Abbie Galvin

Abbie Galvin (born 1970) is the 24th NSW Government Architect. Formerly a Principal of Australian architecture, urban design and interior design practice BVN Architecture. She is a registered Architect in NSW, Victoria, ACT and SA and is also a member of the Australian Architecture Association.

Early life and education Born in Vancouver in 1970, Galvin, along with her parents and two younger brothers moved to the inner suburbs of Perth when she was 6 years old. Galvin's father is an architect and her mother is a nurse.

Growing up Galvin was constantly around a creative environment. "I grew up surrounded by Architecture, discussions around Architecture; Architecture books and magazines". This upbringing resulted in Galvin having a "very visual, aesthetic interest". Her childhood home was an old timber-framed house built by her father, often with the help of young Galvin and occasionally their neighbours.

Galvin attended John XXIII College, a private, co-education, catholic college. She studied traditional subjects at school such as French, Math, Chemistry, Physics, English Literature and Biology; she enjoyed all subjects, in particular Math and Literature. Throughout her working career Galvin has been a dedicated contributor to an accreditation panel through the Australian Institute of Architecture, her role consisting of monitoring and accessing university courses. Galvin occasionally lectures and is a regularly a guest critic for students. She has been on the judging panel alongside Richard Hassell, Sean Godsell and Peter Corrigan for the inaugural ALVA student architecture competition at the University of Western Australia.

BVN Abbie joined BVN Architecture in the mid-1990s and rose to the position of principal, an owner of the practice. She worked on large-scale projects ranging from hospitals, multi-residential housing, and research buildings. Galvin communicates her designs through narrative proposals to gain a client's understanding of complex building designs.

Influences Galvin's architecture is influenced by numerous sources. This includes early modernists such as Le Corbusier and Atelier 5; all seven volumes of Corbusier's Oeuvre and Atelier 5 publications were kept in the family's bookshelf and frequented by her father as a point of reference. Furthermore, Galvin finds architects who work in primitive locations influential as there is a focus on vernacular design. She believes architecture should not form a recognisable object for self-promotion; architecture should be subjective to a specific site.

Projects Building/project Location Country Date The Braggs, University of Adelaide Adelaide, SA Australia 2013 Royal North Shore Hospital St Leonards, Sydney, NSW Australia 2012 Monash University Student Housing Clayton, Melbourne, VIC Australia 2011 HMAS Creswell Griffiths House Jervis Bay, NSW Australia 2011 Stockland's Head Office Sydney CBD, NSW Australia 2007 Deutsche Bank Sydney CBD, NSW Australia 2005

Stockland's head office, 2007 Abbie Galvin was the leading architect of Stockland's new head office. This building is a redevelopment of an existing 1980s office block; it became Australia's first rated 6 Star Green Energy Efficient office (Office Interiors v1.1 building). Winning seven awards in total that included the BPN Environ Sustainability Award for Office Fit Out (2008) and Wirtschafts Woche 2008 Best Office Award (Cologne, Germany). Key to the design is the centralised eight-storey atrium.

Galvin worked closely with the needs of the manager director of Stockland and his executive team; the development company was going through significant change at the time and needed a space to allow maximum work efficiency. The design challenge was working with the eight levels of the existing structure. Galvin and her team suggested the use of voids that would create visual allowances between the staggered levels and structural bays, these voids then creating a sense of altering scales in verticality. The centralised stairs stringers are painted red to symbolise Enid Blyton's red slippery-dip in the children's novel The Folk and the Faraway Tree.

Royal North Shore Hospital, 2012 In 2009 Abbie gained further recognition in the Australian Architecture Institution after being involved in one of the largest projects undertaken by BVN. This was the $1 billion redevelopment of Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital, and the redesign of the HMAS Creswell training college located in Jervis Bay. building at the University of Adelaide, otherwise known as 'The Braggs'. The underpinning design idea was to reflect the purpose of the building in the form and planning. For instance, the folded glass façade at each level represents a different wavelength of light.

Career achievements Galvin has won numerous design competitions at the University of Western Australia including the RAIA Travel Grant for Design Excellence. Galvin's reputation in architecture has been steadily increasing, she has been featured in the Architecture Bulletin discussing gender equality in the Australian architecture industry. In the article she admits that there must be change in the industry; stating that current industry practices "...make it extremely difficult for women who are attempting to balance a career and children, and it is not until these issues are addressed that we will see higher levels of female representation and retention". (Architecture Bulletin Sep/Oct 2012, p16). In addition, Galvin has contributed in newspaper publications such as The Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Awards 2006: Deutsche Bank is awarded RAIA National Award Interior Architecture, RAIA NSW Interior Architecture Award 2007: Stockland Head Office is awarded MBA NSW Interior Fit-outs $25m+ 2008: Milo Dunphy Award for Sustainable Architecture at the NSW Architecture Awards. 2008: Stockland Head office is awarded RAIA NSW Milo Dunphy Award for Sustainable Architecture, Environ BPN Sustainability Award, IDEA08 Best Commercial Interior, IDEA08 Best Sustainability Interior, Property Council of Australian Office Developments Finalist, Property Council of Australian Sustainable Developments Finalist, RAIA NSW Interior Architecture Commendation, Winner of BOSS Space Awards, Wirtschaftswoche Best Office 2008 International Category 2009: Galvin was nominated by Micky Pinkerton (Suters Architects) for IDEA (Interior Design Excellence Awards) designer of the year 2009 2013: The Braggs building is awarded The Jack McConnell Award for Public Architecture (BVN Media Release 2013, Braggs Wins Top Architecture Award in SA)