Project Overview

A future Fitzroy classic.

The Regent Fitzroy is a proposed residential development on the storied corner of Johnston and Fitzroy Streets, once home to the original Regent Theatre. Opened in 1911, the cinema played a formative role in Fitzroy’s cultural life. Its Gothic Revival foyer, silk drapery, chandeliers and orchestra pit made it a site of shared memory and local ritual until its final performance in 1983. The Rocky Horror Show.

What followed was less remarkable. A one-storey 1980s commercial building replaced the theatre, offering little to the streetscape or community. The Regent Fitzroy does not attempt to replicate what was lost. Instead, it seeks to restore the site’s cultural relevance through a design-led response grounded in architecture, experience and contribution.

Developed by SMA Projects in collaboration with Hayball (Architecture), Studio Tate (Interiors) and Right Angle (Place Strategy and Branding), the project comprises one, two and three-bedroom residences designed for contemporary urban life. The building is shaped by context and character, with active street frontages, a refined material palette, and a civic presence that gives back to the neighbourhood.

This is not just a new address. It’s a thoughtful, enduring addition to Fitzroy’s future, informed by its past and shaped for the way people live today.
"Good buildings come from good people, and good design solves everything."
Martin Strode, SMA Projects

Organisation

SMA Projects

Team

Developer: SMA Projects
Architecture: Hayball
Interior Design: Studio Tate
Landscape: Tract
Place Strategy & Branding: Right Angle
ESD Consultant: Ark Resources
Location: 84 Johnston Street, Fitzroy

Project Brief

The brief was deceptively simple: create a building worthy of Fitzroy.
That meant more than delivering high-quality apartments. It called for a civic gesture, an architecture that could restore cultural relevance and re-engage a long-neglected corner through curated retail and a meaningful public interface.

The site’s history demanded attention. Once a grand venue for cinema and live performance, the original Regent Theatre featured a Gothic Revival foyer, chandeliers, silk drapery and an orchestra pit. It was a cornerstone of Fitzroy’s cultural life. For SMA Projects, this was an opportunity not just to meet housing demand in a growing neighbourhood, but to do so with generosity, to reintroduce a building that faces the street, serves the public, and respects its cultural lineage.

The new design needed to stitch into Fitzroy’s layered urban fabric. Referencing the scale of neighbouring Victorian-era factories and the rhythm of local shopfronts, the building also needed to feel confidently contemporary. Interiors were to reflect everyday rituals and tactile experiences, with adaptable layouts that respond to how people truly live.

SMA’s approach is grounded in purpose and place, shaped by more than two decades of development in Fitzroy and Collingwood. That experience underpinned a collaborative, research-led design process focused on character, clarity and contribution.

Project Innovation/Need

The Regent rethinks what it means to deliver apartments in a neighbourhood defined by character, not convention. The design draws on in-depth research into how people live, prioritising flexibility, spatial generosity, and the nuances of daily life.

"We invest our time, energy and capital into making better places because better places make better people."

Chris Barton, Right Angle
Layouts were developed to support diverse lifestyles, with integrated joinery and dual-aspect floorplans. A guest suite allows residents to host visitors, reflecting the project’s broader ambition to support real, adaptable ways of living.

Interiors are grounded in functionality and material restraint. Velvet textures, custom brass fixtures and rich tones reference cinematic glamour within a contemporary frame, evoking the theatre’s legacy without imitation.

A grand lobby, inspired by the original Regent Theatre. Arched ceilings, rooftop terraces and a refined palette of velvet, brass and stone introduce a sense of arrival and occasion.

"The lobby sets the tone, but the residences are the canvas, personalised, adaptable, and laced with deco detail."
Alex Hopkins, Studio Tate

At street level, the podium is articulated into three brick volumes referencing geometry of the original theatre façade. These elements break down scale and activate public realm, while upper levels step back with lighter materials that softens mass and frames city views.

"We broke the street into three parts, echoing the geometry of the original Regent Theatre."
Tom Jordan, Hayball

This is a building grounded in Fitzroy’s industrial past but designed for its future, contextual, confident, and unmistakably local.

Design Challenge

Designing for Fitzroy required a response that balanced cultural memory with contemporary need. The challenge was to return meaning to a site marked by erasure, while navigating planning requirements and community expectations.

Hayball’s design began with research, tracing the proportions and façade geometry of the original Regent Theatre. This historical foundation informed a contemporary architectural response shaped by material and context.

Red brick, off-form concrete and steel were selected to reflect Fitzroy’s industrial grain. The building negotiates its edges with care, stepping back as it rises, introducing porosity, and framing key views to the city and neighbourhood.

The result is a structure that feels embedded in Fitzroy’s layered urbanism, informed by its past, responsive to its present, and firmly focused on the future.

Sustainability

Sustainability was embedded from the outset as a core design driver.

The Regent incorporates rooftop solar panels, rainwater harvesting systems, and high-performance thermal and acoustic glazing across carefully modelled façades. All apartments achieve a minimum 7.0-star NatHERS rating.

Operable windows and external screening enable natural cross-ventilation, reducing reliance on mechanical systems. EV-ready infrastructure and over 100 secure bicycle parking spaces promote low-emissions transport.

Internally, low-VOC finishes and high-efficiency appliances were selected to enhance occupant wellbeing and long-term environmental performance, supporting a future-focused, low-impact urban lifestyle.