Media release for immediate release

(pdf version can be found here)

Four of Australia’s top design practices have been shortlisted to enter the second and final stage of the Victorian Pride Centre Design Competition. The four shortlisted practices are Grant Amon Architects and Brearley Architects + Urbanists; BKK & Sibling Architecture; Hayball; and Preston Lane Architects.

Stage One of the competition, which attracted 18 competitors from a range of design practices, generated a diverse and compelling series of design propositions for the prominent Pride Centre site at 79–81 Fitzroy Street St Kilda.

Competition jury Chair Dimity Reed said, ‘The design brief is complex and ambitious, and it required competitors to respond creatively and strategically to the design challenge. The Pride Centre will have a prominent public location and will be a major contributor to the revitalisation of Fitzroy Street and the surrounding precinct. The design approach must balance the need for an open, welcoming civic face with the need to provide a safe, secure environment for all the centre’s users.’

Victorian Pride Centre Board Chair Jude Munro said, ‘The Pride Centre will be the new home of Victoria’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex communities. It will house up to ten major organisations as permanent tenants and will provide flexible and multi-use spaces for use by smaller LGBTI community organisations for meetings, training, rehearsal and other activities. Facilities and spaces will also include a health service, library, prayer room, café/bar, theatrette and gallery.’

‘We are also thrilled to announce that we are now the proud owners of the Fitzroy Street site, as the purchase of the site by the City of Port Phillip has now been finalised.’

The VPC will celebrate Victoria’s diverse LGBTQI community, provide capacity and capability for its future growth and honour its courageous and at times difficult past. It will be an uplifting expression of welcoming, engagement and belonging.

The four shortlisted design practices will now proceed to Stage Two, at the conclusion of which the jury will select a winner in early 2018.

The members of the design competition jury are Dimity Reed AM (Chair); Tim Bamford, Principal, Tim Bamford Consulting; Stephen Barrow, VPC Board Member; Sophie Dyring, Schored Projects; Peter Elliott, Peter Elliott Architecture and Urban Design; Jill Garner, Victorian State Government Architect; and Shane Murray, Dean, Art Design and Architecture Faculty, Monash University. The jury is supported by Andrew McKenzie of CityLab.

For further information:

Jude Munro AO

Mobile: 0419 393 690

Email: jude.munro@pridecentre.org.au