The Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland Museum, The Edge at the State Library of Queensland, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) and the Cultural Forecourt have all gained the heritage listing. The late modernist style buildings were designed by the influential Robin Gibson & Partners Architects and were constructed in four stages from 1976 to 1988. The practice won a 1973 design competition for the Queensland Art Gallery, which also earned it the widely recognised Sir Zelman Cowen Award in 1982. Robin Gibson & Partners Architects designed the buildings with the intention to draw eyes to the river and create a striking facade for the state’s cultural precinct.

The site was marked for development under the Newman government, which would have seen the selling of the airspace above the iconic cultural precinct buildings to facilitate the construction of two high-rise towers. This prompted the Australian Institute of Architects to nominate the buildings for heritage status in 2014, and the Queensland Heritage Council received a record number of public submissions in relation to the buildings. While the heritage status will protect the original design of the buildings, it still leaves room for appropriate development or expansion to move with the times.

Cropped photo by Kgbo, available under a Creative Commons Atrribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence.