Industrial Adaptive Reuse wins Launceston Awards
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The 2019 Launceston City Council Heritage Awards has showcased
contemporary additions to residences, the restoration of a theatre to its art
deco heyday, through to the adaptive reuse of a large and complex industrial
site.
The office development at the Launceston Gasworks site for TasPorts has won
the category for projects over $200,000. The award is in recognition
of the challenges, complexities and ultimate success achieved in adapting an
unused industrial building into offices for TasPorts. The
judges’ citation noted that not only did the development bring new life to the
building, it also successfully retained the integrity of the building.
The Gasworks is a local land mark, and the horizontal retort,
which houses the new offices, is one of the earliest buildings
on the site. Pain staking cleaning and repair of the solid sandstone façade along
with the careful insertion of partitions, offices and meeting rooms internally allows the community and visitors to appreciate the industrial scale of the building and its role in Launceston's past.
The restoration, preservation and conservation of a Georgian
outbuilding was the winner of the category for projects under $200,000.