The Urban Development
Institute of Australia (Victoria) today said the winners of its annual Awards
for Excellence for 2012 reflected the high standard of planning and construction
in residential communities throughout Victoria.
The Awards are in their 17th
consecutive year and are generally held to be among the best and most sought-after
of their kind in the industry.
Commenting on the 2012 awards
UDIA (VIC) Executive Director Tony De Domenico said, "Residential projects
in Victoria provided lifestyle opportunities which reflected a strong commitment
to community development, environment and healthy living."
Mr De Domenico said, "The
awards also reflected the high degree of skills within all areas of the
property industry in Victoria which directly employs around 310,000 full time
employees, contributes around 12 per cent of the state's gross domestic productivity,
and continued to increase the quality of residential developments."
The following developments
were awarded the highest accolade in their categories, of:
Master
Planned Development - Winner
Stockland - Highlands, Craigieburn
Master
Planned Development - Commendation
Lend Lease - Laurimar, Doreen
Residential Development 250
lots or fewer
Central Equity - Sefton Grange,
Mount Martha
More
than 250 lots
Medium Density
red. c - Canopi, West
Footscray
High Density
High Density Commendation
Environmental
Excellence
"These UDIA awards benchmark 'best
practice' which in turn soon becomes common practice as we have seen with major
achievements and standards being reached in environmental planning and management."
"Finding techniques and innovations
to achieve a market advantage promotes competition and ensures a healthy future
for the industry and considerable benefits for the community," Mr De
Domenico said.
The judging team of five, all of whom
are skilled practitioners within the industry, traversed inner and outer Melbourne
and country Victoria, extending as far as Wodonga, to view the projects entered
in the awards.
Chairman of the Judges and past UDIA (Vic)
board member Mark Bartley commented, "This year the projects offered a diverse
range of product, facilities and amenity".
"We saw some excellent and truly
deserving award recipients. Many developers are responding to the market and changing
household demographics by offering a more diverse range of product."
Mark Bartley, partner at law firm HWL
Ebsworth was joined by returning judges Mike Brickell, who is an architect, town
planner and developer; Kathy Mitchell, Chief Panel Member of Planning Panels Victoria
(PPV) and Past President and a Fellow of the Victoria Planning and Environmental
Law Association (VPELA); Bernard McNamara, principal of BMDA Development Advisory,
and; David Whitney, sessional member of PPV and past President of the Planning
Institute of Australia (Victoria).
The judges noted in particular several
projects which demonstrate clever design and careful planning to overcome site,
engineering or topographical issues.
Mr Bartley commented, "We saw several
impressive examples of sites with different problems to overcome. We saw
former industrial sites and areas with planning or environmental constraints being
rejuvenated with clever design outcomes."
Media Enquiries:
Tony De Domenico,
Executive Director, UDIA (VIC) - Mobile: 0412 306 885
Ron
Smith, Corporate Media Communications, UDIA (VIC) - Mobile: 0417 329 201