When the Midsumma pride march made its way down Fitzroy Street in St Kilda on Sunday, it marched past what will be the new home of the Victorian Pride Centre.
The winning design of the $38m centre was announced ahead of the march on Sunday.
The five-story centre, designed by St Kilda architecture firms Grant Amon Architects and Brearley Architects and Urbanists, will feature a cinema, a library, a rooftop garden and a health service.
It will also become the new home of LGBTIQA organisations such as Joy.FM, Minus18, the Melbourne Queer film festival, and the Victorian Aids council.
The centre will be built on the former site of Monroe’s restaurant, which closed in 2011.
The winning design will be one-third bigger than the San Francisco Pride Centre, which was the model for the Victorian government’s decision to build a Victorian Pride Centre.
The Victorian Pride Centre board chairwoman, Jude Munro, said the “inspirational” design was selected out of 18 submissions. It was just luck that the winning bid was from two local firms.
“With over 18 submissions received, we wanted the winning design to be a building that our LGBTQI community can be proud of owning, a place of celebration and a safe sanctuary,” Munro said. “This design is inspirational and more than satisfies these criteria.”
The Victorian equality minister, Martin Foley, congratulated the winning architects for their strikingly curved and rainbow-clad design.
“The Victorian Pride Centre will be a vibrant symbol of LGBTI resilience and inclusion – right here in the Equality State,” Foley said. “It will be a space for the community and LGBTI organisations to share ideas, collaborate and celebrate our diversity – it’s also at a key site the Pride march goes past.”
Foley also committed $600,000 to fund the Midsumma festival for the next three years.
The Andrews government committed $15m to the centre in April 2016, and the City of Port Phillip made a $13m contribution, including donating the Fitzroy Street site.
It will be the first pride centre in Australia and is scheduled to open in 2020.
“The project is now truly under way, and Port Phillip Council is delighted the innovative vision of two talented St Kilda architects will take pride of place on this iconic street as a locally loved landmark and visitor drawcard,” the Port Phillip mayor, Bernadene Voss, said.
Munro said the centre would be both a monument to and a home for the fight for equal rights.
“With the recent outcome from the marriage equality vote and accompanying legislation, this building will serve as a legacy to the historical change that occurred in Australia last year,” she said.
The centre is expected to revitalise dilapidated Fitzroy Street and bring more visitors to the area.
