Daniel Keenan

Daniel Keenan, fourth generation Ipswichian and heritage architect reflected on his long career championing heritage and his love of architecture and design at the Chasing Our Past event held during Galvanized: A Festival of Heritage, 2024. Interspersed with personal stories Danny shared information about Ipswich City Council’s Heritage Adviser service and commented on the future of heritage in Ipswich.

Danny left Ipswich in the mid-1970's to study Architecture at the University of Queensland. Over the next 30 years he worked in both private and public spheres. The majority of his career has been spent championing heritage and design in local government planning departments. Danny lived in Phoenix USA for several years in the early 2000's, which gave him an appreciation of the harsh beauty of the desert and the impact of large-scale urban sprawl in a sensitive environment. During this time, he was a visiting scholar at Arizona State University at both the Architecture and Business schools, as well as being a director of a housing development company.

From 2006- 2009 Danny led the Brisbane City Centre Master Plan Implementation Team at the Brisbane City Council, having previously worked on the preparation of the nationally recognised master plan. Danny is interested in the behavioural aspects of urban design inspired by William H.  Whyte and Paco Underhill. As a consequence he got the most satisfaction from the construction of two small scale urban spaces in the Brisbane CBD: Market St and Jacobs Ladder in Upper Edward St, INHABIT a temporary art installation project in small public spaces in the CBD and the relighting with projections of the William Jolly Bridge. From the mid 1990s he worked on the introduction of demolition and Character Controls, numerous inner city development control plans and was the Senior Architect in the Central Development Assessment Team from the time when the Urban Renewal process of New Farm and Teneriffe was beginning and major CBD development reignited.

He returned to Ipswich, joining the Ipswich City Council's Strategic Planning Branch as it's Centres Strategy Officer, in November 2009. He found a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction in aiding to preserve the buildings that inspired his love of architecture.

Danny’s family have lived in the hills of Woodend for over 120 years, “I grew up in a house which was our family home for six generations. Almost all of those generations were baptised, educated, married and buried at St. Mary's Catholic Church. Four generations worked at the Ipswich Railway Workshops. This is not an uncommon story in Ipswich where heritage is a lived experience – the places we live, learn, worship, work and play. Perhaps these strong family roots, multi-generational experiences in the city and its institutions have helped Ipswich retain its strong identity both physically and as community."

Danny retired from Ipswich City Council on 17th October 2024.