Located at the southeast end of George Street, the former Brisbane Central Technical College occupies the northwest portion of the Gardens Point Campus of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) adjacent to Parliament House.

In 1909 the Governor removed to Fernberg, Bardon (the current Government House) and the Domain then accommodated the newly established institutions of the University of Queensland and the Brisbane Central Technical College.

Sketch plans for nine two-storey buildings grouped around a central courtyard, linked with covered ways were prepared by the Department of Public Works in 1909.

Designed as a cohesive group of similar scale and materials, eight buildings are arranged in a square with three facing the main drive to Old Government House.

Building progress was hampered by strikes and materials shortages but the Brisbane Central Technical College was finally opened for classes in February 1915.

Although plans were underway to transfer to the St Lucia campus, a building was constructed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the university and was shared by both institutions.

An imposing three-storey facebrick building in a restrained neo-Georgian idiom, the Library faced the Main Drive between Old Government House and the Art School (C Block, demolished 1978–79).

A major undertaking for the Queensland Government, the construction of the Brisbane Central Technical College was the largest building project for the Department of Public Works immediately prior to World War I.

Responsibility for individual projects within the department was seldom clear-cut but evidence in the departmental files suggests that Pye had a major influence on the design of the Brisbane Central Technical College.

A later addition, the imposing, two-storey, red facebrick neo-Georgian former Library building (U Block) faces the Main Drive adjacent to the kidney lawn of Old Government House.

[1] Constructed: 1912–1914, Additional storey: 1924 Architect: T. Pye[1] A, B and C Blocks were designed as sentinel buildings to align with the Main Drive and to form the formal entrance to the Brisbane Central Technical College.

A Block was opened in 1915 as the Commercial and Day School and an additional storey following a similar plan to the earlier work was constructed in about 1924 to accommodate increasing enrolments.

[1] The interior has been altered and is now a range of laboratories, lecture theatres, staff offices and ancillary service/storage/work areas arranged off the main east–west corridor of the original master plan.

Shadowing on the carved stone tablet above the arched entrance porch to the east indicates the original Art Nouveau style lettering "Engineering".

The basement machine room is intact, retains a workshop use and is notable for the exposed timber structure of the floor above, arched brickwork and steel lifting beams (plated "Manchester 1912").

Architect: T. Pye Extensions: K (1920) A. Irving; R (1928–29) WH Gillies; W (1951–1956) MD Hamilton[1] Distinguished in plan form and massing from the other buildings in the group, J Block was opened in 1915 accommodating the trades workshops.

Original fabric survives including window and door joinery; exposed timber trusses to the first floor workshops; and decorative pressed metal ceilings to the west verandah, rooms J205, J210, J211, J215, J110 and the stairwell.

Of a similar character to the earlier building but only using light red brick, the W Block has a regular rhythm of paired double hung windows to the long elevations and incised brickwork to the corners.

Architect: N. Thomas[1] Opened in 1935 to house the University of Queensland Library, the building also accommodated various Central Technical College activities including part of the Commercial High School from 1938.

[1] Erected in 1935 U Block, adjacent to Old Government House, is a long, imposing, three-storey, facebrick building resting on a rusticated freestone base facing the Main Drive and overlooking the City Botanic Gardens.

Symmetrical about a giant order Ionic portico entrance, the building is approached by a wide sweep of concrete stairs from the Main Drive.

Giant order, rendered pilasters divide the front elevation into ten bays of flat arched, four-pane casement windows with fanlights.

The west elevation is symmetrical about a flat arched, freestone entrance porch below a double height vertical stairwell window.

Internal fabric has been lost but early fabric remains including the casement windows to the perimeter of the building, front and rear entrance doors, doors to former seminar and storage rooms off the central circulation core, the columns in the entry vestibule and the sets of concrete stairs to the west of the main wing and to the pavilions.

[1] The Main Drive, which runs from the George Street entrance of the campus and terminates at Old Government House, is a significant element of the site.

The buildings are fine examples of technical college structures of the early twentieth century constructed in response to progressive thinking in the design and planning of educational institutions.

The former Brisbane Central Technical College has aesthetic significance as a cohesive group of buildings unified by scale, design and materials.

Landmark buildings at the southeast end of George Street, the group overlooks the City Botanic Gardens to the east and the Brisbane River to the west.

Bold, facebrick structures with a tough industrial character enriched by discrete decorative stone carving, the buildings are characteristic of the Arts and Crafts idiom in form and detailing.

The former Brisbane Central Technical College is important for the ability to demonstrate the work of the Government Architect's Office in relation to the design of substantial educational buildings.