Roy Grounds (1905–1981) was an Australian architect based in Melbourne who was often at the forefront of modernism in Victoria. Born in St Kilda, he studied at the University of Melbourne's architectural atelier, worked in London and Los Angeles and returned home in 1932. From 1953 to 1962 he was a partner in the respected firm Grounds, Romberg and Boyd with Frederick Romberg and Robin Boyd. He received the RAIA Gold Medal in 1968 and was knighted in 1969.
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In the 1950s he designed houses based on pure geometric shapes; the Roy Grounds House (1953), his own, is a square around a central circular courtyard. His first large commission, the Australian Academy of Science building in Canberra, now called the Shine Dome (1959), is a reinforced concrete dome whose construction was a considerable technical feat. Disagreement with his partners over the National Gallery of Victoria led him to leave the firm and take the commission with him; the gallery opened in 1968, and he gave the next twenty years to the neighbouring Arts Centre Melbourne (1984), which was completed after his death.
