John McAslan + Partners is proud to celebrate the recognition of Sydney Metro City & Southwest, which has been awarded both the NSW Architecture Medallion and the Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design at the 2025 Australian Institute of Architects NSW Architecture Awards – the highest honours in their respective categories.

In an unprecedented move, the jury awarded these accolades jointly to all stations along the 15.5-kilometre metro tunnel connecting Sydenham in the city's south to Chatswood in the north. Rather than recognising a single site, Sydney Metro invited all contributing practices to the stage – a clear acknowledgement of the scale, ambition and collaborative achievement of this landmark public transport project.

The jury commended the project as a national model for high-quality public infrastructure that is both functional and a pleasure to use. Jury chair Annabel Lahz told The Australian Financial Review:
"As a nation with a few notable exceptions, we are often guilty of being underambitious when it comes to our built environment. It's a welcome shift, then, to see Sydney’s Metro city stations project set a new benchmark, demonstrating the level of ambition we should expect from public infrastructure and the magnitude and complexity of integrated design and cross-sector collaboration that can be achieved."

Designed by a diverse group of architectural teams, the seven new stations and the upgraded Sydenham station are the result of a truly multidisciplinary effort that had to balance a wide array of needs – often competing – across urban, transport, heritage and community contexts.

John McAslan + Partners is honoured to have contributed to this transformative project through the design of Waterloo Station and, in collaboration with Woods Bagot, the major upgrade of Sydney Central Station. These stations play a vital role in enhancing urban mobility and public experience in one of Australia’s most dynamic and fast-growing corridors.

This recognition is a testament not only to design excellence, but to the power of genuine collaboration in delivering integrated infrastructure of national significance.

We extend our congratulations to all collaborators and the wider Sydney Metro team for this shared achievement.