The Capitol is an historic theatre on Swanston Street in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Opened in 1924 as part of the Capitol House building, the art deco theatre was designed by American husband and wife architects Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin, and is the oldest of Melbourne's large picture palaces. It is famous for its extravagant decor and abstract motifs, including an intricate geometric ceiling containing thousands of coloured lamps, designed to evoke the walls of a crystalline cave. Proposals in the early 1960s to demolish the theatre sparked one of Australia's first major heritage conservation campaigns. While the cinema was saved, its seating capacity was reduced and parts of the original ground level foyer were replaced by a shopping arcade. RMIT University purchased The Capitol in 1999 for use as a lecture theatre, and in 2014 it was closed to undergo an extensive five-year restoration and upgrade. The Capitol reopened in 2019 and has since hosted various film festival screenings, theatrical performances and other events. The Capitol is registered with the Australian Heritage Council, the National Trust of Australia and Heritage Victoria, which describes its avant-garde design as "extremely unusual in the realm of theatres and cinemas worldwide" and "a technical triumph". History Construction The Capitol Theatre was commissioned by a group of Melbourne businessmen, including the Greek Consul-General Antony J. Lucas and the American-born Phillips brothers, who had previously developed Luna Park and the adjacent Palais Theatre in St Kilda. The architects were WB Griffin with Peck & Kemter, but the design is attributed to American husband and wife architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, known for her work on interiors. Lucas had worked previously with the Griffins on the development of both the Vienna Cafe in 1916 and then his own property Yamala in Frankston, and the Phillips’ had worked with them on the interior of St Kilda's Palais de Danse. Marino Lucas, brother of J. J. Lucas, had previously built the Majestic Theatre in Launceston, which at the heights of the Great War became the most profitable cinema in Tasmania. Centrally located within the Launceston tramway network on a main street, the Majestic's phenomenal success may have influenced Lucas' decision to construct a centrally positioned theatre in Melbourne. The official plans for the Capitol were submitted for approval on 21 November 1921, with approval granted on 9 February