Inside the State Buildings’ Refurbished Rooftop Garden
Above Perth’s St Georges Terrace, a layered garden occupies one of the State Buildings’ least visible spaces. It is easy to pass beneath the former Treasury, Lands and Titles buildings without realising that a planted retreat sits above the restored heritage complex, removed from the movement of the city below.
The rooftop garden refurbishment gives this elevated landscape a renewed purpose. Rather than treating the roof as decoration or an afterthought, the project approaches it as working infrastructure: a place where planting, drainage, shade, hospitality and heritage architecture need to operate together.
That balance is central to the character of the State Buildings. The precinct is known for its restaurants, bars, retail spaces and public interiors, yet the rooftop garden offers a quieter register. Its value lies in the way it extends the building’s civic life upwards, creating a sheltered setting that feels both urban and unexpectedly intimate.
A concealed layer of the heritage precinct
The State Buildings are defined by accumulated histories. Their stone façades and formal proportions reflect the administrative role the buildings once played, while the contemporary interiors support dining, accommodation, events and independent businesses. The rooftop garden adds another layer to that transformation without competing with the architecture below.
Its relative concealment is part of the experience. Visitors move through grand staircases, corridors and finely detailed rooms before arriving at a landscape that feels more informal. The change in atmosphere is immediate: hard architectural lines give way to foliage, filtered light and the softer sounds of an outdoor gathering place.
The refurbishment responds to this contrast by strengthening the garden’s identity as a destination rather than simply a roof with plants. Circulation, seating and planting are arranged to make the space legible, while visual connections back to the surrounding city preserve its sense of elevation. The garden remains connected to Perth, but it is not overwhelmed by it.
Designing for a demanding rooftop climate
A rooftop in Perth must contend with intense sun, drying winds, reflected heat and limited soil depth. These conditions make a planted roof a technical undertaking as much as a horticultural one. Every additional layer, from waterproofing protection to growing medium, has implications for structure, maintenance and long-term performance.
The refurbishment places emphasis on a more resilient planting strategy. Species suited to a warm, dry climate can reduce water demand and withstand seasonal exposure, while varied foliage creates texture even when flowering is limited. The planting palette also benefits from a mix of heights and densities, allowing low groundcovers, structural shrubs and taller accents to work as a cohesive composition.
Irrigation is equally important. A well-designed system needs to deliver water efficiently while supporting the different requirements of plants in sun, shade and wind-exposed positions. Drainage must be carefully managed so that heavy rain moves away from the roof structure without stripping growing media or damaging planting beds.
This is where the project’s environmental ambition becomes tangible. Climate-conscious landscape design is not only about selecting hardy plants. It also involves reducing replacement cycles, planning for maintenance access, and ensuring that the garden can remain healthy without demanding constant intervention.
A garden shaped by movement and pause
The renewed rooftop is organised around a sequence of moments rather than a single formal vista. Paths lead visitors through planted areas, opening towards seating zones and framed views. This arrangement gives the garden flexibility: it can support a quiet morning, an informal meeting, a private function or a larger gathering without losing its sense of calm.
Furniture and built elements have a practical role within that sequence. Seating needs to be comfortable enough for lingering, robust enough for outdoor use and visually restrained enough to allow the landscape to remain the dominant feature. Screens, planters and sheltered edges can create smaller rooms within the open roof, offering privacy without closing the garden off.
The result is a form of outdoor interior design. As with a well-resolved room, the success of the rooftop depends on proportion, material relationships, lighting and the way people move through it. The distinction is that weather, seasonal growth and changing daylight continually alter the composition.
At different times of day, the garden can feel like several spaces at once. Morning light picks out leaves and masonry; afternoon heat sharpens shadows; evening lighting turns the planting into a textured backdrop for hospitality. This adaptability makes the roof valuable to the wider State Buildings programme.
Material choices between old and new
The most effective interventions in a heritage setting are often those that know when to recede. On the rooftop, new elements need to meet contemporary requirements while acknowledging the weight and detail of the historic buildings. The landscape therefore works through contrast and continuity rather than imitation.
Stone, metal, timber and textured surfaces can establish a material language that sits comfortably beside the existing architecture. Weather-resistant finishes are particularly important in an exposed environment, where ultraviolet light, rain and temperature shifts quickly reveal weak specifications. The palette also needs to support maintenance, because damaged or heavily worn elements are difficult to repair discreetly on a rooftop.
Planting softens these harder surfaces and creates a transition between the old structure and new uses. Leaves introduce movement against masonry, while shadow changes the perception of edges and thresholds. The garden does not attempt to disguise the building; instead, it allows architecture and landscape to make each other more legible.
This approach reflects a broader direction in Australian design, where adaptive reuse is increasingly concerned with atmosphere as well as preservation. Retaining a building’s shell is only part of the work. The challenge is to give existing places a new rhythm of use, and the rooftop garden contributes to that rhythm in a particularly visible way once it is discovered.
| Design consideration | Response in the rooftop garden | Experience for visitors |
|---|---|---|
| Perth’s heat and wind | Climate-suitable planting, shade and efficient irrigation | A greener, more comfortable outdoor setting |
| Heritage context | Restrained new elements and complementary materials | A clear relationship between historic fabric and contemporary use |
| Limited roof conditions | Carefully planned growing areas, drainage and access | A garden that feels established without appearing overbuilt |
| Multiple uses | Flexible seating, circulation and sheltered pockets | Space for dining, meetings, events and quiet pauses |
| Ongoing care | Durable finishes and manageable planting zones | A landscape designed for long-term performance |
Hospitality with a stronger sense of place
The State Buildings’ rooftop garden sits within a precinct where food, design and public life are closely connected. Its refurbishment supports that relationship by giving hospitality an outdoor setting with a distinct identity. The garden is not a generic terrace attached to a venue; it carries the atmosphere of the building and the city around it.
For events, this creates a useful gradient between formal interiors and open air. Guests can move from a dining room or function space into a more relaxed landscape, while staff can use the garden as an extension of the precinct’s operational areas. This kind of spatial flexibility is increasingly important as venues seek to offer experiences that feel memorable without relying on excessive visual spectacle.
The garden also broadens the audience for the State Buildings. A visitor may arrive for architecture, stay for a meal and discover the rooftop as an unexpected civic room. For designers and students, it offers a compact example of how heritage reuse, landscape performance and commercial programming can overlap in one project.
Those interested in Perth’s design community can find a wider point of connection through Contemporary’s registration page, where industry events and related programming provide opportunities to engage with the people shaping the city’s built environment.
What the refurbishment reveals about Perth design
The project reflects a shift in how urban landscapes are valued. A rooftop garden is often judged by its appearance in photographs, but its deeper contribution is operational. It can moderate the experience of a building, provide habitat for insects and birds, offer relief from hard urban surfaces and create a setting that changes with the seasons.
In Perth, these qualities are particularly relevant. The city’s strong sunlight and dry climate demand a confident local response, while its growing cultural and hospitality scene calls for spaces that support gathering. The refurbished garden brings those conditions together without attempting to replicate a cooler-climate model of lushness.
It also demonstrates how smaller interventions can influence a large precinct. The work may be concentrated above the street, yet it affects how people understand the entire complex. A roof becomes a destination, a heritage building gains another public layer and landscape becomes part of the story rather than a decorative margin.
That story is useful beyond this single site. Across Australia, designers are working with existing buildings, constrained footprints and more exacting environmental expectations. The State Buildings rooftop shows how a carefully considered landscape can add value to adaptive reuse while remaining grounded in local climate and culture.
Details worth carrying into future projects
The rooftop garden offers several practical lessons for architects, landscape designers, venue operators and clients considering a similar refurbishment:
- Treat waterproofing, drainage and structural capacity as design foundations rather than technical matters to resolve later.
- Select planting for Perth’s exposure, maintenance realities and seasonal character instead of pursuing constant visual abundance.
- Use seating, shade and circulation to create a variety of outdoor experiences within a limited footprint.
- Choose materials that develop a considered patina and can be repaired or replaced without disrupting the wider composition.
- Design the garden as part of the building’s programme, allowing hospitality, events and everyday public use to coexist.
These principles help explain why the rooftop feels more substantial than a simple greening exercise. Its success depends on coordination between architecture, landscape, engineering, operations and care. Each discipline contributes to an environment that must perform technically while remaining generous and inviting.
The garden’s hidden position makes that achievement even more compelling. It rewards discovery, but it also works quietly in the background, improving the experience of the State Buildings as a whole. Its planting frames the city, its materials acknowledge the past and its flexible layout supports the changing life of a contemporary precinct.
For those following the people behind Perth’s design culture, the platform’s ambassador network offers another way to connect with architects, designers, makers and advocates contributing to the conversation.
A visit to the State Buildings is now incomplete without looking upwards. The refurbished rooftop garden demonstrates how an overlooked space can become a carefully calibrated piece of public life—one that links heritage architecture, climate-responsive planting and contemporary hospitality above the city streets. Explore it in person, and follow Contemporary for more stories from the places and practitioners shaping Western Australia.
