The Gold Coast needed a gallery. ARM's answer was also a provocation: why not go vertical? Most towers in this city are private – you pay to get that view. A vertical public gallery democratises it. You just go up.

The HOTA Gallery spans six levels, starting at the top and working down. Three separate 300-square-metre collection galleries rotate frequently – nimble enough to rehang two or three times a year, so there's always a reason to come back. A 1,000-square-metre blockbuster hall on the ground floor meets the requirements for major international touring exhibitions. A children's gallery, maker space, and a window into the collection store complete the ground floor offer. At the top, the Exhibitionist Bar and Palette Restaurant look out across the Gold Coast skyline, the Nerang River and the hinterland. ARM persuasively argued for two food and beverage venues and was right to: they're the only parts of the building that make money, and the reason people stay, linger over the art, and come back.

The exterior is wrapped in the Voronoi – the cellular geometry that runs across the entire HOTA precinct – here in vivid, unmissable colour. From a distance it's a beacon: you can see it for miles. This is what a regional city without Gothic cathedrals and Victorian town halls needs – architecture that is itself worth visiting, that rewards looking, that says ‘something is happening here’.

At 5,500 square metres, HOTA Gallery is one of the largest regional galleries in Australia and the largest public gallery outside a capital city. It holds the City of Gold Coast's extensive collection – including one of the largest collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in regional Australia – alongside local and international temporary and touring exhibitions. It opened on 8 May 2021, through the chaos of a COVID year, on budget and on time.