Toowong Municipal Library
| Toowong Municipal Library Building | |
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_(1998).jpg)
Former Toowong Municipal Library Building, 1998
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| Location | 579–583 Coronation Drive, Toowong, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°29′01″S 152°59′42″E / 27.4835°S 152.995°ECoordinates: 27°29′01″S 152°59′42″E / 27.4835°S 152.995°E |
| Design period | 1940s–1960s (post-World War II) |
| Built | 1961 |
| Architect | James Birrell |
| Architectural style(s) | Modernism |
| Official name: Toowong Municipal Library (former) | |
| Type | state heritage (landscape, built) |
| Designated | 28 August 1998 |
| Reference no. | 602011 |
| Significant period | 1960s (historical) 1960s (fabric) 1960s–1990s (social) |
| Significant components | library – building, garden/grounds |
| Builders | Stuart Brothers |
 Location of Toowong Municipal Library Building in Queensland
Location of Toowong Municipal Library Building in Queensland
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The Toowong Municipal Library Building is heritage-listed former public library at 579–583 Coronation Drive, Toowong, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by James Birrell and built in 1961 by Stuart Brothers. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 August 1998. In 2001, the library moved to Toowong Village Shopping Centre and the original building has been used as business premises.
The former Toowong Municipal Library is prominently located on Coronation Drive and was opened in April 1961, built to the design of Chief Architect at the Brisbane City Council, James Birrell. It provides evidence of the City Council's expansion of public facilities in the post war period.
Following World War II, when shortage of both labour and materials restricted building work to essentials, the Brisbane City Council embarked on a capital works programme which provided the city with a substantial number of upgraded and new recreational and educational facilities. During the period from 1945 to the early 1960s about ten libraries were constructed and two renovated and redevelopment and construction occurred at five major pool complexes. From the period 1955 until 1960, when most of this vast programme was realised, the Chief Architect with the Brisbane City Council was James Birrell. He was responsible for the design of about 150 sites ranging from his two major projects – the Centenary Pool Complex and the Wickham Terrace Car Park to a number of bus shelters, park entrances, public toilets, cemeteries, sewerage depots and a bus depot. Included in his work of this time was the redevelopment of the Toowong Baths and the construction of a major municipal library at Toowong.
Birrell graduated from architecture at the University of Melbourne in 1951, where he was much influenced by one of his teachers, Melbourne architect Roy Grounds. It was Grounds' use of strong primary forms which influenced Birrell's early work, including that work for the Brisbane City Council. Like Grounds, Birrell used highly identifiable forms sited in landscapes which, apart from a reality associated with their function have an abstract reality or quality which relies solely on their form and siting. The Toowong Library characterises this aspect of his work.
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