SOM to Crown Geelong's 1855 Pier with 34-Storey Tower

SOM has won the competition to redevelop Cunningham Pier in Geelong, Victoria, into a 10,000-square-metre waterfront destination topped by a 34-storey tower that would become the city's tallest building.

The international architecture studio is designing the project for developers Gurner Group and Costa Property Group. The scheme will add public space, apartments, a 200-room hotel, shops and restaurants over the water at Corio Bay.

The site carries history. Cunningham Pier was originally built in 1855 to give railway access to docking ships. It underwent major refurbishment in 1929. Today it functions as a stretch of car parking spaces culminating in a restaurant and event space. What the announcement does not say is how much of that existing structure will survive beyond SOM's stated intent to preserve it below new construction.

What does the design look like?

Visitors will enter the pedestrianised pier through a public square with water features. At the end, a 34-storey building will rise above the waterfront, surpassing the 21-storey Miramar apartment tower to become Geelong's tallest building.

The tower is trefoil in plan, resembling three combined cylinders that taper towards the top and bottom. Along the length of the pier, SOM has designed a series of buildings with rounded edges and layered terraces that reference the movement of water and marine forms.

The programme is explicitly high-end:

• around 280 apartments
• 12 waterfront villas with individual yacht berths
• a 200-room hotel
• shops, restaurants and public gathering spaces
• activity spaces and sports courts on floating platforms

SOM hopes the development will establish Cunningham Pier as "both a neighbourhood on the water and a destination for Geelong's residents and visitors".

How does the public realm work?

"An elevated public promenade forms the organising spine of the proposal," said SOM. "By positioning new construction alongside the historic pier, the design preserves the existing structure below while creating a pedestrian environment above."

"Shops, restaurants, and places to gather would line the route, connecting the city to activities and views across Corio Bay."

The studio also claims an ecological dimension. The redevelopment, according to SOM, will create new marine habitats at the pier to support biodiversity. "This ecological ambition forms part of a broader approach that considers the waterfront as a place for both public life and marine life," the studio said. No baseline survey, habitat target or monitoring commitment accompanies that promise in the announcement.

What does this change for Geelong?

For a city whose current tallest building stands at 21 storeys, the scheme would reset the skyline and convert a working-pier-turned-car-park into a luxury mixed-use district. The trade-offs — height, private villas with yacht berths on public water — are the kind that typically surface in planning review, and none of that process is addressed in the unveiled material.

The project joins a run of recent SOM unveilings: a tiered skyscraper on a waterfront site in Chicago and plans for a 20-storey data centre in Kansas City. Whether Cunningham Pier proceeds as drawn will depend on approvals the announcement leaves unmentioned.