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DESIGN STATEMENT FOR PROPOSED HOTEL AT NO 5-7 CHURCH STREET, MUDGEE

The Regent Theatre is an iconic building situated in the heart of Mudgee’s town centre. Located on Church street the building benefits from a central location and views to Lawson Park and Cudgegong River. The theatre was built in 1935, designed by Douglas Smith for an audience of 986 people. Its Art-Deco style gives the building a very distinctive architectural character.

The theatre has been closed since 2009 and a recent development application has been approved to transform the building into a 34 apartment mixed use development.

Mostaghim & Associates’ proposal’s intention is to transform the existing theatre into a Hotel, keeping its historic architectural features and bringing the building back to life.

The proposed hotel will provide 84 rooms distributed over 5 storeys, a cafe on the ground floor level, pre-function room on the first floor, a double height ceiling function room on the second floor and a rooftop bar on level 4. With this arrangement the main parts of the building will be accessible to the general public and life will come back to the lobby of the building. The glass doors at the front will connect the building to the street and it will be

possible to see people having a coffee at the proposed cafe, going to and from hotel rooms, up and down the existing stairs and attending functions and meetings.

The current proposal is specially sympathetic to the existing theatre, not only the front section of the building will be retained but side boundary walls will also be kept and internal spaces re-used. The historical character of the Theatre will be preserved on the exterior, interior and it will extend to the decoration of the hotel.

The existing entry foyer will be reinstated and re-used as the hotel lobby and the candy bar will become a small cafe. The ticket office will also be converted to the hotel’s reception space.

REGENT THEATRE ENTRY

ART-DECO WALL FEATURE

The Art-deco decorative features on the side boundary walls will be replicated in weatherproof and fireproof material and will be an attraction to the rooms facing those walls.

Theatre equipment and cinema paraphernalia will also be re-used and integrated to the hotel decoration.

CINEMA THEATRE EQUIPMENT

The design intent was to provide a contemporary interpretation of the Art-deco style of the original building, providing a simple facade marked by strong horizontal bands and secondary vertical elements distributed along the northern facade. That will form an elegant backdrop to the heritage item. The top floor is setback, has a finer structure and it is in a dark colour to make it recessive and reduce the bulk of the building.

NORTH ELEVATION

The vertical elements that articulate the facade consist of perforated mesh screen and are also a contemporary reading of the geometric decorative elements present on the Art-deco architecture.

The proposed colour palette was carefully selected to provide a desired level of sophistication to the hotel without conflicting with the existing building. The dark background colour helps to visually reduce the scale of the building and the white and the gold highlight the other elements that provide visual interest to the design. EXAMPLE OF PERFORATED SCREEN

The proposed car parking with access to Short street will address the residential character of Short street and its streetscape by the use of brick pier & picket fencing and quality landscaping. The selected fencing materials are characteristic and sympathetic to the residential area and other dwellings on the street.

It is in our opinion that the Regent Theatre is an important piece of Mudgee’s history and the simplicity of the proposed design will complement the architecture of the existing building. The proposal will enhance the use of the building and re-integrate it to the town centre.