Heritage | Lovell Chen

Our expertise spans the full scope
of heritage advisory services

heritage: realising value & negotiating pathways

Industry Leaders

Lovell Chen is a national leader in heritage practice. We have extensive experience in realising value and negotiating pathways through a diverse range of heritage issues and opportunities. As trusted custodians, our role is to critically engage with the past and ensure the ongoing relevance of heritage places through informed, sensitive stewardship. Challenging assumptions is critical to our effectiveness – we understand that heritage is not static.

Our expertise spans the full scope of heritage advisory services, including heritage assessments, management plans, heritage studies and statutory approvals. At all times we are guided by best practice guidelines and protocols, including the Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance, 2013 (Burra Charter).

GOODS SHED BALLARAT

Image © Matt Dunne

GUILFORD AND HARDWARE LANEWAYS HERITAGE STUDY

Image © Peter Glenane

WESLEY PLACE

Image ©Trevor Mein

Problem Resolution

We make no assumptions. Age alone does not confer value; each place is assessed on its own merits, with cultural, social, environmental and economic factors considered in a contemporary context.

Nuance and complexity are the conditions in which we work best. We are adept at resolving complicated heritage challenges and developing lateral, innovative responses that unlock potential. Whether navigating contested histories or negotiating the tension between heritage values and development pressures, we offer clarity, creativity and strategic foresight. Our solutions draw on a rich archive of knowledge amassed over 40 years and leverage an interdisciplinary team skilled in understanding, interpreting and working with history to create sustainable, new legacies.

EQUITY CHAMBERS

Image © Peter Clarke

FLINDERS STREET Station

Rigorous Practice

Lovell Chen's approach to heritage is grounded in forensic research. Every project is an opportunity to reveal and reinterpret the layered histories, values and meanings that connect people to place. This demands sensitivity and creativity, qualities that our team of historians, conservation specialists, architects and researchers bring to each commission. By engaging with diverse perspectives, including those of cultural knowledge holders, communities and project stakeholders, we devise socially responsible, technically robust and culturally attuned outcomes.

We are trusted by government bodies, institutions and regulatory authorities to bring discretion and rigour to heritage projects, and we are supported by long-standing professional networks. As a respected voice in the advancement of heritage practice, we also recognise the need to reassess existing frameworks — from listings and approvals to the criteria that shape them.

ANU BIRCH BUILDING

Image © Mark Syke

OUR SERVICES

HERITAGE ADVICE/APPROVALS & EXPERT EVIDENCE

Lovell Chen’s advice, design review and approvals services provide practical support to owners of heritage properties. Our approach seeks to strike a balance between owners’ requirements and the conservation of our diverse cultural heritage.

Common triggers for advice concerning a heritage building or place include due diligence, proposals for new development or subdivision, and plans to alter, extend or demolish all or part of a heritage building or place. In every case, we are guided by best practice guidelines (including the Burra Charter) and relevant statutory controls.

Our approvals service includes:

Preliminary appraisal of the relevant issues
Preparation of a heritage impact statement
Stakeholder consultation and meetings with relevant authorities
EPBC Act self-assessment and referral (Commonwealth)
Technical discipline services for Environment Effects Statements (Victoria)
Co-ordination of the permit process, including the required advertising
Expert witness services, hearings and appeals

HERITAGE MANAGEMENT PLANS

Heritage (and conservation) management plans are a critical tool in guiding the management, conservation and development of significant heritage structures, places and areas.

The strength of our in-house skills, and knowledge of the broader heritage context, enable us to optimise the relevance of management plans for owners, site managers and approval authorities. We also bring to their preparation an understanding of the practical considerations of living with or managing a heritage place. Our clients include individuals and organisations, and local, state and national government bodies.

Our highly experienced team delivers rigorously researched documents that are consistent with best practice guidelines and include a detailed description of the heritage place, an assessment of its heritage significance, and practical guidance and recommendations on conservation and management. We ensure that statutory requirements are met, including compliance with any relevant heritage authority guidelines, and we evaluate for all relevant values, including social value.

STRATEGIC PLANNING & ASSESSMENT SERVICES

Lovell Chen provides a comprehensive range of strategic planning and heritage assessment services.

We are skilled in preparing heritage studies at the local, state and national levels. Heritage studies require the identification and assessment of places for potential application of heritage controls. The range of places we investigate includes individual properties, collections or groups of sites (precincts), places of archaeological significance and landscapes. We are highly skilled in this work, with an experienced in-house team of historians, architectural historians, architects and planners — partnering with archaeologists and other specialists, as required. The integration of planning expertise into the heritage study team is particularly advantageous.

Core components of heritage studies include Thematic Environmental Histories, detailed histories of local areas which act as valuable tools for comparative analyses, a process that informs the relative significance of similar places. And central to every project is a systematic assessment of significance, where the historical, aesthetic, technical, social and associational attributes of places are analysed to support on-going management.

Strategic planning and heritage assessment services provided also include policy development on behalf of statutory authorities, as well as heritage guidelines, public education and outreach.

Our experienced team of heritage consultants is also regularly called upon for peer reviews of studies and analyses.

SITE INTERPRETATION

Lovell Chen has an established track record in all aspects of site interpretation, from strategic planning to the design and delivery of interpretive displays. Our heritage team is highly experienced in the preparation of interpretation strategies and content and works closely with our architects and conservation specialists to develop integrated interpretive elements for adaptation schemes.

Effective interpretation reinforces and sustains connections between communities and heritage places, and enhances an understanding of their significance. Heritage interpretation also has more tangible benefits. The process has the potential to assist in place making, wayfinding and establishing an identity for heritage places undergoing change.

All our interpretation work is grounded in a shared understanding of the significance of place.

Sustainability & Conservation

Melbourne Town Hall

Caring, upgrading and maintaining Melbourne's civic heritage

Strategy & Stewardship Sustainability & Conservation

Flinders Street Station

Project focused on conserving and refurbishing the fabric; making the building watertight, improving its structural stability and preventing deterioration