Even in Siccardsburg and van der Nuell's original plans, the long pillared hall at street level flanking the eastern side of the central stair hall is labelled as a "Caffee". The tentatively last Cafe Oper at this location came into being thanks to a 2005 initiative by the State Opera's then-director, loan Holender, and the lease expired at the end of June 2020. The Bun-destheater Holding, the umbrella organisation tor the Austrian Federal Theatres, took this opportunity to relocate ticket sales from rented premises in Operngasse to the opera itself - its most frequented facility. The aim was to encourage more visitors to the opera house during the day and thus for it to become a natural part of everyday life in the city centre. A cafe was to be integrated, but the redesign was also to enable the opera to hold exhibitions, presentations or discussions in the hall. Not to be forgotten was that the space needed to be quickly and easily emptied for the opera ball. BWM Architekten won the invited competition in 2019 with a concept for a single form that elegantly unites the many desired functions. The lighting design conceived by DBCP, Christian Ploderer, congenially complements and supports it. The hall is divided along its length by two rows of columns, and the spacing between columns corresponds to the five wood-framed double-arched windows in the facade. In its previous state, the hall was divided length- wise into two narrow rooms, with two-thirds of the space taken up by the opera cafe and one-third by the building's internal circulation.
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