Melbourne's Hotel Esplanade crowned best designed bar in the Pacific region

Melbourne's Hotel Esplanade crowned best designed bar in the Pacific region
Staff reporterDecember 7, 2020

Melbourne’s Hotel Esplanade has taken out the title for Australia & Pacific Bar at the 2019 Restaurant & Bar Design Awards.

The award, won by Technē Architecture + Interior Design for their design work on the venue’s reincarnation, officially made The Espy the best-designed bar in the region.

The global competition saw entries from over 70 countries.

Technē director Justin Northrop said, “the award win shows how The Espy deserves to be recognised on a global scale and we are grateful our design work on the venue has been a success."

“Our design work centred on bringing out the venue’s vivid past and creating layers based on its history and multiple uses instead of opting for a contemporary makeover."

The Espy now features 12 bars, two restaurants, three performance spaces and numerous discrete areas across multiple levels. It can accommodate 1,700 patrons across its 3,300 square metres.

Throughout the venue, the Technē design emphasises music and performance spaces.

Technē collaborated with Sand Hill Road stylist Eleisha Gray for the styling of the project.

Since it was built in 1878, The Esplanade has been a Victorian-era seaside resort.

It was a jazz-era ballroom and a rock and roll mainstay from the 1990s until 2015 when it closed for renovation.

Technē’s work was unveiled with the venue’s reopening in November 2018.

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