Phil Gresley appointed to State Design Review Panel

Phil Gresley discussing the benefits of design review and introducing the factors to achieve it.

Gresley Abas continues to be at the forefront of multi-residential design in WA, following the announcement last week that our Managing Director and founding partner Phil Gresley has been appointed to the new State Design Review Panel.

 The government unveiled this panel to coincide with the official introduction of Design WA, which came into effect on 24 May. Gresley Abas contributed to the development of this policy suite by helping to draft the Apartment Design Guidelines.

 Phil says: “It is critical - as our population grows - that quality design becomes an integral part of our planning and building procurement frameworks. The development and implementation of planning instruments such as Design WA require support from rigorous design assessment at the earliest stages of a project - be it for the planning of suburbs, activity centres, TODs or individual development sites.

“The State Design Review Panel is one of the important mechanisms for this to be undertaken - a foundation stone in the move to improve design quality in WA.”

 Members of the panel – including architects working in government and private practice, landscape architects, urban designers, academics and other specialists, drawn from across WA and interstate - will convene to assess significant or strategic government projects, as well as any large-scale private projects that are referred to them by a statutory planning body.

Phil has also appeared on several other design reviews panels including MRA, LandCorp, City of Bayswater, City of Fremantle, and City of Stirling, and the lessons learned have given the practice an edge when it comes to ensuring GA’s apartment designs meet and exceed client, customer and community expectations.

 “There are many new requirement and demands to satisfy under the Design WA policies, and Gresley Abas is very well placed to steer our clients through what can appear to be a daunting approvals process,” Phil said.

“We’ve always been focussed on making sure that our designs contribute in a positive way to the communities they serve, and we welcome this significant step by the state government to elevate the importance of design across the board.”

 DesignWA includes State Planning Policy 7.0 – Design of the Built Environment, an updated Apartment Design policy and a Design Review Guide. Future stages will focus on house design, as well as medium-density, neighbourhood and precinct design.

 You can read more about the new panel and the types of projects it will assess here: www.dplh.wa.gov.au/sdrp