St Kilda Pier sweeps architecture awards with penguin-first design

The penguin viewing platform at the rebuilt St Kilda Pier no longer crowds up against the breakwater. Instead, it sits 150 metres back, and that careful retreat has just won the state’s highest architecture prize.

On 19 June, the $53 million St Kilda Pier redevelopment collected the 2026 Victorian Architecture Medal, along with the Joseph Reed Award for Urban Design and the Dimity Reed Melbourne Prize. The trifecta recognises a project that had to do the impossible: welcome more than a million visitors a year while safeguarding a colony of 1,400 little penguins.

“The new penguin platform is set back from the breakwater whilst still affording close views, a significant change from the previous platform which directly abutted the breakwater,” said Veryan Curnow, JCB principal and St Kilda Pier project director.

The ageing pier had long been a Melbourne fixture for sunset penguin spotting, but years of foot traffic and rising sea levels demanded more than a patch-up. Parks Victoria commissioned the rebuild to improve safety, access, recreation and wildlife protection. Jackson Clements Burrows Architects led the design, with Site Office Landscape Architects and AW Maritime, and they worked alongside Earthcare St Kilda volunteers to map every penguin burrow before a single pylon went in.

That collaboration shaped a structure that keeps people and wildlife on their own terms. “The project demonstrates how complex infrastructure can also become playful, social and deeply civic,” the Victorian Architecture Awards jury noted.

The pier’s curves are a deliberate nod to the heritage kiosk and the arches of nearby Luna Park. A mesh platform lets visitors feel the slap of water underfoot, while timber seating and concrete climbing elements turn the pier into a casual gathering space. The whole precinct is fully accessible, right down to the unisex toilets, and the lighting was tuned to avoid disorienting the penguin colony. The viewing platform closes each night after the last session.

Unlike the ticketed penguin parade on Phillip Island, this is a free, wild encounter that sits on a tram line. To make the most of it, time your visit for sunset and expect shoulder-to-shoulder viewing on warm evenings. The old days of walking right up to the breakwater are over – the new boardwalk is intentionally set back for the birds’ protection, and the area shuts after dusk. If you’re picturing the old pier, you’ll need to recalibrate.

Parking is limited and paid along the foreshore, so trams are the smarter choice. Route 96 or 12 from the CBD drops you near the pier in about 25 minutes. While you’re in St Kilda, Acland Street’s cake shops, Luna Park and the beach are all within a short walk.

Walk the full length of the pier and you might not notice that it’s rising – but it is. The deck gains height incrementally, a quiet hedge against the sea level rise that modelling says will define the next half-century for this stretch of Port Phillip Bay.