Hospitality mix at Woods Bagot Palace

Architecture firm Woods Bagot will shift its Perth studio to the Palace Hotel on St Georges Terrace in May, after overseeing a comprehensive restoration of the historic building that will also incorporate a bar and restaurant.

Landlord Brookfield Property Partners has spent $11 million refurbishing the building to bring it back to its former glory, a process it contracted Woods Bagot to oversee.

The architecture firm, which recently ranked sixth in Building Design magazine’s annual poll of the world’s top architects, will take up the first and second floors of the three-storey building, built in 1897.

Brookfield remains on the lookout for a tenant for the remaining ground floor space, which Business News understands will be a high-end hospitality operation.

Fit-out works for Woods Bagot’s studio are under way.

Regional executive chairman Mark Mitcheson-Low said the fit-out would pay homage to the former use of the 118-year-old hotel, while also allowing Woods Bagot to explore innovative new ideas in workplace design.

He said the firm would focus on highlighting the original features of the hotel, including fireplaces, tile mosaics and original timber, all of which were imported at the time of construction, while also installing new technologies such as wireless internet and videoconferencing facilities.

“We really want the heritage to come back and breathe life into an iconic building that everyone in Perth knows about, but at the same time, we also wanted to mix contemporary design with heritage design and make it a bit eclectic,” Mr Mitcheson-Low told Business News.

“We are also developing a new interior for us and a new way of working.

“We’re using an agile-based system so not everyone has a desk and we’re using activity spaces, but at the same time we are blurring the lines between hospitality and workplace.

“We still want it to feel like a hotel and we still want it to be welcoming and treat our clients like guests.”

Along with collaborative working spaces, boardrooms and casual meeting rooms, Mr Mitcheson-Low said a club-style lounge on the mezzanine level of the building and an entrance lobby complete with a concierge would add to its hospitality feel.

The refurbishment is the first works done on the building since Bond Corporation restored the hotel in the early 1980s, part of the conditions of its development approval to build the office tower at 108 St Georges Terrace.

However, the hotel shut its doors in 1986, was converted into a bank and was used for that purpose until Bankwest shifted to its new headquarters at Raine Square in 2012.

Woods Bagot has taken a 10-year lease at the Palace Hotel, with its current lease at 342 Murray Street set to expire in coming months.

The firm is not the only prominent architecture practice in Perth to move to an iconic address, following HASSELL’s shift to the old Commonwealth Bank building in Forrest Place last year.

Other architecture firms housed in heritage properties include Cox Howlett + Bailey Woodland, at 360 Murray Street, as well as Cameron Chisholm Nicol, at Sheffield House.

Mr Mitcheson-Low said heritage buildings were often a natural fit for architecture studios.

“Our clients quite often like coming and sitting and working in the studio space because they can see what’s being built, see their designs coming forward right in front of them and see people working on them,” he said.

“People like that more relaxed sort of space.

“For us, it's part of a bigger strategy of getting to a place that we'll be comfortable in for the next 10 years and have the expansion space within it to do what we want to do.”