KIRK designs new life into CBDs historic Peoples Palace

The History

The former People’s Palace in Brisbane built for use by the Salvation army as a temperance hotel originally opened in 1911. The building is now in private ownership and operated as a backpacker hostel. The building is listed in the Queensland Heritage Register, so it is protected by the Queensland Heritage Act 1992.

The People’s Palace was originally built as one of several temperance hotels in Australia and New Zealand by the Salvation Army, a Christian church and charitable organisation, to provide comfortable accommodation where alcohol was prohibited.

The Salvation Army bought the Brisbane site, at the corner of Ann and Edward Streets in 1908, and assigned its in-house architect, Colonel Saunders, to design the hotel. When completed in 1911 the People's Palace was a substantial brick building. The building included three floors, basement, a prominent corner tower, and balconies overlooking the two streets. Three additional floors were added year or two later. The Salvation Army maintained operation into the 1970's when it leased the premises to a commercial hotel operator. Around 1985 the church adapted parts of the building to serve as offices for its social services. In 1996 the church sold the People's Palace building to the present owner, which is currently being leased and operated as a backpacker hostel.

KIRK - Peoples Palace - Conceptual Render Brisbane CBD

The Approach

Ultimately, the goal is to reinvigorate this landmark building with a harmonious new design that will capture the cultural history and legacy of Brisbane and reinstating the building as part of its diverse and powerful built tapestry, and the Queenslander vernacular can stand shoulder to shoulder in and around the modern streets of the CBD. The revived People’s Palace will become a cultural destination, exciting and inspiring guests, and exceeding their expectations.

The People’s Palace is but one building, of the detailed historic fabric of the Brisbane CBD, that will benefit from the ongoing transformation and cultural revival of its historic structure. The new life designed for the Peoples Palace, will draw new audiences to the city and encourage visitors to experience its unique legacy and vibrant activity. The People’s Palace is positioned as a hidden gem, which can be discovered as part of the Historic Fabric, aided by the major enhancements to the rooftop that reinvigorated key links between the City’s cultural venues.

The basis for the proposed works arose due to two reasons:

The challenging market conditions for the current tenants.’ The hospitality business required more exciting guest experiences and suites; and
The necessary and urgent building repairs are required to improve the building's condition. The +100 years old building suffers from water ingress and aging services, which are at the end of their serviceable life.

The refurbished roof deck experience & guest suites are designed to complement and enhance the historic qualities of the People’s Palace. Key materials are selected, for both cladding and structure, to simplify the extent of the work and speed up the delivery of the project. Prefabricated Mass Engineered Timber (CLT & GLT) has been designed to fast-track the replacement of the guest room enclosure and roof on the roof deck.

Mass Timber

The extension building utilises CLT as the primary vertical structure. This increases the column-free useable floor area with the added benefit of providing a more solid façade, thereby providing a very efficient building envelope. The resulting effect of exposed timber structure, smaller intimate column-free floor plates, and windows produces a completely new typology for the hotel guest suite.

To enable timely delivery of the new roof deck guest suites, the refurbishment’s structure is CLT which will be expressed internally and allows for a much shorter build time when compared to conventional systems and be a safer and quieter material to work with. Timber buildings also generally have a lower embodied energy, being a sustainable and efficient alternative to traditional construction systems like steel and concrete.

The versatility and lightweight nature of the timber mean it can be designed to be easy to disassemble, recover, reuse, recycle and be designed into historic structures. Prefabricated timber can also reduce construction periods.

Collaboration

KIRK collaborated with a Heritage Architect and proposed to fast-track the Heritage Council approval process, a Contractor to confirm the supply of materials and constructability sequences (due to the inner CBD site location), and Structural & Services teams to carefully work with the constraints of the historic building, and a surveyor / 3D scanning specialists to provide current and accurate record documentation.

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