The Adelaide Festival Centre, with enduring identity-change effect on South Australia, gets upgrades 2017-18, 2025
Adelaide Festival Centre theatres, originally built between 1970 and 1850, were oriented toward the River Torrens after its $90 million upgrade in 2017-18. Another internal upgrade was scheduled for 2025.
Adelaide Festival Centre, winner in its 50th year of the 2023 Jack Cheesman award for enduring architecture from the Australian Institute of Architects South Australia chapter, was to get another $35 million internal upgrade in 2025.
The Jack Cheesman award jury said Adelaide Festival Centre "is not only instantly recognisable, it also represents an important period in South Australian history and is integral to our identity as the Festival State."
Hassell architect John Morphett in 1969 led the festival centre design that maked "a major step forward in modern architecture" for South Australia. Morphett recalled: "The feeling of the city at the time was one of a large country town. People didn’t go out much at night. The arts were almost unknown.”
Delivered in three phases between 1970-1980, the centre comprised a 2,000-seat Festival Theatre for large orchestral concerts, opera, ballet, musicals and conventions as well as a 635-seat drama theatre complex with what became the Dunstan Playhouse, a flexible experimental performance studio later known as the Space Theatre along with galleries and event spaces.
Hassell, with ARM Architects and landscape architects TCL and Aspect Studios. led a $90 million redevelopment of the festival centre in 2017-18 to better integrate the arts hub with the River Torrens and Elder Park. New entries to the main theatre and Dunstan Playhouse were created plus major technical and equipment upgrades. Disability access to all three theatres was increased, Elder Park kiosk upgraded, an interactive children's play arts playground added and the Festival Theatre foyers renewed. Repairs to the Dunstan Playhouse shell fixed the exterior and resolved long-standing issues with degraded concrete and water seeping. New entrances and direct access to the upper and lower foyers from the new integrated plaza and car park were made via escalators and additional lifts.
Festival Drive was lowered to lead into the centre's car parking, with improved pedestrian access between Adelaide Railway Station and the Torrens footbridge which gives access to Adelaide Oval. A Hollywood-style walk of fame featured many stars who'd performed at the festival centre. The upgrades included widening the east-west promenade and easier access to the Dunstan Playhouse and Space Theatre.
Under the 2025 upgrade announced by the South Australian government, new seating wouldbe installed in all three theatres and lighting in the foyers and auditoriums improved. The stage flooring in Dunstan Playhouse and Space Theatre will also be refurbished. These works are in addition to the upgrade of the western plaza (between Festival Theatre and Dunstan Playhouse). A lift would make it easier for families with strollers and mobility aid users to access the theatre. The fire and safety systems also would be improved including smoke detection and occupant warning system upgrades, new emergency lighting and sprinkler-system upgrades.
The southern approach to the festival centre also was transformed by the $610 million Festival Plaza redevelopment.