Adaptive Reuse: Working with the Buildings We Inherit

01/10/2026

Some of the most rewarding projects begin not with a blank canvas, but with something that already exists.

An old building. A significant façade. A historic structure that has served one purpose for generations but now needs to work in an entirely different way.

Adaptive reuse presents a different set of challenges to new construction. The starting point is rarely a blank canvas, and what lies behind the walls, floors and façades isn’t always fully understood until work begins.

Heritage significance adds another layer of consideration. Existing fabric needs to be protected and, where appropriate, restored, while new structures, services, accessibility requirements and contemporary uses need to be carefully integrated.

The result is a type of construction that relies heavily on experience, investigation and collaboration.

For McCorkell, this is an area of work that draws on capabilities refined over decades of delivering technically complex projects. It also requires a different mindset on site. Plans need to be considered alongside what the building is telling us. Latent conditions need to be investigated and managed. Heritage requirements need to be understood. And decisions often need to be made collaboratively, with architects, consultants, heritage specialists, authorities, clients, tenants and other stakeholders.

The four projects below each present a different set of challenges, but share the same fundamental task: finding a way to respect the existing building while making it work for a new purpose.

Spencer Street Hostel: Restoration Meets Redevelopment

In the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, the historic Sir Charles Hotham Hotel is entering its next chapter.

Originally built in 1855 and redesigned in 1912 by architect William Pitt, the building has experienced many lives. Most recently operating as a backpacker’s hostel, it is now being carefully restored and redeveloped to provide student accommodation, hostel accommodation and new retail spaces.

Our team is delivering the restoration and redevelopment, including brickwork, balconies and heritage windows, roof replacement, a new DDA-compliant lift, interior refurbishment and new retail and back-of-house spaces.

The project presents a particularly complex set of conditions: a heritage building in a tightly constrained CBD location, live retail tenancies on the ground floor, limited access and the need to integrate contemporary services and compliance requirements into an existing structure.

The challenge is not simply to make the building look new again. It is to understand the building that is already there, protect its significant elements and carefully introduce the changes needed for its next use.

Significant momentum continues across all levels of the project as Spencer Street transitions from structural preparation into major fit-out and heritage restoration works. Externally, the removal of the gantry and internal and annex scaffolding is revealing the completed elevation works and providing a much clearer view of the renewed building from the street. Inside, hard plaster finishes and services rough-in are progressing across Levels 1 to 3 as the project moves into its next phase.

The Next Chapter for South Melbourne Town Hall

Few adaptive reuse projects carry the same civic significance as South Melbourne Town Hall.

Built in 1879, the grand building has played an important role in the social and cultural life of Emerald Hill for almost 150 years. Over its history, it has served as a civic building, library, courthouse, fire station and home to the Australian National Academy of Music.

Today, McCorkell is delivering major restoration and renewal works to prepare the building for its next chapter. The project includes structural restoration and strengthening, upgraded services, seismic compliance works, roof works, accessibility improvements, conservation of the iconic clock tower and carefully integrated additions to the eastern wing and north-west corner.

Improving accessibility within a heritage building presents its own challenges. A new lift shaft has been created within the existing heritage fabric to facilitate the installation of a new goods lift, requiring careful structural modifications while retaining and protecting the surrounding building fabric.

The western addition is another significant component of the works. This involves the partial demolition of existing structures, retention of heritage façades and construction of a new two-level structure integrated into the existing building. The new structure provides additional functional space while maintaining the relationship with the historic Town Hall.

It is a significant undertaking within a building where the existing fabric, heritage significance and future functionality all need to be carefully considered.

It’s been a busy few months for our project team, with major milestones continuing across the building. The new western addition is progressing with structural steel and suspended slabs underway, while finishes and fit-out works are advancing through the eastern amenities and other areas of the building. The seismic strengthening of the Clock Tower is now complete, with refurbishment of the clock face and mechanism, along with structural and façade works, set to commence.

The project will ultimately support two performance venues: a re-imagined 350-seat Main Hall and a new 150-seat venue, alongside rehearsal and studio spaces, meeting rooms, hospitality facilities and improved public areas.

The objective is not to turn the Town Hall into a new building. It is to ensure that this important piece of Melbourne’s history can continue to serve the community for generations to come.

Castlemaine Goods Shed: a new life for a railway landmark

Adaptive reuse isn’t confined to Melbourne. In Castlemaine, a Victorian-era freight building dating back to the 1860s has been transformed into a contemporary creative and performing arts facility.

The Castlemaine Goods Shed has long been an important part of the town’s identity. More recently, it has become home to the Castlemaine State Festival and a hub for artists, cultural events and community activity.

In 2025, our team delivered the second stage of the Goods Shed redevelopment, building on earlier works that established offices, workspaces and community facilities. The project involved structural strengthening, services upgrades, restoration works and significant improvements to the existing performance space.

One of the most significant interventions involved the full structural replacement of failing timber floors within the heritage fabric of the existing rail shed. The new floor structure provides a single, flat multipurpose performance space while allowing the historic character and structure of the building to remain prominent.

Heritage brickwork was carefully restored, while new steelwork was integrated with the building’s existing timber trusses.

Internally, the building was also upgraded with new lighting, rigging, acoustic treatment and back-of-house facilities, creating a flexible venue capable of supporting performances, exhibitions and a broader program of community activity.

Importantly, the project retained much of what gives the Goods Shed its character.

Original timber flooring was repaired and reused where possible rather than simply replaced, while new interventions were deliberately kept visually recessive so that the existing brickwork, roof structure and scale of the building remain prominent.

The result is a building that feels recognisably like the Goods Shed – but is now equipped for another generation of creative and community use.

Collingwood Yards: transforming a heritage precinct

Collingwood Yards demonstrates the scale and complexity that adaptive reuse can involve. The former Collingwood Technical School site had been abandoned for years before it was transformed into a major creative precinct providing affordable space for artists, arts organisations and creative enterprises.

For McCorkell, the project was one of our largest adaptive reuse undertakings at the time and work began well before physical construction. We were engaged through an Early Contractor Involvement process and involved from the early design stages, contributing to design development, constructability, planning and the identification of latent-condition risks.

The construction works involved structural rectification, accessibility upgrades, new services, façade and window restoration, new lift shafts and external stairs, new connections through the site, integrated fit-outs and significant public realm works.

The project also involved creating a new basement studio space within the existing heritage fabric to house PBS’s new studio. Constructing the basement required complex underpinning and structural modifications within the existing building, adding another layer of technical complexity to an already constrained heritage environment.

Working with the existing heritage structures required precision.

New openings were formed within existing masonry walls using temporary engineering and propping, while existing timber and concrete floor structures were strengthened. New external lift shafts and steel stairways were introduced alongside the historic buildings, creating contemporary interventions while retaining the character of the original structures.

Today, Collingwood Yards is home to a diverse creative community and has been recognised through multiple design awards. The project demonstrates what can happen when an existing heritage asset is not simply preserved, but carefully adapted and returned to active community use.

Building on What Exists

There is a particular skill in working with existing buildings. Unlike a new-build project, the starting point is rarely a blank canvas. The building already has a history, a structure, established relationships with its surroundings and, often, layers of change accumulated over decades.

Drawings can only tell part of the story. The rest is discovered through investigation, opening-up works and experience on site. That is where our approach to adaptive reuse is grounded.

We combine construction expertise with early engagement, detailed planning and collaborative stakeholder management. Adaptive reuse projects bring together architects, consultants, authorities, clients, end users and communities, often within buildings that already hold significant meaning. Successfully navigating these relationships is just as important as the construction works themselves. Working collaboratively helps us identify risks early, understand competing requirements and develop practical solutions as the project evolves.

Our work at Collingwood Yards, for example, involved detailed investigations and early design input that helped mitigate latent-condition risks and generate value for the client. At Castlemaine, it meant carefully integrating contemporary performance requirements into a historic timber and masonry structure. And at Spencer Street, it means restoring a historic Melbourne landmark while adapting it for a completely new generation of occupants.

Different buildings. Different challenges. The same fundamental principle.

Respect what exists. Understand what it needs. Build for what comes next.