A man credited with 'shaping Sydney's physical and culture landscape', with creating some of the city’s most 'iconic public spaces', and 'ensuring the better design of all new residential buildings over three storeys', has been awarded Australia's top national architecture prize - the Australian Institute of Architects 2009 Gold Medal for Architecture.

Presenting the honour at a ceremony in Sydney, Australian Institute of Architects National President Howard Tanner said he was proud to announce that outstanding architect, landscape architect and urban design advocate Professor Ken Maher of HASSELL has won the 2009 Gold Medal.

Architecturally, Ken Maher is best known for the creation over the past 38 years of a large range of significant projects in Sydney, but also Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, China and Melbourne. In Sydney alone, his projects include icons such as the restoration of Luna Park at North Sydney, the North Sydney Olympic Pool, Olympic Park Railway Station at Homebush, National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) buildings, and the new Epping Chatswood Rail Line. Overseas, he has provided the concepts for an innovative new sustainable city centre in Ningbo, China and leads the design team for the new underground railway station in Singapore. In Melbourne, he is designing a vast new workplace for the ANZ Bank at Melbourne's Docklands.

As importantly, he is known as an advocate for architectural 'engagement' and collaboration, for chairing one of Australia's largest practices, being a key contributor to half a dozen top state and national urban design committees, and for being instrumental in the introduction of the State Environment Planning Policy (SEPP) 65 in NSW, the residential design pattern book and the use of design review panels to vastly improve residential developments across Sydney.