[2] Projects in this awards category must be predominantly of a public or institutional nature and generally fall within Building Code of Australia (BCA) Class 9, excluding projects within the definition of 'Educational Architecture or any BCA Class 9b building used primarily for educational purposes'.
[3][4] In 1997 the previous institutional awards were recategorised into separate and distinct public, educational and commercial categories.
ARM Architecture (Ashton Raggatt McDougall) have won the award on five separate occasions: 1996, 2004, 2009, 2015 and 2016.
[6] The naming of the award recognises English born architect and civil engineer William Wardell (1823–1899).
After being dismissed by the government Wardell moved to Sydney, extending his career as an influential and important public architect.