Evelyn Reynolds

Construction has now begun on the $2.75 billion redevelopment of Melbourne’s Jam Factory precinct in South Yarra, which is set to be transformed into a mixed-use hub.
First constructed in 1858, the Jam Factory was introduced as a brewery, then later became a preserve and jam manufacturer, before eventually evolving to become a retail and cinema precinct in the 1990s.
The precinct will now once again be redeveloped to accommodate 600 residences across five towers, 10,000 square metres of commercial office spaces, 20,000 square metres of retail and hospitality offerings, a new cinema complex, a 5-star hotel and a second boutique hotel. Additionally, a 2,500-square-metre north-facing public piazza called Village Square will be established.
Developer of the project, Gurner Group appointed American-born international architectural practice Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) alongside local architects Buchan to design the precinct, in conjunction with Gurner’s in-house architect and interior design business Gurner Design House. Townshend Landscape Architects has been engaged to design the gardens and landscaping.

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The project has undergone several design iterations since planning approval was first granted by Stonnington Council to the original property owner Newmark Capital in 2018. Changes and additions to the development team and various design amendments resulted in several proposals being resubmitted to the council, including one in 2021 by Bates Smart, Townshend Landscape Architects and Leonard Design Architects, which featured four residential towers, a hotel, and commercial, retail and entertainment spaces.
After Gurner fully acquired the site in early 2024, the new design team comprising SOM, Buchan and Townshend were awarded the project that is currently under construction.

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Gurner’s general manager of design Alexander Fin explained that the design features a variety of built forms to create visual interest. “The intent has been to design buildings that combine functionality with aesthetic expression, creating a visually captivating and architecturally diverse urban environment,” he said, adding that the architecture “takes inspiration from both the timelessness of New York’s most iconic residential and hotel buildings, and the modern buildings that make up its skyline.”
Initial demolition efforts to remove all non-heritage elements have commenced across the 20,000-square-metre site. This phase of demolition involves removing the current Village Cinema complex while ensuring the iconic facade of the building is preserved. Village Cinemas will be reinstated into the precinct. More

A new development application has been submitted for the North Sydney MLC building, proposing adaptive reuse of the Miller Street wing instead of the previously proposed demolition.
The MLC building, designed by Bates, Smart and McCutcheon, was completed in 1957. Upon its completion, it was the first high-rise office block in North Sydney, the largest building of its type in Australia and the first national example of a glass curtain wall facade.
The building has been the subject of a lengthy nearly five-year dispute between proponents of its demolition and those who wish to preserve it for its historical significance. During this time, property developer Investa has filed several applications to demolish the building and replace it with a new high-rise commercial tower.
When demolition was first proposed in 2020, the property was included on the local heritage register. A petition to save the tower ensued, resulting in the proposal being denied and the building being upgraded to the state heritage register. In 2022, the dispute was reignited when the state heritage listing was revoked, prompting Investa to submit an appeal, which the NSW Land and Environment Court rejected in May 2023. Later, in December 2023, the NSW Environment and Heritage Minister Penny Sharpe announced that the 14-storey building would be reinstated to the state’s heritage register.

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On 4 January 2025, Investa submitted yet another development application to the North Sydney Council for the redevelopment of the building – again designed by Bates Smart. The $365 million plans outline that the Miller Street wing would be preserved and refurbished for contemporary use, whereas the Denison Street wing would be replaced with a 22-storey building with proportions similar to those of the Miller Street wing.
In their vision statement, the architects highlight that activating the street interfaces is a key component of the latest design iteration. The proposed Miller Street frontage features retail spaces set behind a restored colonnade and a landscaped forecourt. New urban steps leading to a public terrace have been proposed for the Brett Whiteley Place interface, which currently features an inactive facade, with the exception of one retail outlet located on the corner of the eastern section. Street-facing retail tenancies have also been proposed for Denison Street.

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Proposed upgrades to the much-loved Miller Street wing include raising the ground floor to mitigate flooding and establish a double-height lobby with retail spaces. Investa stated that the facade of this wing, “including its curtain wall and terracotta tiles, will be fully restored to align with the original design.”
The MLC Building is adjacent to the Victoria Cross over-station development, which is currently under construction. As part of this project, the area in front of the metro station on Miller Street will be pedestrianised into a public plaza called Miller Place.
The North Sydney Council is currently assessing the development application. More

Expressions of interest are now open for the ninth iteration of Melbourne Design Week, taking place across Melbourne and Victoria from 15 to 25 May 2025. Designers, studios and collectives are invited to submit their ideas for events, talks, exhibitions, workshops and more for the festival’s state-wide program, including the Melbourne Art Book Fair.
The annual 11-day festival is an important national platform for designers, industry and enthusiasts to come together and share innovative ideas, show new work, connect with industry and imbed themselves within Victoria’s design community. The state-wide program features events held at the National Gallery of Victoria, alongside ateliers, studios, retail spaces, universities, galleries, gardens and public spaces throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and delivered by the NGV. Since its inception, the program has grown in scope and scale – from just under 100 programs in 2017 to over 350 in 2024. Over 100,000 people attended this year’s festival, making it Australia’s largest design event.

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From 16 to 18 May, next year’s Melbourne Art Book Fair will mark the festival’s eleventh anniversary. Since launching in 2015, the Melbourne Art Book Fair has brought together publishers, writers and designers to showcase and launch some of the region’s best publications at venues across Melbourne and Victoria, including the National Gallery of Victoria, bookshops, galleries, libraries, community centres and public gardens. Held within NGV’s Great Hall, the iconic Stallholder Fair gives visitors the opportunity to explore and buy unique printed matter from the best local and international publishers and designers.
Director of NGV Tony Ellwood said, “In 2025 we are delighted to present Melbourne Design Week, an important national platform that celebrates our rich and diverse Australian design community. Our sector has enthusiastically embraced the festival since its inception, and we can’t wait to share another thought-provoking program in 2025.”
Expressions of interest are now open and close Monday 20 January 2025. Visit here to register. More

For this month’s roundup, I’m feeling festive and doing things a little differently, selecting gifts for each of the seven members of Architecture Media’s editorial team. For the purposes of this story, I’m choosing to live in a world where the cost of living crisis doesn’t exist and the budget is infinite.
Dancer light by Coco Flip
This one goes out to our editorial director, team head honcho, Katelin Butler. She loves a neutral palette, a stripe and is fond of a minimalist ceramic number so I think I’ve nailed it with this one. This new collection of lighting from Coco Flip in collaboration with Melbourne ceramicist Belinda Wiltshire includes table lamps, wall lights and ceiling mounts. The collection takes inspiration from the Triadisches ballet developed by Oskar Schlemmer, who was part of the Bauhaus design movement in the 1920s. Each light is hand thrown by Belinda in her Preston studio using mid-fire clay. Three black iron oxide stripes are applied, giving the light its bold and classic look. I think a little table lamp would look right at home at Katelin’s place.

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La De Da candle holder by Nightworks
Houses editor and my desk buddy Alexa Kempton is the lucky recipient of this candle holder from Nightworks. If you’ve been paying attention, I featured the La De Da pendant light in the September product roundup and now the folks at Nightworks have used the rippled design to create a special stocking filler – a candle holder hand cast from bronze or zinc (and brass to come). I hope it brings a bit of zen to Alexa’s day.

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Tivoli Audio Songbook Max
Georgia Birks, our Design Speaks curator and my fellow Corinthians connoisseur, gets this one under her tree this year (metaphorically speaking). GB and I have the exact same taste in music (i.e. Beyonce Giselle Knowles Carter) so why not blast said music on one of Tivoli Audio’s new Songbox Max speakers. This Bluetooth speaker does all the things a top-of-the-line speaker does, but what I love most is its 70s/80s/90s retro-futuristic nostalgic boombox look. This would fit perfectly atop GB’s shoulder as she struts around the office.

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Hay Sobremesa tablecloth
Our office foodie and avant-garde diner is Emily Wong, editor of Landscape Architecture Australia. She knows of the very coolest restaurant openings and chef pop-ups long before we do. She’s also a great cook so I hope she’ll like the Hay Sobremesa tablecloth I have gifted her in this chimerical scenario. A collab between Hay and artist Laila Gohar, this tablecloth is joyful and playful featuring embroided motifs by Gohar. Since budget is no issue, I’ll also throw in some dinnerware from the collection too.

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Bruce Rowe Alter sculpture
The Alter collection by Bruce Rowe has been the talk of the office since we first caught wind of it and I can think of no better recipient than Lucia Amies, associate editor on ArchitectureAu, and an architect and ceramicist… just like Bruce! You can read my interview with Bruce here, and learn how the collection came about. I’m selecting one of the yellow ones from the collection, because Lucia is pure sunshine.

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Architecture Australia subscription
Jack Vening is Architecture Media’s managing editor, making sure all the publications (and their editors) are running on time and with no typoos … err, typos. A big part of his role is sub-editing Architecture Australia magazine, translating tens of thousands of words of archi-speak each issue and making architects sound comprehensible. And I’m certain, nothing would make Jack happier at the end of a long day at the office than coming home to a copy of the magazine, the very issue he slaved over a few weeks back, and reading it from cover to cover, over and over, again and again. You’re welcome, Jack!

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Melbourne Place gift voucher
I’ve saved the best for last – this one goes out to our team’s MVP, associate editor of ArchitectureAu, Adair Winder. You’re not supposed to have favourites in the team, but if I did, let’s just say it wouldn’t not be Adair. She’s hard-working, she cares about what she does and she’s got bucketloads of talent. So, to cap off a year of daily deadlines for Adair, I’m gifting her (again, figuratively and imaginatively; can you imagine how much money I’ve spent so far?) a gift voucher to stay at the new Melbourne Place hotel by Kennedy Nolan, where she can put her feet up in the exquisite rooms, dine at Marmelo and enjoy a few well-earned end-of-year drinks at Mid Air.
Merry Christmas, editorial team. You’re the best there is. More

Plans have been released for the third stage of the Hobart Showground redevelopment, led by the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania (RAST). Having celebrated the site’s 200th anniversary of showing in 2021, RAST engaged local architecture practice Bush Parkes Shugg and Moon (BPSM) the following year to develop an earlier masterplan prepared by Partners Hill.
Located 7km from Hobart’s CBD, the current site has been occupied by the RAST since 1904. CEO of RAST Scott Gadd noted that in recent years, maintenance costs for the showgrounds’ ageing infrastructure had become overbearing, prompting RAST to undertake an overhaul. “We decided we’d come up with a masterplan and think about how we can make better use of the 18 hectares that we had,” he explained.
Over the past decade, land parcels along the site’s commercial frontage on Howards Road have been leased and sold with the intention of securing funding for the estimated $32 million showground redevelopment – a figure which, Gadd explained, had increased due to supply chain and construction cost pressures from the pandemic.
In a joint statement, BPSM director and managing principal Damian Rogers and senior project leader Sam Henderson noted that their ambition was to “reimagine the original concept for the showgrounds site, incorporating the strategies laid out in the client’s future vision for the site, whilst engaging with new economic and societal priorities. Critically, to provide financial sustainability, the release of land for a new public road, flanked by a vibrant mix of contemporary dwellings with varying private, communal, and public spaces was essential to create a residential community alongside the newly proposed showgrounds precinct.”
“[…] Our brief from RAST included terms such as flexibility, futureproofing, to create a place that was ‘all things to all people and to the unique topographical environments,’ for the area to be meaningful, tactile, protective, expansive and robust,” they added.

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On the south side of the proposed road, the new showground development includes three large pavilions, built in a U shape around a courtyard, and a brand new arena with a track around its perimeter. The extensive precinct of individual buildings is connected by a continuous roof form, and united by an expanse of stained precast concrete and prefinished fibre-cement panels. The architects commented that “touches of weathered metal and reclaimed timber will provide an honest, robust, and simple palette of materials. The varying built-form scales and detail create a rhythm to the concrete, FC sheeting and glazing.”
Inside, the three pavilions accommodate a clubhouse, exhibition and function centre, 1500-seat theatre for community meetings and public entertainment, RAST offices, a cafe, a bar, warehouse storage and a backpackers’ hostel. These internal functions are complemented by several outdoor recreation areas, sports grounds and a central plaza for up to 100 market stalls. The plans currently on exhibition include a temporary motorhome park to the north, in the location of the future medium-density housing development.

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Gadd said that while the showground application has been back and forth with council for 18 months, RAST “don’t anticipate too many problems with that,” given that no change to the site’s permitted use is proposed. Gadd anticipated approval early 2025 and hoped to start construction of the showground development in March.
A second development application for the site’s medium density housing is currently held up in planning due to concerns on the potential impacts to surrounding road network. Gadd noted, “We’re working with the state government to resolve before we put that forward.” Rogers and Henderson noted that the rezoning of the northern portion of the site for housing “is targeted to be completed in late 2025.” BPSM’s concept plans for this residential component propose up to 493 dwellings in buildings ranging between three and six storeys in height.
Speaking on behalf of the RAST, Gadd said, “Our model is to use commercial income to subsidise community use. We have commercial tenants and operations, and the money we generate from that goes into supporting various clubs and community groups to use our site.”
Rogers and Henderson observed that “BPSM Architects share RAST’s vision […] [of] a future where the precinct can be used by the wider community: cultural, business, agricultural and sporting; adapt quickly to changing needs now and into the future; and that the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania will continue for another 200 years with a beloved community asset.”
The showground plans are on exhibition with Glenorchy City Council until 3 January 2025. More

In honour of the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch, the British government has launched a design competition for the masterplan of a national memorial dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II.
The Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee is working with Malcolm Reading Consultants to identify a multidisciplinary team of artists, architects, engineers, landscape architects and other specialists who would be interested in designing the project. The winning team will be required to include an architect registered in the UK.
For the first stage of the competition, the committee is urging interested creatives to submit an expression of interest online. No design work is required at stage one, only details of the team’s profile, composition and experience. In stage two, there will be a ten-week design period for a shortlist of five competitors.
Committee chair and private secretary to the late Queen Lord Janvrin noted, “The challenge at the second stage for the finalists will be to evoke memories of Queen Elizabeth II’s outstanding contribution to national life and to tell the story of Her Majesty’s long reign through an original masterplan that is sensitive to the unique setting.”
The memorial will be located in St James’s Park in London, the UK’s oldest Royal Park, close to Buckingham Palace. The competition brief sets out defining elements including a new bridge over the park’s lake and opportunities for artistic interventions and enhanced landscaping.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden noted, “This National Memorial will provide a permanent tribute to The Late Queen’s legacy, offering space for reflection as well as celebration. We want the very best architects and designers to come forward with their ideas for how this historic project should look.”
The shortlist is expected to be announced in the UK’s spring 2025 and the winner in early summer 2025. The final design is scheduled to be announced to coincide with what would have been the Queen’s 100th birthday year in 2026.
Details for EOIs can be found online, with this first stage of the competition closing 20 January 2025. More

Plans to transform the Port of Albany historic pilot cottages into a community precinct have progressed further, with H and H Architects awarded the contract for detailed design.
As the oldest port in Western Australia, the Port of Albany has a rich history. The port’s pilot cottages served as accommodation for marine officers, who guided vessels in and out of Princess Royal Harbour from as early as 1853 until 1936. The historical significance of these cottages was acknowledged when they were added to the WA State Register of Heritage Places in 2002.
In May 2024, the WA government pledged $8.3 million to redeveloping the historic Port of Albany Pilot Station and its cottages into a community precinct. At the time of the announcement, the state government asserted that the transformation would create “a major attraction for tourists and visitors, while also activating new spaces for the community to enjoy.”
Following a competitive tender process, H and H Architects were appointed to progress the project forward from concept to detailed design. As stated in a WA government communique, the firm was selected for its proven expertise in managing heritage projects throughout the state, including several in Albany.
The Member for Albany Rebecca Stephens echoed those sentiments, saying that the practice “has a tremendous reputation for heritage work across a variety of WA projects.”
Stephens added, “When restored, the pilot cottages will offer a rare insight to what it was like to live and work in these buildings between 1853 to 1936.”

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Early concepts of the Port of Albany pilot station precinct feature an interpretive centre, a small cafe, port-themed play areas, parking and open spaces, all linked to the existing Port to Point trail. Additionally, the precinct is set to feature an information centre for cultural and eco-tourism.
The architects will work with Southern Ports – an authority that oversees management of three ports: Albany, Bunbury and Esperance – to develop the design.
WA Ports Minister David Michael said the Albany Pilot Station precinct deserves to be on show. “The Port of Albany is intrinsically linked to WA’s rich history as our first and oldest port, so I think everyone should be excited to see this site transformed,” said Michael.
The detailed design is expected to be finalised in late 2025. More

The Victorian Department of Transport and Planning and Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action have together outlined next steps to the state’s Gas Substitution Roadmap. It follows Victoria’s ban on gas connections to new dwellings, apartments and residential subdivisions requiring a planning permit that was implemented at the start of this year, and requirement for all new government buildings to be all-electric from July 2023.
According to the Department of Transport and Planning, Victoria has the highest use of gas for heating, hot water and cooking in Australia. Over two million (or around 76 percent) of homes, over 60,000 commercial buildings and over 800 large industrial users are connected to the gas network.
Having developed a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) outlining four possible pathways for the electrification of residential and commercial buildings across the state by 2026, the government is now seeking feedback from the community.
The options include:

Electrification of all new residential and new commercial buildings
Electrification of all new and existing residential buildings, and all new and existing commercial buildings (excluding existing commercial cooking)
Electrification of all new and existing residential buildings (excluding residential cooking), and all new commercial buildings
Electrification of all new and existing residential buildings.

In the RIS, the state government note their preference as the third option. In this option, all existing residential gas hot water and heating appliances would need to be electrified at their end-of life. However, if those appliances can be retained during a renovation, then they would not be required to be replaced with electric appliances.
Gas cooktops in existing homes as well as all gas appliances in existing commercial buildings are excluded from this preferred option, so there are no impacts, for example, on existing commercial kitchens.
The proposed regulations for residential buildings make exemptions in instances where there is insufficient space to install electric systems, there are conflicting laws (such as those dictated by a heritage overlay), or where “costs of upgrading the connection are disproportionately high.”
The current period of consultation on the RIS and proposed draft regulations presents the final opportunity for stakeholders and the community to comment on proposed reforms before they are finalised.
The public are invited to have their say on the proposed options until 28 February 2025. More