After 25 years of neglect, the Regent Theatre — one of three intact
interwar picture palaces in Melbourne — underwent major restoration and reconstruction to provide the city with a new live theatre venue. Lovell Chen, alongside its co-architects, researched, designed and
documented the project.

Constructed as a cinema with ballroom beneath, the Regent boasts spectacular Moorish and Spanish Gothic interiors, which have been completely restored. We undertook the historical research and led the documentation team responsible for restoration.

Major tasks included documentation of the lost bronze light fittings
(remade at a cost of over $1m), and designing and documenting the missing furniture, for which we managed an international tender. It was largely made in Turkey. Other work included the investigation of 1920s decorative painting techniques and their revival. The carpets were redesigned from fragments found under later layers.

To replace the missing Wurlitzer organ, once such a feature of picture palaces, an organ of similar age from a San Francisco theatre was located after months of detailed research. It has been installed together with a reconstruction of the Regent's famous hydraulic orchestra pit.