St Kilda Pier Wins Top Victorian Architecture Award
The St Kilda Pier Redevelopment
The reimagined St Kilda pier has added more accolades to its burgeoning trophy cabinet, taking out some of the top gongs at the 2026 Australian Institute of Architects' Victorian awards.
Award-Winning Design
The $53m Victorian government project by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, alongside Site Office Landscape Architecture and AW Maritime, took home the Victorian architecture medal on Friday, the award given to the most outstanding project of the year.
- Victorian Architecture Medal
- Dimity Reed Melbourne Prize
- Joseph Reed Award for Urban Design
Balancing Competing Demands
The project has weathered its share of controversy, including an aborted attempt by Parks Victoria to introduce pay-per-view access to the pier's resident penguin colony. On Friday, the Victorian jury panel praised the project for succeeding in balancing the competing demands of tourists, locals, fishers, ferries, marina users – and the penguins.
Judges' Praise
“The project demonstrates how complex infrastructure can also become playful, social and deeply civic,” the judges said.
Other Award-Winning Projects
Other notable winners include the Sunbury community arts and cultural precinct, which won a clutch of gongs, including the John George Knight award for heritage and the award for interior architecture.