{"id":9087,"date":"2025-08-18T16:50:40","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T19:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9087"},"modified":"2025-08-18T16:50:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T19:50:40","slug":"architects-hired-to-begin-process-to-upgrade-liverpools-astor-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/08\/18\/architects-hired-to-begin-process-to-upgrade-liverpools-astor-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Architects hired to begin process to upgrade Liverpool’s Astor Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

Architects will spend the next six weeks assessing what kinds of upgrades are needed at the Town Hall Arts and Cultural Centre, which houses the Astor Theatre. File photo by Ed Halverson<\/p><\/div>\n

The Region of Queens has hired architects to come up with a plan to modernize the historic Astor Theatre in downtown Liverpool.<\/span><\/p>\n

DSRA Architecture of Halifax has experience working on heritage buildings such as the Lunenburg Academy, Province House in Halifax and Halifax City Hall. Councillors approved spending $17,500 from the accumulated budget surplus.<\/span><\/p>\n

The region owns the Town Hall Arts and Cultural Centre, which houses the Astor. The Astor Theatre Society leases it from the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Astor is limited in what kinds of events it can hold, especially in summer and fall, because it does not have a modern climate control system.<\/span><\/p>\n

It relies on an oil-fired hot water furnace for heat and windows for ventilation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The building also needs many upgrades to meet provincial accessibility requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elise Johnston, who is the region\u2019s former accessibility coordinator and now its manager of capital projects, says hiring the architects will kickstart the process to assess the building’s needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs we know it can be quite stifling hot, especially in the summer,” she told councillors at a recent meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s very uncomfortable. So it affects their operations. It’s a big project. \u2029We have looked at a few independent reviews and designs, but then that didn’t take into consideration the accessibility (concerns). So if we’re going to do this, we need to do it in a holistic way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnston told councillors that the region and the Astor have discussed installing a modern HVAC system before, as well as an accessible lift to get to the second floor and a universal washroom. But those projects were discussed in isolation and not part of one overall plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said hiring the architects will help get the necessary work started, <\/span>\u201cwhich would be to look at all the applicable codes, all the top priority needs, get some community engagement, and plan the steps forward. The main question is, what is priority, what can come first? \u2029How do we phase this over a period of time?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eric Goulden, chairman of the Astor Theatre Society, told QCCR that the much-needed upgrades could potentially be a multimillion-dollar project.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll in all, they\u2019re going about it in the right way,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt needs an architect. It\u2019s an old building. It requires a significant amount of work to protect its heritage. All good, all very, very good. And great support from the council.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

District 6 Coun. Stewart Jenkins asked whether the region gets any revenue from ticket sales at the Astor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joanne Veinotte, the region’s director of finance, said a portion of each ticket sold goes into a special capital projects fund for the building.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jenkins said that because the Astor is such a big part of downtown Liverpool, he\u2019d like the region to develop a five-year plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need to do more to preserve this building and make it a viable building moving forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnston said this project is meant to do that and to make it “a <\/span>more revenue-generating building\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

She told councillors the architects plan to begin work immediately with a report back to council in about six weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/astorarchitectsaug1825.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Region of Queens has hired architects to come up with a plan to modernize the historic Astor Theatre in downtown Liverpool. DSRA Architecture of Halifax has experience working on heritage buildings such as the Lunenburg Academy, Province House in Halifax and Halifax City Hall. Councillors approved spending $17,500 from the accumulated budget surplus. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[3346,38,1900,3347,2262,2238,1735,39,24,350,2597,814],"class_list":["post-9087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-architects","tag-astor-theatre","tag-downtown-liverpool","tag-dsra-architecture","tag-elise-johnston","tag-eric-goulden","tag-joanne-veinotte","tag-liverpool","tag-region-of-queens","tag-renovations","tag-stewart-jenkins","tag-town-hall-arts-and-cultural-centre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9090,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9087\/revisions\/9090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}