Morris Hall, Anglican Church Grammar School

The recent refurbishment of Anglican Church Grammar School’s Morris Hall coincides with the School’s centenary celebrations. This important facility was in need of an upgrade to both the interior and technical facets, ensuring the students have a ‘state of the art’ performance hall.

Project Details

Architects
Brand + Slater Architects

Address
Oaklands Parade, EAST BRISBANE Q 4169

Submitter
John Slater, Brand + Slater Architects

Cost
$5,800,000

Photographer
Mindi Cooke

Project Overview

Brand and Slater Architects were approached by Anglican Church Grammar School to renovate and enhance their much loved school hall, Morris Hall. Central to the school‘s social, cultural, musical and community activities, the hall was no longer meeting the school’s needs. The school’s approaching Centenary year proved the impetus to renew the hall. The Hall’s completion, together with the recently landscaped Magnus Quadrangle adjacent, launched the Centenary year celebrations. 

The project team were enlisted to assist expand the existing facility, maintain the existing functions of the hall, but enhance the operations to allow for contemporary functionality and superior technology systems and framework. The extension provided additional floor space for mechanical plant, storage and delivery of props to the venue, new green room facilities and improved backstage and inter-level access. A lift was installed that would provide much needed internal access between 3 of the floors but was challenging to position so that it was ideally positioned to give access to the levels as required but all within the confines of the existing structure and theatre installation.

The existing hall with its Theatrical installations – orchestra pit, fly tower, lighting bridge – are rare for a school hall to have. These were to remain and new ‘state of the art’ integrated AV system with fully operational touch screen panels for day to day use and comprehensive facilities for sound and video engineering for entertainment, performing arts and major events brought the halls operations and stage engineering education facilities up to modern standards.

The existing halls interiors were in much needed of refurbishment. The school’s brief to modernize the hall yet espouse a traditional character resulted in the use of dark Granite and Queensland Maple to complement the royal blue School colour. Working within the existing hall envelope had its challenges, notleast being the acoustics of which the existing volume of the hall required involved modeling and scenarios of materials to achieve the effective result.