Frank Gibson Costello
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Frank Gibson Costello (1903–1987) was an Australian architect. A number of his works are now listed on the
Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As ...
.


Early life

Frank Costello was born in
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
on 1 February 1903, the son of Richard and Isabella Costello. He attended
North Sydney Boys High School North Sydney Boys High School (abbreviated as NSBHS) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded, Single-sex school, single-sex, Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective secondary day school for boys, loc ...
and
Sydney Technical College The Sydney Technical College, now part of TAFE NSW, is a technical school established in 1878, that superseded the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts. The college is one of Australia's oldest technical education institutions. History The Sydney M ...
.


Career

He commenced his career as a cadet draftsman in the New South Wales public service. He became a registered architect in 1927. Between 1928 and 1931, he received a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Britain and Europe where he worked on a number of projects and travelled extensively. On returning to Australia, he worked in Sydney including undertaking teaching at the Sydney Technical College. In 1941, he became the City Architect for the
City of Brisbane The City of Brisbane is a local government area (LGA) which comprises the inner portion of Greater Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Its governing body is the Brisbane City Council. The LGAs in the other mainland state capitals ...
. In this role he designed a range of utilitarian structures such as electricity substations, public toilets and bomb shelters (during World War II). He also used his town planning skills to improve the Brisbane central business district by removing markets and wharves and introducing parks and gardens. He tried to introduce a
green belt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wilderness, wild, or agricultural landscape, land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts ...
around Brisbane to maintain a separation from its satellite suburbs such as Sandgate, Wynnum, but there was opposition from those who would profit by the sale of the land for houses as well as fears that it would drive up prices within the green belt to unaffordable levels; following a successful legal challenge, the green belt proposal did not proceed. In 1952, the election victory of the
Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
in the Brisbane City Council resulted in many sackings of senior council staff including Costello. Between 1952 and 1958, Costello was in a private practice partnership with Harold Cook and Walter Kerrison. In 1958, Costello was appointed to be an architect in the Public Works Department of the
Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...
, where he mostly worked on the design of schools.


Later life

Costello retired from the Queensland Government on 30 June 1969, but continued his involvement in part-time teaching at the Central Technical College (now part of
Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...
). He retired from teaching in 1975 and died on 19 June 1987.


Works

His architectural works include: * Bedford Playground at Spring Hill * Howard Smith Wharves in
Brisbane central business district Brisbane City is the central suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It is also colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD", "the city", or simply "town". The CBD is located on a point ...
* Mt Coot-tha Lookout & Kiosk


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Costello, Frank Gibson 1903 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Australian architects Architects from Sydney People educated at North Sydney Boys High School