Recognition: Industry Awards

We've had another amazing year with our projects being awarded 10 industry awards from a variety of professional associations including AILA, PIA, UDIA, Property Council of Australia, National Trust of Australia and the Queensland Government. A massive thanks to our amazing partner consultants and valued clients for their collaboration to make these award winning projects!

Oxley Creek Transformation Master Plan
Client: Oxley Creek Transformation Pty Ltd (subsidary of BCC)

• AILA NATIONAL Award of Excellence for Land Management
• PIA NATIONAL Commendation for Best Planning Ideas - Large
• AILA QUEENSLAND Award of Excellence for Land Management
• QLD Minister's Awards for Urban Design - Commendation

Parklands Project, Gold Coast
Client: Grocon

• UDIA NATIONAL Award of Excellence for Masterplanned Development (Grocon)

Riverlight, Hamilton Reach
Client: Frasers Property Australia

• AILA QUEENSLAND Landscape Architecture Award for Gardens

900 Ann Street & Holy Trinity Church, Fortitude Valley
Client: Consolidated Properties

• AILA QUEENSLAND Landscape Architecture Award for Cultural Heritage
• National Trust of Australia QUEENSLAND High Commendation for Heritage Landscapes (The Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane, Lat27, Consolidated Properties, Hutchinson Builders, Penfold Projects)

Camp Hill Marketplace
Client: Hamell Group

• Property Council of Australia QUEENSLAND Retail Property Award of Excellence in Design - Boutique Retail (Arkhefield)

Riverhomes, Hamilton Reach
Client: Frasers Property Australia

• UDIA QUEENSLAND Award of Excellence for Premium Small Scale Development (Frasers Property Australia for Hamilton Reach)

Studio: Our Stellar Team

This year we welcomed Business Development Manager Emma Skea and Student Architects Joshua Ferrero & Liam Suter to our team.

We would like to congratulate our team on the following achievements & milestones achieved this year outside of their work in the studio:

• Wendy Davies is a key member of the Queensand AILA Regional Landscapes Group who co-authored the Queensland Guidance Note for Landscape and Visual Assessment (GNLVA). The GNLVA won the 2019 AILA QLD President's Award and a 2019 AILA National President's Award.
• Graduate Landscape Architect Sasha Paterson & Student Architect Liam Suter for finishing their respective Bachelor degrees at QUT.
• Senior Landscape Architect Stephen Orr for earning his AILA Landscape Architecture Registration (RLA)
• Graduate Landscape Architect Sasha Paterson for winning the Guymer Bailey Award at the 2019 QUT Design Festival.

Industry contribution: Supporting the design community

Our studio is founded on 4 key values, a commitment to quality, collaboration, creative initiative and sharing of ideas. This commitment extends beyond our studio practice into our contribution to our profession's development & image within the wider community. Here are just some of the events, talks, lectures and tours that we've been involved in throughout 2019:

• Parks & Leisure Queensland Conference Talks, Andrew Neighbour (Mount Alvernia College) & Damian Thompson (Woolgoolga Beach Reserve)
• Brisbane Open House After Dark Series, Matthew Nolan (Northshore Activation), Glenn Hay and John Ilett (The Link, Milton Green)
• The Lat27 Prize for final year Landscape Architecture students at Queensland University of Technology
• AILA Queensland Tour of the Brisbane Showgrounds
• AILA Queensland Studio Crawl
• Curiocity 2019 'Something Fishy' art installation (Lead by Jason Bird from luxxbox)
• Chair of the Brisbane Region Judging Panel for the Australian Institute of Architects 2019 Awards Program, John Ilett
• Guest lecturing and tutoring for Queensland University of Technology, Wendy Davies & Damian Thompson
• Dig Beneath Design Podcast with Saneia Norton, Damian Thompson
• Inspiring Design with Rashan Senanayake Podcast, Damian Thompson

City Shaping: A park for everyone

We have been working hard over the last few months on the first stage of the Victoria Park Vision for Brisbane City Council including leading the community consultation at the Victoria Park Party in September. The Vision report will be launched by Council early next year, so keep an eye out for the first stage of this city shaping project for Brisbane.

Victoria Park Vision Consultant Team: 
Aurecon, WilkinsonEyre Architects, CDM Smith, CoDesign Studio, Steele Wrobel, DesignFlow, Project for Public Spaces & Catherine Brouwer Landscape Architect.

Keep up to date with the project by signing up for Victoria Park updates from Brisbane City Council

Renewables: Supporting a better future for all

Over the past year we have worked on the Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments for numerous renewable energy projects across Queensland. Two of these projects have recently been approved. The Aldoga Solar Farm (AECOM on behalf of Acciona Energy)  is a 250 MW facility located within the Gladstone State Development Area. The Banana Range Wind Farm is a 180 MW wind farm located near Biloela. Another of our projects, Coopers Gap Wind Farm (AECOM on behalf of AGL), commenced generating electricity in June and will ultimately have 123 turbines generating up to 453 MW of power.

Productive landscapes: Growing a community on campus

We are passionate about creating places to learn, facilitating spaces that get students outside and learning hands-on. Productive gardens are a great way to engage students of all ages and create a multitude of teaching opportunities and additions to the curriculum. Our most recent productive garden is the Community Garden at the University of Queensland St Lucia Campus (in partnership with DWP Architects). The design is driven by many different needs including a formal arrival space for the campus, providing a functional community garden for the neighbouring early childhood education centre, integrating into the existing aesthetic & materiality of the St Lucia campus and celebrating the natural elements which define the campus.

Read more about the UQ Community Garden, St Lucia

Inner city: Urban Space for city dwellers

Alexandria Precinct opened this year, the latest stage to be constructed of our Brisbane Showgrounds Public Realm Master Plan. The project focus was to preserve and enhance the built heritage and mature flora that define the site whilst providing a new, green open space for locals. The historic Building 8 (in collaboration with Conrad Gargett Architects) has been given a new lease on life as an events pavilion, designed to accommodate a variety of community and precinct events throughout the year including the annual Canine Judging Competition at the Ekka. Wayfinding was undertaken in collaboration with Dotdash.

Read more about Alexandria Park, Brisbane Showgrounds.

Branching out: Beyond the 27th parallel

2019 has seen the studio continue to raise our regional and interstate profile on a wide range projects, including:

• Chatswood Chase Shopping Centre, Sydney
• Chadstone Shopping Centre, Melbourne
• Brisbane to Melbourne Inland Rail Project LVIA - selected QLD & NSW segments
• Western Sydney Airport (Lead by Cox Architects & Zaha Hadid Architects)