Our History

Our first project, in 1972, was the restoration of the Opera House in the National Historic site, Victoria Hall, in Petrolia, Ontario, built in 1889. A feasibility study and business plan and the subsequent restoration of the building inaugurated the first theatre consulting practice in Canada.

The company quickly gained expertise in building new theatres as well as with involvement in other heritage restoration projects, and with developing business and operations plans for museums, art galleries, and other cultural organizations.

In 1982, the technical side of the company was incorporated as Novita Ltd.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, there was a convergence of technologies for presentation systems for theatres or other meeting and assembly spaces. In the early 1980s, Novita began to design audio-visual multimedia systems for spaces other than live performance theatres, drawing upon our expertise of the form and function of a space as well as our knowledge of the available technologies.

In 1990, David Jolliffe joined the firm. David’s first project was the restoration, again, of Victoria Hall, which had been gutted by fire on its 100th anniversary. David became Manager of Technical Services in 1992, and a Partner in 1997.