A long history, an evolving brand
For three decades, Jensen PLUS has been shaping places across Australia.
We’ve planned growing towns and suburbs, created public spaces, renewed city centres and neighbourhood main streets. We’ve helped transform development sites, we’ve greened parks and reserves, and we’ve charted strategic futures for hundreds of places, all from our base in Adelaide, South Australia.
Our team of urban planners, landscape architects, urban designers and engagement specialists has always strived to provide high quality and independent advice.
We always take a collaborative approach to our work, to achieve more for our clients, and the teams and communities we work with.
Our history
The foundations of our business date back to the early 1990s when respected urban designer Peter Jensen established Jensen Planning + Design.
In 1994, when Peter coined the name ‘Planning + Design’, the combination of planning and urban design practice was innovative and unique. For two decades, Peter positioned the business as a leading planning and design practice based in Adelaide, carefully building a respected and trusted brand by forging positive relationships with clients and stakeholders and delivering exceptional outcomes.
Thirty years on, those foundations have served the business well.
In 2015, Michael McKeown took ownership of Jensen Planning + Design. With a reputation for excellence and a desire to build on the past and further enhance our capability, the business was rebranded as Jensen PLUS in early 2017.
The rebrand signified that ‘Team Jensen’ had become much more than a planning and urban design consultancy, and was supported by a diverse and talented team that could deliver even more benefits to clients.
The name Jensen PLUS not only acknowledges our roots in planning (P) and urban design (U), but our strong capabilities and success in landscape architecture (L), social planning, stakeholder and community engagement (S).
Michael continues to lead the evolution of Jensen PLUS and further position the business as an innovative and community-focussed urban design and planning consultancy.
In recent years the business has expanded its focus into regional towns and cities across Australia, taking our well-regarded engagement techniques, master planning skills and urban design approach to numerous places.
And we continue to evolve
Our multi-disciplinary team has grown to include South Australia’s most experienced and brightest thinkers and do-ers.
Many of us have national and international work experience. We are people who prioritise community and culture, local and global environments, fairness and equity, and good design in the projects we lead and deliver, and also in our own lives.
Not only has our team grown and evolved but so has our approach to our work and the values that inform it.
Our professional practice has long been underpinned by a clear commitment to sustainable outcomes. Since 2019 Jensen PLUS has been a carbon-neutral certified business. But it is increasingly apparent that sustainable planning policies and design elements aren’t enough.
This is why we are increasingly adopting a ‘regenerative’ approach to our planning and design projects, and to our business.
Regenerative thinking emphasises the need for positive and restorative change. Not just offsetting environmental impacts, but increasing green outcomes on site. Not just contributing to broad-scale economic growth, but local economic development in the form of jobs and business opportunities as well. And all this informed by thoughtful engagement, grounded in place.
Regenerative. Collaborative. Caring.
Our commitment to regenerative planning and design is underpinned by a renewed business purpose in 2024, founded on three pillars.
We are regenerative
- Regenerative practice goes beyond balancing sustainability goals, to attain positive change — restoring environments, empowering communities and targeting fairer economic outcomes.
- We undertake our work with a regenerative approach and seek to work with clients on planning and design projects that regenerate towns, cities and communities across Australia.
We are collaborative
- Our team loves to work with each other, with our clients and colleagues, and with the communities that benefit from our leadership and expertise.
- We are collaborative and have firmly established effective methods that ensure we will remain leaders in this area and achieve the best possible project outcomes.
We care about people and places
- We continue to care deeply about the places, environments and communities in which we work.
- This care is underpinned for the care and respect we have for our colleagues. We are committed to building a rewarding and happy team culture, for the benefit of all existing and future team members.
Interested in our approach? We’d love to hear from you.
