At the Queensland Planner’s night of nights, PLACE Design Group knocked it out of the park, taking home six awards. What has already been a huge year for the leader in Planning and Design, the awards were just the icing on the cake and a nod to their dedication and innovation in Queensland planning.
Commendations were received for Improving Planning Policies & Practices with ‘The Guide to Best Practice Scheme Drafting’, and Best Planning Ideas — Small for the Toowoomba CBD Metrics Framework. Wins were achieved for the Great Place Award for Jezzine Barracks, the Wendy Chadwick Encouragement Award for ‘The Guide’ in partnership with DSDIP, Planner of the Year by Director Chris Isles, and the group took home the National Planning Idea Award for their QR Journey submission.
“PLACE Design Group have been instrumental in assisting the department in developing a number of key strategic planning policies this year,” says Mark Saunders, Director, Planning Scheme Support from DSDIP.
“DSDIP worked hand-in-hand with the team on The Guide. It was a hard slog to put such a big project together but absolutely worth it. We believe it will make planning scheme drafting and the communication of complex concepts much easier for Councillors and planners to deliver economic outcomes through their planning schemes. Being awarded the Wendy Chadwick Encouragement Award and taking home the commendation for the project was testament to the hard work from both our teams and we are very honoured to share this with PLACE Design Group.”
This year the planning awards saw a high calibre of finalists. The quality and diversity of the finalists demonstrated just how many projects are contributing to a brighter future for Queensland. PIA Queensland State Manager Dan Molloy said congratulations were due to PLACE Design Group whose projects had been recognised as being outstanding among a very strong and deep field of quality entries.
2014 has been a big year in the planning and development industry, with the first signs of a recovery in market conditions, and also ongoing reform to planning process. PLACE Design Group’s Planning team have not only been lucky enough to be closely involved and influential with this reform, but also working on a number of major developments responding to new market growth.
Chris Isles, Director and Brisbane Planning Principal of PLACE Design Group says, “I believe the strength of our team and the work we deliver stems from our strong focus on both strategic and statutory planning. Our real world knowledge combined with experience gained in drafting and influencing key planning and policy projects provides a huge asset for the industry both private and public. We have a team of planners that are passionate about not just doing the work, but leaving our profession and industry in a better position than we inherited. This has certainly been my personal objective and I think my recognition as planner of the year, and the teams recognition across the awards, reflects the significant time and effort taken to participate and influence a range of planning and development issues.”
PLACE Design Group will now head to the National Planning Awards for Excellence in March 2015 in the categories of Great Place and Planner of the Year.
