St Kilda's reimagined pier has added more accolades to its growing collection, securing top honors at the 2026 Australian Institute of Architects' Victorian awards. The $53 million Victorian government project, redesigned by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects alongside Site Office Landscape Architecture and AW Maritime, won the Victorian architecture medal on Friday, the prize for the state's most outstanding project of the year.
Multiple Awards for St Kilda Pier
The project also claimed the Dimity Reed Melbourne prize and the Joseph Reed award for urban design. In March, it was a co-winner in the built outcomes category at the national Urban Design awards. The pier has weathered controversy, including an aborted attempt by Parks Victoria to introduce pay-per-view access to the resident penguin colony.
Judges Praise Community-Centered Design
The Victorian jury panel praised the project for balancing the competing demands of tourists, locals, fishers, ferries, marina users, and even the penguins. “The project demonstrates how complex infrastructure can also become playful, social and deeply civic,” the judges said. Jury chair Simon Knott noted that standout projects transcended purely utilitarian briefs and prioritized human interaction.
Sunbury Arts Precinct Wins Heritage Award
One site transformed from a grim history is the former Sunbury Lunatic Asylum, built in 1879. Now the Sunbury community arts and cultural precinct, it won the John George Knight award for heritage and the award for interior architecture. Designed by Architecture Associates with Openwork, the adaptive reuse turned a building once defined by human containment into a space that fosters community.
Other Notable Winners
Fieldwork's design of 65 Dover Street in Cremorne claimed the Sir Osborn McCutcheon award for commercial architecture, featuring a rooftop recreation space with a half-size basketball court. The Henry Bastow award for educational architecture went to Baldasso Cortese's Edmund Rice centre at Emmanuel College in Warrnambool, organized into three learning domains around a central courtyard.
Sustainable Heritage Refits Dominate Residential Categories
In residential categories, winners were dominated by sustainable refits of heritage structures over traditional knockdown rebuilds. Robert Simeoni Architects' Palmerston Street house in Carlton won the heritage award and the John and Phyllis Murphy award for alterations and additions. For new builds, the Harold Desbrowe Annear award went to Edition Offices' “House in a Garden,” an elevated timber form nestled into the canopy of the Birrarung flood plain.
