From Melbourne to Miami: Australia design team's global moment

When the World Architecture Festival 2025 shortlist was announced, JLL's Australia Design team discovered they’d earned their place among just eight finalists globally in the Interiors: Workplace (Large) category. Come November, standing on that Miami stage presenting their Melbourne headquarters, already shortlisted for the Australian Institute of Design Awards, they'll represent validation of a journey that took off during one of the most uncertain times in recent history.

The story begins in 2018, when JLL Australia launched its in house design team. When COVID-19 arrived in 2020 and shuttered workplaces across the design industry, JLL made a bold decision to reinvest whilst other firms were closing down. "We took a significant gamble going with an in-house design team right in the middle of lockdown," recalls Anthony Walsh, Head of Design, Australasia. "The workplace sector was in chaos. JLL could have easily outsourced the design work to established tier-one architecture firms."

Walsh, who had been at JLL since 2009 after running his own practice, saw potential others missed. Rather than retreating during the chaos, he embraced a growth mindset: let the business grow organically, then reinvest that success back into design talent until they reached critical mass and were producing high-quality work consistently.

The bold move paid off. What started as a small team has grown to 35 designers across Australia and New Zealand, working on transformative projects from office fit-outs to retail, hotels and industrial design for organisations spanning across a range of industries and sectors. Today, at the core of its service delivery, this talented team eschews one-way thinking for the power of inclusive design. The result is always a space that excels today and evolves for tomorrow. Since the official launch of JLL Design in ANZ, the team has completed a varied range of projects across diverse sectors and industries, including office fit-outs for government clients in Melbourne and hotels in Brisbane.

JLL Design is not your traditional, hierarchical design firm. Here, architects and designers work side-by-side with project managers, all part of a diverse ecosystem of commercial real estate experts dedicated to delivering standout experiences to clients. In every project, the team’s people-focused culture is what makes the difference. And across the eastern seaboard, three designers with distinct approaches are helping strengthen JLL's unique position in the market.

• Jennifer Moore, National Practice Director, JLL Australia, joined mid-COVID in 2021, drawn by opportunities that traditional hierarchical design firms couldn't offer. "The opportunity to join JLL was so exciting because I got to be involved with all these different people and business lines that I just wouldn't have had exposure to in a traditional design firm," she explains. For Moore, who led the Melbourne office startup, design is about curiosity, and the spirit of inquiry it takes to imagine how strategy, engineering or diversity initiatives might influence spatial solutions.

• Catherine Wild-Taylor, Associate Designer, JLL Australia, discovered JLL almost by accident, joining during COVID when design firms weren't hiring. Initially employed as a project manager, she was "stolen away" by Moore when the design team launched. Now an Associate Designer who led the design of the award-winning Melbourne office, Wild-Taylor thrives on problem-solving: "That moment when we figured out how we could design the floor plate better...I find it immensely satisfying." Her path from an initial member of the design team to key contributor of a now much larger team exemplifies the non-traditional career growth JLL offers.

• Anthony Walsh, Head of Design, JLL Australasia, was “employee number one,” a role he approached with measured enthusiasm. Today, his business leadership is a bold complement to his design vision. "Designing the business is as much fun to me as designing spaces for our clients," he notes. At JLL, this means integrating design with broader real estate expertise and global reach, ultimately creating comprehensive solutions that traditional firms can't match.

Despite their different backgrounds, all three share a conviction that great design begins with understanding context: the place, the people, and the story that connects them. It’s an idea they bring to life through an intensive, highly collaborative process that everyone on the JLL Design team embraces. From the first conversation to the final concept, they dig deep to capture the culture, history, and vision that will shape the space.

“Those first weeks are all about listening,” says Moore. “We’ll sit down with teams across the client’s business, hear their stories, and walk through the spaces they use every day. We look for the moments that reveal how they work and what they value. By the time we put pen to paper, we know exactly how to design a space that’s rooted in their story.”

JLL's Melbourne headquarters at 101 Collins Street presented an intriguing narrative challenge: how to unite the refined Collins Street and the gritty Flinders Lane locations into a cohesive workspace story.

"Through 12 months of iterative design, we developed a narrative that juxtaposes the polished charm of Collins Street with the playful, industrious spirit of Flinders Lane," Moore explains. The team’s solution was ingenious: overlaying Melbourne's famous Hoddle Grid onto the floor plan and rotating it 45 degrees, creating a dynamic layout of functional pockets connected by clear pathways, marking a first for the 101 Collins Street building.

The design celebrates Melbourne's textile heritage through meeting rooms named after historic rag trade buildings, custom fabrics featuring garment blueprints and a dramatic folded steel ribbon staircase connecting two floors. Material choices blend warm, refined finishes with cooler, edgier elements, literally embodying the Collins Street-Flinders Lane contrast. This commitment to local context extends to collaboration with First Nations artists who bring authentic Melbourne perspectives to the workspace narrative.

The results demonstrate JLL's design values: employee satisfaction jumped from 83% to 96%, the office achieved six Green Star and Platinum WELL certifications and 92% of construction waste was recycled. "A colleague walked into the office on day one and said it felt like they were being embraced by a warm hug," Wild-Taylor recalls. "It's lovely that this is the feeling we managed to create."

The WAF recognition establishes JLL's design team as a force reshaping how we think about the spaces we live, work, and play.

The evolution from 2020 gamble to global recognition has been remarkable. "When I started, people kept asking, 'Why are you going to JLL? They’re not a design firm...’ says Moore. “They weren't wrong then. We were still building something new. But now we're being sought out by designers who see the opportunities we can offer."

After all, JLL's integrated approach is itself a powerful opportunity, with visionaries like Moore, Walsh, and Wild-Taylor each blending creative curiosity with contextual storytelling, all backed by the full spectrum of real estate capabilities from concept through to completion.

So, when November arrives and the team takes that Miami stage, you'll witness more than an award-winning project. You'll see proof that Australia's most compelling design stories unfold when bold vision meets the comprehensive support to realise it.

From Melbourne to Miami... to your next extraordinary space. Connect with JLL’s Australian design team and learn how we can bring your vision to life.