St Kilda pier wins peak Victorian architecture award as judges praise playful and ‘deeply civic’ design

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. The $53m Victorian government project redesigned 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. It also won the Dimity Reed Melbourne prize and t,he Joseph Reed award for urban design. In March, it was the co-winner in the built outcomes category at the national Urban Design awards . The St Kilda pier redevelopment was praised for balancing the demands of its many users, including penguins. Photograph: Peter Clarke 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 even the penguins. “The project demonstrates how complex infrastructure can also become playful, social and deeply civic,” the judges said. Building on recent national and New South Wales awards, sustainability, resource efficiency and community-minded public design took centre stage at the Victorian awards. …