The Broadmeadows Town Hall, or Pink Elephant as it was fondly known in its beginning, is an important repository of community memory. The recent renovation re-instates its suburban-civic grandeur and transforms the space around it from sea of carpark to urban place. In a sign of the times its now a hybrid of many functions, not exclusively civic, cultural or commercial but all.

Two dramatic cuts have been made to the previously impenetrable northern face to create a north south street, and a circular portal over three floors. These reveal the life and activities within including a community business incubator, gallery, office space and of course town hall and event spaces. Around the perimeter a cluster of small, service elements define more human scaled pocket landscapes which kick start the council’s plans for a more pedestrian friendly precinct in the future.

In life and in photos the town hall interior has functioned as background to decades of personal milestones and civic events: weddings, citizenship ceremonies, debutant balls, tango classes and basketball games, car club meets and so on. So our approach to its upgrade improved the buildings performance without diminishing its capacity to trigger memories of the past.