After service in the Italian armed forces during World War II, he was educated at the Sapienza University of Rome.
[3] In 1966, Giurgola became chair of the Columbia University School of Architecture and Planning in New York City, where he opened a second office of the firm.
In 1989, after its completion and official opening in 1988, the Parliament House was recognised with the top award for public architecture in Australia.
The design was consonant with a certain aesthetic preoccupation with aviation, flight, technology and space travel of the time, the same zeitgeist that produced Saarinen's TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
It was seen as a break with strict modernist tenets in its respect for the site and the program, as opposed to what Giurgola called "the imposition of abstract forms".
Giurgola was invited to join the panel of judges for the 1980 international competition for the landmark Australian Parliament House in Canberra.
In January 1989 he was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia, "for service to architecture, particularly the new Parliament House, Canberra".