How Do You Refurbish a Major Cultural Venue Without Compromising Its Operation?

Refurbishing a major cultural venue is very different from working in an empty building.

Galleries, museums and cultural spaces need to continue welcoming visitors, hosting exhibitions and supporting staff while construction takes place around them.

So how do you deliver a complex refurbishment without compromising the building’s operation?

The answer lies in careful planning, communication, flexibility and experience of working in live environments.

Our refurbishment of The Light Restaurant at the Towner in Eastbourne provided a perfect example.

Working around the client

The Towner is one of Eastbourne’s best-known cultural venues, and our project involved the refurbishment of its existing second-floor café to create a new restaurant, kitchen and bar.

The project took place while the gallery remained operational, with the venue also preparing to host the Turner Prize.

There was therefore no option to simply close the building and get on with the work. Instead, the construction programme had to work around the gallery’s day-to-day operation.

The gallery closed on Mondays, allowing our team to schedule particularly noisy or disruptive activities with minimal impact on visitors and staff.

This kind of approach requires careful coordination of deliveries, demolition, drilling, installations and other construction activities.

On a live project, the construction programme becomes part of the client’s operational programme.

Working safely in an occupied building

The existing café was stripped out and the new restaurant required structural alterations, new mechanical and electrical services, ventilation, flooring, panelling, decoration and bespoke joinery.

Some of the work presented additional logistical challenges.

Large structural steel had to be safely lifted over the existing balcony and positioned within the building, requiring careful planning and coordination.

The new ventilation system also required penetrations through the existing concrete roof. Our specialist team carried out the necessary diamond drilling, allowing the works to progress efficiently while maintaining control over the process.

We also created a full-scale mock-up of the new hanging lights to ensure they wouldn’t collide in windy conditions when the balcony doors were open, safeguarding both the installation and the client’s visitors once the restaurant opened.

Working in a live environment means considering much more than the construction itself. Dust, noise, access, deliveries and visitor safety all need to be carefully managed.

Refurbishment rarely goes exactly to plan

One of the realities of working with existing buildings is that you don’t always know exactly what you will find until the work begins.

At the Towner, unforeseen complications were identified during the project, requiring changes and additional work.

Our team worked closely with the client and project team to develop solutions and keep the project moving.

That ability to adapt is one of the most important qualities a refurbishment contractor can bring to a project.

The drawings tell you what should be there. The building tells you what is actually there.

Quality still matters

Keeping a building operational doesn’t mean compromising on the finished result.

The new restaurant required a high-quality finish that complemented the gallery environment, including a contemporary bar, bespoke joinery, upholstered seating and a new kitchen designed around the client’s requirements.

The completed space provided a light, contemporary restaurant that complemented the gallery and created a new destination for visitors.

The project was delivered as a design-and-build scheme, requiring close collaboration between Hawes, the architects and project management team.

That communication was particularly important when unforeseen issues arose and the design needed to adapt.

The skill of working in a live environment

Towner is just one example of the challenges involved in refurbishing an occupied building.

At Hawes Construction Group, we have experience working in a range of live environments, including cultural venues, healthcare, education and community buildings.

Every project is different, but the principles remain the same:

Plan carefully. Communicate constantly. Protect the people using the building. Adapt when circumstances change. And never compromise on quality.

Because sometimes the best measure of a successful refurbishment is what visitors don’t notice.

The drilling, demolition, deliveries, structural work and problem-solving happen behind the scenes while the building continues to do what it was designed to do.

That’s the skill of refurbishing a live cultural venue: construction happens, but the experience doesn’t have to stop.

Contact us to find out more about what we do.