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Established in 1996

Team GBA

Sydney , NSW

Highly Qualified

All of our professional staff members are members of ICOMOS and have undergraduate and post graduate qualifications in fields including Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning, Building Conservation, Historical Research, Industrial Heritage, Museum Development, Project Management and the Philosophy of Aesthetics.

Extensive postgraduate experience and ongoing research, both in Australia and internationally, enables Team GBA members to bring a broad ranging and creative depth to each project. While each staff member is responsible for the delivery of their projects, we work collaboratively to ensure the overall corporate knowledge, expertise and experience is available to optimise each outcome.

Broad Range of Experience

Individual staff maintain memberships of professional associations including Australian Institute of Architects, Royal Institute of British Architects, National Trust of Australia (NSW) ICOMOS International Scientific Committees including Cultural Tourism, Shared Heritage, Industrial Heritage, Interpretation Australia.

Several team members have architectural qualifications, with Graham Brooks (ARB Reg. No. 3836) and Garry McDonald (ARB Reg No, 4523) being registered Architects in NSW.

Meet the Team

Graham Brooks
Managing Director

Graham brings more than 50 years of professional experience, primarily as a specialist in heritage management, adaptive re-use, historic building and urban area rejuvenation.
He is a member of the Australian Institute of Architects.
Graham has considerable experience as a Heritage Expert in the NSW Land and Environment Court, in undertaking Peer Reviews and working with architects and clients to optimise project outcomes. With a lifetime of national and international travel and professional engagement, Graham brings a long term understanding of architectural and heritage conservation developments and trends into the professional work of GBA Heritage.
Graham has served variously as Chairman of the National Trust (NSW) Historic Buildings Committee, Chairman of AusHeritage Ltd., and most recently as President of the ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Committee between 2001 and 2011.

Garry McDonald
Associate Director

Garry has broad practice as an architect with specialised heritage experience, including collaboration with other architects, landscape architects, heritage engineers, urban designers, builders, trades and archaeologists.

Garry has gained his heritage-specific experience and knowledge over decades of working in the offices of leading heritage architects and urban designers.

His experience extends across all facets of heritage practice, from research to strategic advice on complex urban development, thus bringing considerable expertise to the consultant team

Dov Midalia
Associate Director

Dov’s qualifications in architecture, urban planning, history and aesthetics, together with his experience in architectural and heritage practice as well as local government, enable him to bring research, analysis, design and project management skills to his work.

He has managed a range of large and small projects in urban, suburban and rural settings, in roles including research, providing heritage, design and strategic advice, preparing and overseeing heritage reports and monitoring conservation works.

Lauren Schutz
Senior Heritage Consultant and LEC Case Manager

Lauren has a background in history, with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Monash University and a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies from the University of Sydney.

She is actively involved with Australia ICOMOS, as the NSW Representative of the Young and Emerging Professionals Working Group and a Member of the Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group. Lauren was previously a co-opted member of the Executive Committee.

Dr Cameron Hartnell
Senior Heritage Consultant

Cameron received a Doctorate in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology from Michigan Technological University in 2010.

He has worked as a heritage professional in Adelaide and Sydney for over sixteen years and has a specialty in historical research, industrial history and photography.

Dr Shabnam Yazdani Mehr
Senior Heritage Consultant

Shabnam brings degrees in Architecture and Project Management that complement her PhD research skills in adaptive re-use in the Australian context.

She has experience of working on the adaptive reuse projects in QLD, NSW, and ACT and a guest lecturer at UTS and Griffith University for courses on sustainable adaptive reuse of buildings.

She maintains active relationships with international academic and experienced practitioners.

Our Professional Background

Woodbridge Estate London
Photo Credit: Google streetview
Old Adelaide Gaol
Photo Credit: Google
Perth Council House
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Cumberland Street, The Rocks, Sydney
Photo Credit: Google Streetview
  • 1975-77

    Graham Brooks worked in London on the rehabilitation of an 1830s terraced housing estate for social housing, including the seamless infill of still vacant sites destroyed in the 1940 London Blitz.

  • 1977-84

    Graham worked with Wills Denoon Travis and Partners, now Architectus, in both Sydney and Newcastle.
    During these years he worked on a variety of projects including new Council Administration buildings at Lake Macquarie and Eurobodalla Shire, early schemes for the residential adaptive re-use of an inner-city warehouses, and initial projects to explore the potential for adaptive re-use of the historic Walsh Bay wharves and shore sheds.
    He also prepared a major CMP for the Darlinghurst Courthouse complex

  • 1984

    Graham joined Tim Schwager to form Schwager Brooks and Partners.
    Over the following 12 years, the firm worked on a combination of new building projects, including a seamless contextual redevelopment of the former Mort’s Dock in Balmain for social housing. CMPs were prepared for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service including for North Head Quarantine Station, Goat Island and ten historic coastal NSW Lighthouses.
    Heritage asset inventories were also prepared for NSW Police, Justice, NPWS and Health, in addition to early 20th century Drill Halls for the Australian Army and an inventory of historic pubs in central Sydney.
    CMPs were also prepared for the old Adelaide Gaol (1841-1988) within a few months of its closure, and Perth Council House (1963) in the context of a major refurbishment. It is regarded as one of the best examples of modernist architecture in Perth.

  • 1996

    Saw the establishment of Graham Brooks and Associates, subsequently renamed GBA Heritage in 2015.
    The firm was established to concentrate on the provision of independent cultural heritage and cultural tourism management services to a wide range of public and private sector owners, managers and professional colleagues.

International Inspiration

GBA Heritage staff are encouraged to stay abreast of international ideas and trends, either by inspecting the projects in person or by desk-top research

  • Battersea Power Station

    LONDON | WilkinsonEyre

    Rejuvenation of this massive redundant power station on the banks of the River Thames had been regarded for decades as an impossible task.

    After many false starts, a comprehensive conservation, retail adaptation and residential development project for the building and its surrounding site has now been completed .

    With the inclusion of its own Underground rail station, the project promises to revitalise the surrounding Battersea community.

  • Notre Dame Cathedral

    PARIS | Philippe Villeneuve and Rémi Fromon

    Since the disastrous fire in early 2019, the conservation of Notre Dame Cathedral has united and mobilised a vast range of researchers, specialists, artisans and construction specialists from across France and the world.

    In typical fashion, the responsible authorities maintain a high profile public information programme to raise awareness and support for this extraordinary challenge.

    Through periodic reviews of the building site and displays, including the on-going special exhibitions at the Cité de l’Architecture museum, GBA Heritage has maintained a sound understanding of how this immense project unfolds.

  • La Piscine Roubaix

    NORTHERN FRANCE | Jean-Paul Philippon

    This redundant Art Deco public swimming pool in the famous textile manufacturing town of Roubaix, near Lille in northern France, has been revitalised by its conservation and repurposing as part of the town’s Municipal Arts Centre.

    It represents a new approach for the introduction of new community based cultural facilities in redundant industrial buildings.

  • Villa Cavrois 1938

    NORTHERN FRANCE | Centre des monuments nationaux

    A decade-long conservation project has now been completed for a major Interwar Modernist house, after decades of neglect and vandalism.

    A great deal of research and dedicated skills were required to fulfil the commitment for a full revival of its 1930s incorporation of new technologies and materials.

  • MAXXI, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo

    ROME | Zaha Hadid

    MAXXI, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome. Conversion of former military barracks into Museum of 21st Century Art, including the introduction of a dramatic, sinuous upper level addition, by Architect Zaha Hadid has created a major new cultural facility. The project was awarded the RIBA Stirling prize for Architecture.

    Photo Credit: Patrik Schumacher