The Gordon opened for business in 1887 in an unpretentious single-storied hall (now the Davidson Restaurant) used for lectures and exhibitions. Classroom and office space was added a year later with the building of the first of the Fenwick Street towers. A chemistry lab (now the Koori Unit) followed in 1889 and a two-storey trade shop (now the theatre) in 1890.
The centrepiece of the Fenwick Street facade was built in 1892 but the third and balancing stage, housing electrical and physics labs and architectural drafting rooms, wasn't completed until 1916. This didn't mean building had stopped. Art studios, named after former director George Hitchcock, were erected in 1910 and a (now-demolished) 1914 machine shop indicate the ever-increasing number of available courses. The post-World War I period was something of a building boom at The Gordon. Public subscription paid for the 1921 Lascelles Memorial Chemistry Building to commemorate the father of Geelong's wool trade. The Lascelles style continued in the 1928 Bostock Memorial, which comprised a lecture theatre and memorial hall, now The Gordon Gallery and executive offices.
Demand for placements in the Wool Classing course, introduced in 1891, led to further expansion. The wool sorting room was enlarged, though it was dwarfed by the Percy Everett designed 1930s Wool School and Everett's modernistic Textile College facing Gordon Avenue, which was built in 1949.By this period, The Gordon had built on all the available space on the Fenwick Street site. It was time to go west.
Although new trade workshops on the corner of Gordon Avenue and LaTrobe Terrace were built in 1941, The Gordon wasn't able to purchase the surrounding land immediately. The 1927-built Moorabool Street campus and the Spring Street annexe provided some relief but the main campus still needed more classroom and workshop space. Building began on the LaTrobe Terrace side of the city campus in the 1960s with an engineering diploma block taking priority, followed by a humanities building, but eventually expansion outside the city centre became necessary.
Land was purchased at Waurn Ponds in 1969 and the first building, the Applied Sciences block, was constructed in record time. A library and student lodgings followed in 1975. Planned but not eventuating was a new Textile College: by the mid-1970s The Gordon was again changing Geelong education. By 1976, rumours of another Victorian university had become a reality for Geelong. The new university, named after Australia's first Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin, would be located at The Gordon's Waurn Ponds campus.
This meant a new role for The Gordon, focussing on its position as Geelong's premier technical and vocational education provider. As well as redeveloping its city campus during the 1970-80s, The Gordon expanded to new locations. A 96-bed student residence opened in 1978 and temporary trade campuses in Spring Street and Rutland Street were closed and relocated to the Moorabool Street campus and to a new campus in Boundary Road. Today The Gordon continues its building expansion with new buildings tailored to the courses they hold. Major redevelopments and extensive refurbishments have recently been completed at the Geelong City Campus providing state-of-the-art learning facilities and improved recreational areas for students.
In 2012 the $6 million purpose-built GTEC facility at our East Geelong Campus was completed, ensuring the best possible education experience for all Gordon students. In 2018 The Gordon will host the Geelong Tech School in a new building at the Geelong City Campus. The Geelong Tech School will focus on STEM skills needed for the jobs of the future, including thinking critically, communicating clearly, working collaboratively and embracing technology.