Who was Robin Gibson?
The name Robin Gibson may not be a familiar name to some. And yet, Gibson is responsible for the design of numerous iconic Brisbane buildings including Queensland Art Gallery, State Library of Queensland, Queensland Museum and Queensland Performing Arts Complex. His building designs can also be found at the University of Queensland, Brisbane Botanic Gardens (Mt Coot-tha) and in the ACT (Canberra).
Among his ‘Griffith buildings’, Gibson designed our original Library (N53 Willett Centre), Humanities Building (N16 Macrossan Building) and Central Theatres (N18) at Nathan campus. The Information Services Centre (M13), Education (M06) and Community (M08) Buildings at our Mt Gravatt campus are also his structures. His Griffith reach even extends to the Ship Inn (S06 at our South Bank campus)—Gibson provided the drawings to have the heritage-listed building restored and renovated during the mid-1980s.
Gibson received several honours for his architecture and design:
- In 1979, our Nathan Library was voted the best designed library in Australia by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.
- In 1982, Gibson became ‘Queenslander of the Year’ and received the ‘Canberra Medallion’.
- In 1986, we awarded Gibson an honorary ‘Doctor of the University’ for his considerable architectural services to our university, Brisbane and Australia.
You can learn more about Griffith’s remarkable history by visiting Griffith Archive.
