Gail Lipke is a Toowoomba based architect with a particular interest in the conservation and preservation of heritage buildings. She is the Principle Heritage Management Consultant for Conservation Management Planners & Associates.

Toowoomba's Empire Theatre opened for business on 29 June 1911. It was the town's first purpose-built picture theatre and quickly established itself as the district's leading entertainment venue, offering a varied program of silent movies and live performances In 1929 it screened 'The Jazz Singer', the world's first commercially successful talking picture. During the early years of the Depression the theatre continued to attract large audiences but on 22 February 1933 a fire almost completely destroyed the building. The owners quickly rebuilt and in November an even bigger Empire opened on the site. With a seating capacity of 2,400, it was the second largest theatre in Queensland after the Brisbane Regent and the largest theatre in Australia outside a capital city. It remained a popular venue over subsequent decades but with the advent of television and smaller theatres in the 1950s and 60s its audiences began to decline. It ceased cinema operations in March 1971. The complex eventually fell into disrepair and was redeveloped by the Toowoomba City Council in the 1990s with professional support from the firm Conservation Management Planners and Associates. It was officially reopened as a cultural centre on 28 June 1997.

Thomas Ramsay Hall (1879-1950) and Lionel Blythewood Phillips (1896-1965) were in partnership as Hall and Phillips, Architects in Brisbane from 1929 to 1948. Hall and Phillips together with Guy Crick were the architects for the rebuild of the Empire Theatere in Toowoomba in 1933.