Centenary Pool Complex, Public pool complex in Spring Hill, Australia
Centenary Pool Complex is a heritage-listed public swimming pool at 400 Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill, Brisbane. Designed by city architect James Birrell and built in 1959, it has an Olympic-size pool, a diving pool with a steel diving tower, and a wading pool. The complex is set into the slope overlooking Victoria Park and includes a restaurant building with steel beams shaped by shipbuilders Evans Deakin.
Brisbane City Council built the complex in 1959 as its main contribution to the centenary of local government in Brisbane, proclaimed a city in October 1859, and of Queensland's separation from New South Wales that December. Architect James Birrell began the design in 1957; builder Cyril Porter Hornick completed it in November 1959 for about £150,000. It was Brisbane's first Olympic-standard pool and diving complex and served as the city's main aquatic sports centre until the Sleeman Sports Complex opened at Chandler in 1980.
James Birrell shaped the restaurant's top and bottom steel beams with Brisbane shipbuilders Evans Deakin and Company, and local fabricators Sargeants bent the diving tower's steel core. The 1960 Melbourne publication Architecture and Arts named the complex one of Australia's top ten buildings, and it was Queensland's only entry in the 1961 New Buildings in the Commonwealth.
The complex sits on the slope above Victoria Park at 400 Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill, with the entrance road and carpark to the south of the pool. The design kept excavation to a minimum by working with the hillside, so the pools and terraces step down the slope. The restaurant space has been a gym and medical suites since 2009.
The complex has underwater observation windows built into the structure that let coaches watch swimmers' movements from below the water surface. This technical feature was innovative for coaching and training when the facility was designed.
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