Rush\Wright Wins AILA VIC Award

The winners were announced in an online event on June 2, 2021, when jury chair Naomi Barun pointed out how "the past year has seen changes in the way public places are valued, with the rediscovery and enabling of new forms of connection and expression." Accordingly, Barun continued, "submissions were centered around Victoria’s need to connect, play, roam, to give back to the community and to proactively adapt for the unforeseen."

In this context, the masterplan for a one-mile (1.6-km) stretch of Brunswick Street in the City of Yarra, in suburban Melbourne, is a fitting one, even though a draft of the masterplan predates the pandemic. The project understand streets, per Rush\Wright, "as places not just for movement but as containers of history — and platforms for social interaction and belonging." The plan follows two decades that saw a lack of resolution in how to upgrade the public realm of Brunswick Street, with its constrained mix of tram route, cars, footpaths, outdoor dining, and historic building awnings.

Following a two-phase public engagement process, consultations with aboriginal and other groups that resulted in hundreds of responses, and detailed site observations, Rush\Wright developed a plan that is "contextually responsive but also ambitious for change." More seating, plantings, and places for people are the main ingredients of the masterplan that was issued in April 2020 (PDF link) and subsequently approved by the City of Yarra.