performance spaces. The skills of our architecture, conservation and heritage teams are often all needed in the restoration, conservation, upgrading and adaptation of theatre buildings and venues, each of which poses individual challenges.

The extraordinary interior of the Regent Theatre (1929)
[ photo: Christopher von Menge ]

We are returning to the highly ornamented Regent Theatre after more than 20 years — a major restoration and reconstruction project was completed in 1996 in collaboration with DBI and Peck von Hartel Trethowan. It is one of three intact interwar picture palaces in the city, now converted into a live venue.

Patrons ascend the stairs in the restored foyer of the Princess’ Theatre
[ photo: Peter Glenane ]

In Spring Street, works are currently underway on our latest project at the Princess’ Theatre — conservation of the exterior, including restoration of the 1920s paint scheme. We first worked at the Princess in 1989, refurbishing it to accommodate big new musicals from London and Broadway, and again in 2016 when the stalls foyer was restored. The Princess is Melbourne’s oldest theatre.

Other theatre and performance venue projects include …

— Palais Theatre: major repair and refurbishment works and reinstatement of the original exterior scheme (2017)
— Meat Market Arts House: adaptation of a heritage building (2003)
— Circus Oz: adaptation of a former technical college building for all things circus (2014)
— Arts Centre Theatres, Melbourne: conservation management plan for the Victorian Arts Centre
— Sidney Myer Music Bowl: heritage management plan for the first and only large scale outdoor performance venue in the country (2017)