Governor of Victoria Launches New Studio in Melbourne

MELBOURNE, Australia—After 27 years atop a city car park, national architecture, interiors and urban design firm ARM Architecture has moved its Melbourne cool to a swish and contemporary studio in a central city tower.

Amid the disco-infused joy of The Huxleys, the studio was launched last week by Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner AC, Governor of Victoria, with a speech that would make us blush if we were bashful.

Pictured in the Library, left to right: Jesse Judd, Andrea Wilson, Ian McDougall, Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner AC, Governor of Victoria, and Howard Raggatt. Bookended by The Huxleys.

Launching the new studio is to celebrate four decades of contribution to Australia’s architectural, civic and cultural life. A creative, research-led approach has been foundational to ARM’s practice whose questioning spirit has produced a national body of work that is unmistakable, influential, and widely recognised.

Located on level 27 of the former MLC Building (1973), the fitout transforms a post-war modernist tower into a vibrant, flexible environment. Organised around a half-donut floorplate with panoramic views, the studio is a vantage point from which we can view ARM’s significant contributions to the city. As a workplace it is simultaneously functional, inspiring, and emblematic of the practice’s identity. Its design is all about staff wellbeing and productivity.

Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner AC, Governor of Victoria.

“Designed by us, for us, it supports all the ways in which our people work to meet the exceptional ambitions of our clients,” said ARM director Jesse Judd.

Associate director Amber Stewart, a member of the AIA’s 2026 Interior Architecture jury (Victoria), affirms the performance of the new workplace.

“We loved it from the moment we arrived. There’s more photography coming which will show how the studio supports focused work, collaboration, social interaction, and knowledge sharing,” she said.

Led by directors Jesse Judd and Andrew Hayne, the Melbourne studio is one of ARM’s six studios. Local projects currently in construction are the Centre for Regional Sport at Waurn Ponds for Development Victoria, a new Middle Years precinct at De La Salle College, and the University of Melbourne’s Baillieu Library Special Collections redevelopment project.

Garry Emery with ARM managing principal Lucy Carruthers.