Image credit: Christopher Frederick Jones

The second-storey of Edward Street’s Rowes Building houses the recently refurbished Queensland studio of Hames Sharley, a national multi-disciplinary design company who have recently been named as one of the world’s top 100 architectural practices. Visitors to the studio can expect to gain an understanding of the inner workings of a contemporary, creative design environment.

The Rowes Building was erected in 1885, with the ground floor designed as office space with further floors intended as warehousing or further offices.

The lower floors feature wide arched openings with broad flanking columns topped by decorative capitals. The upper floors’ windows are adorned with architraves capped by keystones, each separated by columns with elaborate capitals. The parapet level features cornices supported by bracketing and centrally above this is a narrow pediment bearing the name 'ROWES'.

The Hames Sharley studio sits within this five-storey building and by adopting a sympathetic design approach to the buildings heritage, the interior refurbishment has created a contemporary, interdisciplinary workplace that connects people, technology and complex infrastructure. The creative team behind the design have strategically planned every aspect of the studio with consideration of how each user would interact and engage with clients and colleagues in a modern, collaborative environment.