Project Team
Interior Design: Cato Design & Theming
Lighting: Lightech
The Richmond Hotel posed a challenging brief for Cato Design & Theming. For the owners John & Carol Quilkey, this was their first foray into Hotels after a very successful career owning and operating award winning restaurants. It was no surprise then that when they took on the Richmond, the first thing they did was open a restaurant in the front section of the hotel named Miss Lizzies. As with their previous restaurants, it was a hit and was warmly received by Lismore and surrounding district for its quality of product, both food and service, which until then was a rarity in the area.
Their attention now turned to the rest of the hotel, it was then that CDT was called in to design and construct an appropriate redevelopment that would compliment and not detract from Miss Lizzies.
The hotel like so many in main streets is land locked. At the rear of the hotel was a large underused internal area. The brief, provide a new restaurant, bar and outdoor area in accordance with the Smoke free Environment Act.
To achieve this CDT proposed an extensive overhaul of the existing infrastructure. The kitchen was redesigned to service both restaurants. Back of house had to run smoothly and efficiently. With this in mind and the limited space available, the kitchen was designed such that limited cross over would occur within it’s confines and wait staff were not required to enter the kitchen proper.
The existing flat roof was replaced with a very high pitched gable roof that was reflected in the new ceiling line, providing an airy outdoor feel of space. Bi-fold doors now run the length of the building and when closed offer an outdoor area undercover complying with the Smoke Free Environment Act.
The Bar, whilst small, offers apart from six beers on tap, full cocktail service. Finishes include a mixture of dry stacked stone and timber to bar face with solid new guinea rose wood bar top. The bar finishes are repeated on feature walls and columns throughout the venue, all complimented with various forms of led effect lighting. One of the main features is the fibre optic edge lit, multi layered sandblasted glass
The gaming lounge was at the same time undergoing a restructure of its own. An EGM layout was produced that complimented the location of all 15. Traffic flow through the room was redirected. Lighting levels were adjusted and enhanced by subtle led effect lighting, providing an environment conducive to both casual and serious punters alike.
With the success of the new kitchen, Terrace Bar and gaming lounge, there were no surprises when the brief was extended to include the only part of the hotel untouched by the CDT flair, the main bar!
After extensive planning and design, CDT were granted a temporary trading shutdown of the main bar for 4 weeks only. All works had to be completed to a satisfactory level that would allow the resumption of trading.
The main bar is at street level and Lismore is well known for its propensity to flooding. With this in mind the design had to include as best as possible a resilience to flood. With notice, equipment can be easily removed. The challenge however, was the main structure and finish to the bar itself. The sub-straight was constructed of masonry with the finish being individual blocks of completely two pack sealed new guinea rose wood. The blocks are mounted in a stacked effect not unlike the stone previously used in the Terrace Bar complete with a black granite bar top. The two areas compliment each other well.
The bar layout employed, successfully reduces staff levels. During times of high demand, which are quite often, the entire bar can operate on a level of efficiency rarely seen. The two beer dispensing areas are of a pass under style offering a selection of 10 beers each. This dispensing style sets up for the patron a natural line of demarcation for the service areas, without the need of railings etc. Even during periods of high demand service is stream lined.
Effect lighting is once again led. Ceiling coffers with lighting pelmets of colour change led provide an adequate level of purpose and effect lighting.
The Richmond Hotel Renovation project was completed over a few stages. Lightech’s role was to provide lighting design services, manufacture of lighting components, installation & commissioning.
Stage 1 – Terrace Bar
The upgrade to the rear of the venue to a new bar/lounge area known as the “Terrace Bar”. In this area we worked closely with the designer Chris Cato of CDT to achieve the vision and brief as set out by him and the clients John and Carol Quilkey. The design for the area includes many stone and timber finishes, a generally earthy warmth was required for the lighting. General lighting was achieved with conventional halogen downlights, while effect lighting was predominantly LED and some fibre optics.
Columns: Custom designed timber columns with laser cut back lit panels, illuminated with Warm White LED strip. Components – Lightech Utilight Warm White Strip.
Bar Face: Warm white LED strip to the underside of the bar top to provide a warm wash to the stone work bar face. Components – Lightech Utilight Warm White Strip.
Bottle Display & Bar Top: The bottle display cabinets were each fitted with miniature warm white LED fixtures to provide illumination to the wine displays. Suspended above the bar was a custom aluminium extrusion containing miniature warm white LED fixtures Components – Lightech Utilight Warm White Strip i-LeD Tech 2 LED Fixtures.
Feature Wall: The stone feature wall was lit with flush floor mounted high power LED fixtures to create warm scallop effects up the wall. Components – Lightech Cobra Warm White LED Fixtures.
Feature Glass Panels: The balcony is separated from the remainder of the bar by bi-fold glass doors, above these doors is a 14m long glass feature which was edge lit with injected fibre optic cables to create a shimmering water effect. Components – Digilin Arcblaze 150 Fibre Optic Lightsource. Digilin High Grade (0.75mm) Fibre Optic Cable
Exterior: The exterior walls and columns were lit with warm white LED up/down lights, the lights were also used to highlight the acrylic signage. Components – Lightech Urizon Warm White LED Wall Lights.
Stage 2 – Gaming Room
The gaming room machine layout was redesigned by CDT to provide a better environment for patrons and ease of movement from areas of the venue. To highlight the design by CDT we provided RGB LED lighting features.
Gaming Bases: Between each gaming console we installed RGB LED fixtures flush mounted to the top of the machine base to provide a wash of colour onto the walls and ceilings above. Components – Lightech Cobra RGB LED Fixtures.
Gaming Entry Screen: The entry partition walls received an embossed acrylic panel which was edgelit with RGB LED linear lighting strip. Components – Lightech Utilight RGB LED Strip.
Control: Both RGB systems are controlled by Colourtheme Controllers, the Colourtheme controller is a 3 channel DMX device on a standard switchplate, it is perfect for LED systems as it contains 200 fixed colours and over 50 preprogrammed shows. It is very simple to use as all colours and shows are accessible via a single rotatable button with digital display. Components – Lightech Colourtheme DMX Controller.
Stage 3 - Main/Public Bar
The public bar was a complete redesign from the ground up, we provided lighting design services for all functional lighting plus effect lighting. General lighting was once again achieved with conventional halogen downlights, with LED systems selected for effect lighting.
Ceiling Coffers: The most noticeable feature in the public bar is the lighting bulkheads/pelmets, lit with RGB LED Linear Strip. Six pelmets were formed in the ceiling shaped by the perimeter of the room and the edge of the bar. Each individual pelmet is linked via DMX to a Colourtheme controller to determine colours and programs. Components – Lightech Utilight RGB LED Strip.
Bar Face: The main bar has a dark lacquered timber finish and is lit via RGB Linear lighting strip to the underside of the bar top. Components – Lightech Utilight RGB LED Strip
Bottle Display: The Bottle display consists of a series of glass shelves positioned between two fridges. In the ceiling above we have located a series of RGB LED fixtures to wash coloured light over the displayed bottles and glassware. Components – Lightech Cobra RGB LED Fixtures.
TAB Race Walls: There are two dedicated TAB race walls displaying TAB information. These are lit by a warm white LED strip concealed within a small pelemt at the top of the cabinetry. This also provides illumination to the bench below where the race cards are filled out. Components – Lightech Saber Warm White LED Strip.
Exterior: The front awning of the hotel was lit via a side lit fibre optic cable installed to the upper and lower perimeter of the awning. It provides a clean line of light to form the shape and it is capable of colour change effects. The first floor façade was lit with 2 x RGB Flood Fixtures. These have a 45 degree beam and provide a smooth even coverage of colour changing light. Components – Digilin Arcblaze 150 Fibre Optic Lightsource. Digilin High Grade Ultra 84 Fibre Optic Cable. SAVI-SHO RGB LED Flood Light
Control: All RGB LED components were controlled via Colourtheme DMX controller. Components – Lightech Colourtheme DMX Controller.