St Kilda Pier Wins Victorian Architecture Medal
The reimagined St Kilda pier has won the Victorian architecture medal, the top prize at the 2026 Australian Institute of Architects' Victorian awards. The $53 million project, designed by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects alongside Site Office Landscape Architecture and AW Maritime, also received the Dimity Reed Melbourne prize and the Joseph Reed award for urban design. The jury praised the pier for balancing the demands of tourists, locals, fishers, ferries, marina users, and penguins, calling it "playful, social and deeply civic." Other winners included the Sunbury community arts and cultural precinct (adaptive reuse of a former asylum), 65 Dover Street in Cremorne (commercial architecture), the Edmund Rice centre at Emmanuel College (educational architecture), and Palmerston Street house in Carlton (heritage and alterations). The awards emphasized sustainability, resource efficiency, and community-minded public design.
Key facts
- St Kilda pier won the Victorian architecture medal on June 19, 2026.
- The $53 million project was designed by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, Site Office Landscape Architecture, and AW Maritime.
- The pier also won the Dimity Reed Melbourne prize and the Joseph Reed award for urban design.
- The jury praised the project for balancing competing demands of tourists, locals, fishers, ferries, marina users, and penguins.
- Sunbury community arts and cultural precinct won the John George Knight award for heritage and the award for interior architecture.
- 65 Dover Street in Cremorne won the Sir Osborn McCutcheon award for commercial architecture.
- Edmund Rice centre at Emmanuel College in Warrnambool won the Henry Bastow award for educational architecture.
- Palmerston Street house in Carlton won the heritage award and the John and Phyllis Murphy award for alterations and additions.
Entities
Institutions
- Australian Institute of Architects
- Jackson Clements Burrows Architects
- Site Office Landscape Architecture
- AW Maritime
- Parks Victoria
- Architecture Associates
- Openwork
- Fieldwork
- Baldasso Cortese
- Robert Simeoni Architects
- Edition Offices
- Victoria University
Locations
- St Kilda
- Australia
- Victoria
- Sunbury
- Cremorne
- Warrnambool
- Carlton
- Birrarung flood plain