One of Melbourne’s favourite live-music venues, Hotel Esplanade, known affectionately as “The Espy” is undergoing an extensive revamp.

The Sand Hill Road Group will renovate and reimagine every inch of the building, opening huge sections of the hotel that haven’t been seen by the public for nearly a century. There will be; a Terrace Garden with retractable glass panelled ceiling, a Public Bar and Main Bar, two kitchens, world class cocktail bars, function spaces, even a podcast recording studio! And, of course, The Espy will also have the Gershwin Room, perhaps the most famous live entertainment room in Melbourne.

A key challenge was designing and integrating the services within a tight heritage building envelope.  Mixing high volumes of people within a music, food & beverage venue, we had to retrofit fire sprinkler systems throughout the building to integrate large kitchen exhaust systems, without compromising the client’s vision for the venue’s redesign. We also provided solutions to minimise the buildings energy consumption and associated CO₂ emissions.