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(Male narrator): City Hall’s highly anticipated reopening is scheduled for April 2013
and the restoration is now really starting to take shape.
Let’s look at what’s happened so far.
In 2010 we stripped away layers that were covering original heritage features,
fixed the roof links once and for all
strengthened the dome ceiling and sent the organ away for restoration.
In 2011 the focus was on strengthening the concrete structure,
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excavating under the Auditorium to make way for a large, central kitchen,
building a purpose-built exhibition space on the roof for the Museum of Brisbane,
removing kilometres of redundant cabling and installing brand new technologies.
In 2012 specialist trades are bringing City Hall back to its glory days,
reinstalling the original timber floor boards,
repairing ornate plaster work.
(Worker): You mix your plaster and then you have to form it as it’s setting.
(Male narrator): Reassembling precious timber joinery,
repairing hundreds of heritage windows,
reinstating the light wells to beautiful courtyards,
painting,
laying handcrafted tiles,
gilding elegant plasterwork,
and restoring the Father Henry Willis organ.
The finishing trades are making great progress as they work to turn rooms from this,
to this,
and this,
to this.
One of the highlights is surely the new dome ceiling inside the Main Auditorium.
The new ceiling is stronger,
has improved acoustics and fire safety
and with over 8 and a half thousand LED lights
will return the heritage features of the central lantern and ornate plasterwork back to its elegant best.
Since January 2010 tens of thousands of people have been involved in guided tours,
visited displays and shared their stories to celebrate this once in a lifetime restoration.
Now it’s time for you to leave behind a legacy of your own.
A Time Capsule will be placed inside City Hall when the building is finally reopened.
The Brisbane 2012 Time Capsule will be reopened in 2059 and will share our stories with future generations.
Fifty years ago this is what Brisbane was like.
What stories do you want to leave behind for your grandchildren about what life was like for us in 2012?
Visit the Brisbane City Council website to upload your photo
and short story for the Time Capsule and be parts of the future of City Hall.
As you can see there’s still much work to be done
but every day City Hall gets one step closer to being the people’s place once again.
More than 60 000 Brisbanites have supported the National Trust Brisbane City Hall Appeal.
Join us and help bring back the best of Brisbane.
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