From 1979-83 he practised alone on small projects. Among his earliest works, in 1972, was the brilliantly coloured Cafe Byzantium at 312 Drummond Street, Carlton. He went on to design the nearby Deutscher Gallery and residence at 68 Drummond Street in 1983. In 1984, he designed the award winning Metro Brasserie, 41 Bourke Street. The same year, he formed a small practice and in 1990, it had become an established company.
Initially, Katsalidis designed a number of striking buildings on Latrobe Street which gained him attention as an upcoming designer and one of the youngest architects designing tall office buildings, culminating in the award winning Argus Centre in 1991.
In 1996, he established Nation Fender Katsalidis, but due to Bob Nation's withdrawal from the partnership, it became Fender Katsalidis.
Katsalidis' big break was with his award winning Melbourne Terrace Apartments, implemented as one of the first buildings under the Postcode 3000 planning strategy for increasing the residential population of Melbourne city centre.
In 2002, the Government of Victoria's new planning blueprint ResCode was released, citing St Leonard's Apartments and Melbourne Terrace as two out of three examples of the model for medium density housing in metropolitan Melbourne.
He then became known for his cutting edge high-rise residential tower designs and became a developer of some of Australia's tallest residential buildings, such as the Eureka Tower.
Katsalidis became a commercial architect and now participates in the financing and development of his designs which have evolved to be more subdued than his previous work.
The Argus Centre. Latrobe Street, Melbourne (1991) (Fender Katsalidis)
Melbourne Terrace Apartments. Franklin Street, Melbourne (1994) - a fanciful postmodern design featuring zig zag embellished exposed pre-fabricated concrete fins, use of architectural copper, and various classical sculptures at the entrance to each of the major pavilions. The building is listed as one of the Top 20 buildings in Australia of the 20th century by Architecture Australia in the December 1999 edition.
Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo (1995) (redevelopment and extension)
The Malthouse, Richmond (1997) (Fender Katsalidis)
St Leonards Apartments, St Kilda (1997) (Nation Fender Katsalidis)