James Birrell

[citation needed] In 1945, at the age of 17, James Birrell was accepted into the Melbourne Technical College as an architecture student.

In 1951 he graduated and designed his first houses, in Frankston and Warrandyte, Birrell also worked briefly as the resident Architect at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories.

[citation needed] In 1952 Birrell co-founded the magazine Architecture and Arts with his contemporaries, Peter Burns, Helen O'Donnell and Norman Lehey.

In 1954 Birrell contributed to the Contemporary Arts Society's exhibition 'Space Modulators' along with artists including Sidney Nolan, Ian Fairweather, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and John Perceval.

Union College received a High Commendation award from Arts and Architecture journal as one of the best ten new buildings in Australia at the time.

Birrell was also responsible for the design of the campus plan at James Cook University in Townsville, and several of its early buildings 1964–1970.

He worked for the University of Papua New Guinea, where he designed the Halls of Residence, Arts/Law and Arts II Buildings, and in Indonesia as a government planning consultant.