Eternity Playhouse
Site Visit
Historic Imagery
From 1930 to 1956, the word ‘Eternity’ was chalked in perfect copperplate writing around inner Sydney by a mysterious figure. One morning Arthur Stace, street cleaner, was caught in the act, by a Reverend Thompson of the Burton St Baptist Church and asked if he was ‘Mr Eternity’. ‘Guilty, your honour.’ Since then, the well-loved story has taken its place in Sydney history.
The main entry to the new theatre uses the original church entry on Burton Street, where the arched openings are restored. A generous new stair descends to where an old dank basement is now opened up and daylit for the new foyer, café bar and box office.
3D Views
Drawings
The underside of the new raked seating is lined in reused timber from the original church floor, forming a lively ceiling to this busy area.
Construction
The former rear wing, from the 1930s, was insufficient to accommodate all the support spaces, so a new four-level addition was designed, linked by a glass foyer with sculpted stair and lift.
Internally and externally, original finishes have been conserved. Elsewhere, TZG’s concern for sustainability and waste minimisation has led to the re-use of salvaged material from the original building wherever possible.
Awards
2014 Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage, AIA National Awards.
2014 Greenway Award for Heritage Architecture Creative Adaption, AIA NSW.
2014 Master Builders Association NSW – Adaptive Reuse of an Historic Building (Construction $5M – $10M)
2014 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Award for Adaptive Reuse.
Team
Peter Tonkin, Julie Mackenzie, Jeremy Hughes, Bettina Siegmund, Nazia Kachwalla, Roger O’Sullivan, Tamarind Taylor.
Collaborators
TZG Heritage.
Consultants
Simpson Design Associates, Tony Youlden, Wood & Grieve Engineers, Acoustic Studio, GRS Reports, Accessibility Solutions, Glendining Minto & Associates, Cini Little, Varga Traffic Planning.
Photographer
Brett Boardman.
