Brisbane Awards Presented by FKP Property Group
and the BDA 50th Anniversay Gala Dinner

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the BDA staged the inaugural Brisbane Awards presented by FKP Property Group.

The award, designed to celebrate the contributions of individuals and organisations in creating a better Brisbane, was presented to Brisbane City Council for making Brisbane a better city to live in.

Brisbane City Council was specifically awarded for several civic and urban design initiatives that have made significant contributions to the quality of life in Brisbane over the last 15 years. These include the SCIPS programme for providing suburban communities with their own identities; City Cat ferries; the Urban Renewal Programme in Teneriffe and Newstead; River Walk; and the Queen Street Mall refurbishments.

The initiatives were achieved by a council fully committed to the ideal of city-improvement. This commitment from the Mayors and Councillors through to the officers who implemented the ideas, demonstrates how municipalities can be enormously effective in improving the lifestyle of the community when they are engaged and motivated.

The Brisbane Awards presented by FKP was presented to Brisbane City Council and accepted by Lord Mayor Campbell Newman at a black tie event at the Gallery of Modern Art on 18 May 2007.

200 BDA members and Brisbane design and business leaders attended the gala dinner which also featured:

• Key-note presentation by Sir Murray Rivers QC (AKA Bryan Dawe)
• Queensland-inspired five-course degustation menu, specially created by acclaimed Brisbane Chef David Pugh (Restaurant II)
• Steve Wilson's Barambah wines
• Performance by Queensland Conservatorium ensemble, in celebration of the Conservatorium's 50th anniversary

Moving forward, the Brisbane Awards will be presented annually. There may be one to two awards presented each year. The awards are for an individual or organisation's outstanding contribution to the urban fabric of the city of Brisbane. The contribution may be through the provision of a place or an individual's contribution. While the place needs to be a recent addition, the individual contribution could be for a body of work or a long-term contribution to the city.

BRISBANE AWARDS CITATION Awarded to Brisbane City Council

The Brisbane City Council has the benefit and responsibility of servicing all of Brisbane City.

This compels it to embark on major public works on a larger scale than many other city councils.

Over fifteen years the Brisbane City Council has put in place several civic and urban design initiatives that have made significant contributions to the quality of life in Brisbane.

These initiatives include:

• The SCIPS programme for providing suburban communities with their own identities
• The City Cat ferries
• The Urban Renewal programme in Teneriffe and Newstead
• The River Walk and the connections to the river
• Queen Street Mall refurbishments

Each one of these initiatives is connected to the notion of living in a subtropical place and future generations will view the implementation of these initiatives as the turning point when the city finally embraced its subtropical environment.

The initiatives were achieved by a Council fully committed to this ideal. This commitment from the Mayors and Councillors through to the officers who implemented the ideas, demonstrates how municipalities can be enormously effective in improving the lifestyle of the community when they are engaged and motivated. In some of these the Council acted as the initiator, and in others completed the project themselves.

It is a mark of the success of the projects that in the cases where there was Council initiation the community has responded positively and exceeded expectations such as in the SCIPS and the River Walk.

The initiatives have transformed the city both individually and collectively. It is the celebration of our suburban communities nestled into the Brisbane hills and valleys. It is the embracing of the river, seeing it as an important amenity, and it is the establishment of new communities within old industrial sites that have given our city national prominence.

The BDA recognises the key role that the Brisbane City Council has made in establishing an identity for Brisbane that is formed out of the essential nature of living in Brisbane. The BDA believes that these urban design initiatives have been essential to the ongoing life of the city and are therefore worthy of being awarded the inaugural Brisbane Awards presented by FKP.