Overview
If you've got a thing for heritage revivals, prepare to swoon over the lineup of winners for this year's Victorian Architecture Awards, which were announced in a digital ceremony on Friday, July 10. Among the 63 award recipients — showcasing the state's best architectural projects across 15 categories — was a bumper crop of heritage building makeovers.
Included is one revamp especially familiar to anyone that's wandered down Swanston Street in the past 12 months: Architectus and Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects' revival of the State Library of Victoria. The redevelopment took out the esteemed Melbourne Prize, along with awards in the heritage conservation and public architecture categories. Judges praised the project for being a major benefit to Melburnians, calling it "an exemplar of the enhancement of existing buildings".
State Library of Victoria redevelopment. Photo: Trevor Mein
Other public structures that scored prizes at this year's awards include the Regent Theatre by Lovell Chen (for creative adaptation), the Ian Potter Southbank Centre by John Wardle Architects (which received the Marion Mahony Award for Interior Architecture), and Phillip Island's newly-hatched Penguin Parade Visitor Centre, the work of acclaimed firm TERROIR (receiving the Regional Prize).
Kerstin Thompson Architects' work on the Broadmeadows Town Hall not only took out the Victorian Architecture Medal, but further acknowledgements in the categories of heritage architecture and public architecture. And the MCG's iconic Great Southern Stand was honoured with the Enduring Architecture Award, given to significant projects over 25 years old.
Victorian winners that scooped an architecture or named award will now go up against other Aussie projects, competing in the National Architecture Awards.
For further details about the Victorian Architecture Awards — and the full list of this year's 63 winners — head to the organisation's website.
Top images: Broadmeadows Town Hall, John Gollings; Penguin Parade Visitor Centre, Peter Bennetts; Monash University Chancellery, Rhiannon Slatter; Ian Potter Southbank Centre, Trevor Mein.