Lovell Chen designed, documented and administered the complex
adaptation of the Emily McPherson College — RMIT Univerity's Building 13, the neoclassical structure built as the School of Domestic Economy in 1926.

The building has been transformed into a next-generation collaborative learning environment housing two lecture theatres, five classrooms, a multipurpose hall and an informal student lounge. The new uses are most evident from the rear of the building, which has been reconfigured to include a glazed 'street' at ground level, with the new lecture theatres above and below juxtaposed against the conserved and reinstated eastern façade of Old Melbourne Gaol.

Building 13 is included in the Victorian State Heritage Register and at the project's inception was connected to a former part of the Old Melbourne Gaol complex. Our involvement went beyond the scope of conventional architectural services in that it included the provision of heritage consulting and conservation architecture.