The St Kilda Pier redevelopment won Victoria's top architecture award in June 2026. Jackson Clements Burrows Architects led the design team, working alongside Site Office landscape architects and AW Maritime engineers for Parks Victoria, the state agency that manages public parks and reserves.

This is the project's second major award in a single year. It took out the national Australian Urban Design Award in March, and then claimed the 2026 Victorian Architecture Awards top prize in June. Jackson Clements Burrows also had three separate projects shortlisted in the Victorian awards process — a sign of the firm's current momentum in the state's architecture scene.

What the project needed to solve

The design brief, as documented by the Australian Institute of Architects, centred on four core goals: better recreation options, improved amenity (comfort, facilities, usability), stronger safety, and better accessibility. This framing — reshaping public infrastructure around how people actually use it — reflects a shift in how Parks Victoria approaches aging coastal and riverside structures. Rather than focusing only on structural engineering, the agency now evaluates these assets for their role in everyday city life.

St Kilda Pier itself is more than just infrastructure. It's one of Melbourne's most recognisable landmarks, sitting where recreational boating, casual public use, and marine ecology intersect. The little penguin colony nearby is the most visible ecological concern, but the site hosts several sensitive species and habitats. Any redesign had to navigate wave impact, tidal forces, saltwater corrosion, and the need to keep boat traffic flowing throughout construction.

Why the team structure mattered

The fact that AW Maritime — a specialist marine engineering firm — collaborated with architects rather than simply providing technical input after the fact tells us something about how complex this site truly is. Waterfront projects often struggle when the boundary between the built structure and the public space around it is treated as an afterthought. Here, the inclusion of Site Office as a full design partner (not a decorator handling landscaping) signals that this transition was thought through from the start.

The broader context here is worth noting. Major public works increasingly demand teams that blend different expertise from the beginning. A pier's function depends on how people move through and linger on it — that's as much a design question as wave engineering is.

Whether this double award — national recognition in March, state peak award in June — influences Parks Victoria's approach to its wider portfolio of coastal projects remains a practical question. Prestigious recognition can shape procurement decisions and set precedents that echo through future projects across the state. That secondary impact, if it materializes, may ultimately matter as much as the peer recognition itself.