The hugely successful Chihuly exhibition in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens has been awarded the prestigious City of Adelaide Prize for Design Excellence.
Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith presented the award to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium at the annual SA Architecture Awards party on Saturday night (28 June).
The 2025 People's Choice Category Award winner as voted by the South Australian public was also given to Chihuly.
The 2025 City of Adelaide Prize for Design Excellence Jury also awarded commendations to Union House - The University of Adelaide by Swanbury Penglase and Adelaide GPO Marriott Hotel by Hassell with Baukultur.
The Lord Mayor said the purpose of the City of Adelaide Prize is to recognise projects that actively engage and enhance the community's experience within the City of Adelaide.
"The projects can be of any scale and may include buildings, public art installations, landscape works and temporary contributions to public space that actively engage the community and enhance the city's public spaces," said the Lord Mayor.
"Rarely has landscape architecture been awarded top honours as part of the City of Adelaide Prize, but Chihuly was such a revelation and a blockbuster experience."
"Fortunately, this stellar installation will leave a lasting legacy with two installations staying in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens for generations of visitors to come."
This year Council received 11 entries for the City of Adelaide Prize:
- Adelaide GPO Marriott Hotel by Hassell with Baukultur
- AGSA Radical Textiles Exhibition by Grieve Gillett Architects
- Bloom Where You Are by POTTY MOUTH - Cassie Hutchinson
- Chihuly in the Botanic Garden by Adelaide Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium
- Latteria by studio gram
- Myer Centre Facade Upgrade by Stallard Meek Flightpath Architects (SMFA)
- Sofia Bistro by Sans-Arc Studio
- The Queen's Wall by Mary Moore and Sandpit
- Union House - The University of Adelaide by Swanbury Penglase
- VIBE Hotel Adelaide by Loucas Zahos Architects
- Adelaide Botanic High School Expansion by COX Architecture
Jury Award Citation- Chihuly in the Botanic Garden:
Chihuly in the Botanic Garden is a joyful, exuberant architectural activation, boldly interacting with the heritage of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens to create a world-class cultural experience in the heart of the city.
The 15 large-scale glass sculptures, curated along a trail within the garden, include two unique pieces designed for Adelaide, celebrating the city's unique attributes, and strengthening connection to place.
The Glacier Ice and Lapis Chandelier created specifically for the Palm House is an especially masterful and consummate example of purposeful and sensitive development that elevates culturally significant buildings.
With daytime and nighttime offerings, Chihuly in the Botanic Garden invites the visitor to re-connect with the natural world, enhancing opportunities for well-being, social connection, and active lifestyles. With exceptional accessibility to the public, clever marketing and deep engagement with the South Australian arts ecology and surrounding hospitality precinct, Chihuly in the Botanic has been enthusiastically embraced, attracting more than 1 million visitors.
The carefully considered placement of the glass works, their installation and landscaping and their relationship to the existing features within the gardens, encourages exploration to less visited areas and re-engagement with more familiar ones. The project exemplifies the aspirations of the City of Adelaide and sets a new benchmark for cultural engagement.
Jury Award Citation - Union House:
As an exemplar heritage project of its kind, Union House deftly handles the deep cultural aspects of the site amongst the university grounds. The project evocatively reveals a renewed spirit of place, whilst also sensitively restoring time-honoured craft techniques, such as Solomit Strawboard ceiling panels.
The jury was particularly impressed with the reimagining of the upper restaurant areas and renovated function spaces, which provide a model for future heritage works, as well as a proof-of-concept precedent that demonstrates the value of investing in such important building assets.
Jury Award Citation: Adelaide GPO Marriott Hotel
The redevelopment of the heritage-listed General Post Office precinct transforms this historic landmark into a vibrant hospitality and commercial hub. It reactivates key public connections through landscaped links, stairs, and ramps and integrates with the broader precinct. The jury commends the project's generous public contribution despite its private ownership, and its sensitive response to topography and heritage. The tower is deliberately set back to preserve the clocktower's prominence, that revives the civic heart of the city with care and precision.
