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For many years the ACT Council of Cultural & Community Organisations Incorporated (operators of the old Griffin Centre) had considered various options and proposals to develop the existing site or develop a new centre elsewhere.
A local architect (G.E.Shaw) suggested a major redevelopment of the centre of Canberra and this concept eventually became known as Section 84. This included a new Youth Centre and a new Griffin Centre. The Queensland Investment Corporation took on this massive task as owner / developers and commissioned Cox Humphries Moss to design the complex. As part of the development the Government ensured the continuation of a centrally located community facility which had become in the past the base for many important and growing community organisations.
The new centre was developed and constructed along with the Youth Centre as the first buildings in Section 84. The Griffin Centre commenced operating on the 15th September 2005 and was officially opened by the Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope on the 22nd. October 2005. It was another two and half years before the complex and all the new roads were completed. This now includes two major office blocks occupied by the Australian Tax Office, an extension to the Canberra Centre incorporating shops, restaurants and a cinema complex. A whole new contemporary environment has been created in what was once a car park. Genge Street and neighbouring Bunda Street has become a hub for fine restaurants, coffee shops and boutique shopping.
The Planning and Development Act 2007 describes sustainable development this way:
“sustainable development means the effective integration of social, economic and environmental considerations in decision-making processes, achievable through implementation of the following principles:
a) The precautionary principal;
b) The inter-generational equity principle;
c) Conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity;
d) Appropriate valuation and pricing of environmental resources;
The Griffin Centre was constructed three years ahead of the Act and incorporated many of the environmental sustainability features that were incorporated in the later buildings.
It certainly pioneered many new concepts that are continuing to be developed for the benefit of the environment . Today the Griffin Centre offers a modern building where nearly thirty tenants enjoy a centrally located position for easy access for their client base. With ten meeting and conference rooms available to Government, Corporate and Community Organisations this facility is ideally placed to allow the same central location and easy access to accommodate gatherings from 6 to 140.
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