Our $45 million Geelong Library and Heritage Centre project won a bag full of awards at the 2016 Victorian Architecture Awards ceremony held on Friday evening in Melbourne.
Designed by ARM Architecture and constructed by Kane in 2015, the community building was awarded:
- The Marion Mahony Award for Interior Architecture,
- The William Wardell Award for Public Architecture,
- The Regional Prize, and
- The Victorian Architecture Medal.
We congratulate the team at ARM Architecture. Our project team led by Project Director Richard Sutterby and Project Manager David Purcell enjoyed addressing the challenges that came with delivering such a unique facility for the Geelong community.
About the AIA Awards
The Australian Institute of Architects' Architecture Awards program is a National Awards program. In the first instance, entries are submitted and judged in each State and Territory. The State level winners of named awards and architecture awards progress to become the national pool of entries for the Institute's National Architecture Awards.
The WILLIAM WARDELL Award
William Wardell (1823-99) was the head of the Victorian Public works department through its heyday: 1872-76. He left his mark on the public buildings of almost every town in Victoria. Wardell was also one of the key private architectural practitioners in Australia in the 19th century with an unsurpassed reputation in ecclesiastical design. Government House is one of Wardell's noted buildings and with its classically detailed tower, provides an important landmark in the city's skyline south of the Yarra River.
The MARION MAHONY Award
Marion Mahony (1871-1961) trained in the office of Frank Lloyd Wright, becoming responsible for Wright's interior design and furnishing. Mahony was extraordinary in her ability to evolve and resolve complex designs and decorative schemes and to express these clearly and beautifully through her exquisite drafting. As the wife and partner of Walter Burley Griffin and head of his Sydney office she played a vital role in the evolution of many of the firm's major designs in Australia. The Capital Theatre in Melbourne is a noted piece of Mahony's work which is a crowning architectural achievement.
Victorian Architecture Medal
The Victorian Architecture Medal is a descendant of the Victorian Street Architecture Medal introduced in 1926 by The Royal Victorian Institute of Architects (RVIA) as an award for the design of a building of exceptional merit.
At that time, buildings were judged on their urban propriety and architectural etiquette; the building had to front a street, road, square or court to which the public had access and it was expected to have a civic character, offering its architectural qualities to the greater public realm of the city.
Today's Victorian Architecture Medal is awarded annually and is selected by the Jury Chairs from the field of Named Award winners, the top award in each category. The criteria for selection of the Victorian Architecture Medal reflects the sentiment expressed by the original Victorian Street Architecture Medal for which a buildings relationship and contribution to the public realm was a strong consideration.
