Woods Bagot led the design for 2 of the 6 stations that made up the multi-award winning Sydney Metro City Stations, and received a commendation for the 25 Martin Place Retail redevelopment.
The winners of the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2025 NSW Architecture Awards have been announced, with the Sydney Metro City line taking home two of the highest honours – the Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design and the NSW Architecture Medallion.
Woods Bagot Principal and Global Transport Lead John Prentice says, “We’re incredibly proud to be a part of a collective, city-shaping project that will have a positive impact on the way people travel through Sydney for generations to come – setting a global benchmark for the way other cities will travel and live in the future.”
The new Sydney Metro Crows Nest Station is a study in the intersection between large scale transport infrastructure and small, village scaled, residential community.
The Sydney Metro line was delivered by dozens of practices. Woods Bagot led the design of Central Station in collaboration with John McAslan + Partners, and designed the Crows Nest Metro Station.
“At Crows Nest and Central Stations, we’ve designed the stations with a sense of identity that responds to their immediate context, while creating a design that is accessible, functional and beautiful. Our responsibility is to preserve a legacy of a place and to elevate it people from all age and ability can access and enjoy, and these awards are testament to a job well done. Congratulations to everyone involved,” says Prentice.
The judges said the Sydney Metro Line has “redefined civic experience” in Sydney. “As a nation, with a few notable exceptions, we are often guilty of being under-ambitious when it comes to our built environment. It’s a welcome shift. This is infrastructure that supports not just movement, but social and cultural connection as a catalyst for future development and change. It demonstrates the far-reaching impact architects can have on shaping public life and delivering tangible benefit to society and the environment.”
In the commercial category, Woods Bagot received a commendation for the 25 Martin Place redevelopment, designed in collaboration with Harry Seidler and Associates. The design strives to preserve the existing Seidler legacy through adaptive reuse of the existing precast architecture expression while creating a distinctly new organic ‘ribbon’ to unite the entire development’s composition.
Complementing this city changing precinct with a mixed retail offering that anchors Sydney’s notable Martin Place.
View the full list of winners and finalists on the AIA’s website here: https://www.architecture.com.au/archives/news_media_articles/2025-nsw-architecture-awards-winners-unveiled
Media enquiries Adrien Moffatt Content and Communications Specialist (Australia)
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15 Jan 24