Leading design and planning consultancy PLACE Design Group have taken out the Optus Business Platinum Award along with Doing Business In Asia Award at the 2014 Lord Mayors Business Awards.
Announced by Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, PLACE Design Group were honoured to be selected as winners from the 10 categories and 40 finalists that acknowledge the important roles that companies and individuals are making to the Brisbane Business and entrepreneurial landscape.
Cr Quirk said all award winners’ play a critical role in establishing Brisbane as Australia’s new world city and a hub for innovation, investment, education, conventions and tourism in the Asia Pacific region.
“Place Design Group has taken new world city planning and design to the fastest growing region in the world. The judges were particularly impressed with how Place Design Group has built an international business with its foundation in Brisbane through engaging with Sister Cities. It has also utilised international workforces as well as leveraged off trade missions and other initiatives to deliver services from Brisbane across Asia.”
Place Design Group, leaders in landscape architecture, urban design, master planning, strategic planning, and development services, are going from strength to strength in Asia, having established their first office in China in 2001. Now with over 100 staff across their five offices in China and South East Asia, Place Design Group’s export market is extremely important to their sustainability and growth, with this market achieving an annual turnover of over $11million in 2013 alone.
Managing Director of Place Design Group, Shaun Munday said, “We are extremely honoured to have won both the Business in Asia and Platinum awards. These wins are a credit to our amazing team and the dedication to our Australia-China business relationships.”
“We hold great pride in being a Brisbane founded organisation and believe maintaining our head office here has really enabled us to develop as a group that is fluid and flexible, enabling us to quickly adapt to new situations and opportunities.”
There are big projects on the horizon for Place Design Group, with the recent win of the Qingdao Foreshore Design Competition which will see them design an 11ha site in Qingdao Shandong Province, China, and the securing of the Volcanic Rock Foreshore and Parkland urban design, a 54ha development at Xiamen, Futian Province, China. At a local level the group continues to work with major Brisbane developments including those such as Brunswick Street Mall and the last Brisbane greenfield site by Cedar Woods, with a number of exciting new projects set to be announced in the coming weeks. Place Design Group is also in the running to take out awards at the Queensland Premier’s Export Awards, set to be announced on Thursday.
