We’re proud to share that 116 Rokeby has won the Commercial Architecture Award at the 2025 Victorian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects Awards.

The AIA Awards remain the highest recognition for architecture in Australia, and to be acknowledged within that field means the world to us.

Congratulations to Carr, whose design brought restraint, clarity, and conviction to the project. From the start, there was alignment — on purpose, on materiality, on what it means to build something that lasts. We’ve worked with Carr before, but this one felt different. This one was ours.

In one of the early concept design meetings, our Founder Joe Grasso brought in a photo he’d taken years earlier of the Harvard Carpenter Center, designed by Le Corbusier.

“I wasn’t pointing to a precedent,” he reflects. “I was trying to describe an emotion, a feeling — the articulate use of concrete, the way the circulation cut straight through the form, the quiet simplicity and clarity of it all inspired me. It had stayed with me, and I wondered if we could create something that carried that same conviction. Something that would be around forever.”

Carr understood that instinct. What followed was a collaboration grounded in shared values — a built form that reflects our commitment to design and construction, and perfectly captures who Figurehead is.

As builder, developer, and now occupant, the recognition holds weight.
116 wasn’t a brief we answered — it was a vision we backed, shaped, and now live inside.

We make decisions here. We meet here.
We share the space — with tenants, collaborators, visitors.
And we feel what the building gives back, every day. It’s not just our HQ. It’s part of how we show up.

The jury cited amenity, sustainability, and urban presence.
For us, those weren’t slogans — they were priorities from the beginning.

116 doesn’t just photograph well. It performs.
It’s warm in winter, cool in summer. It breathes and it moves.
The circulation works. The light lands just right.
The spaces invite use, not performance.

We share this recognition with Carr, our other valued consultants, and everyone who helped bring 116 to life — because every decision was shared.

The award recognises more than just design.
It shows what happens when builders lead with vision, and back it with care.

“It means a lot,” Joe adds, “not just because it’s beautifully resolved, but because we lived every decision.”

But what matters most isn’t how it’s awarded — it’s how it’s lived.
We work here. We rely on it. And every day, it proves itself.