Bruce studied and qualified as an architect, landscape architect and urban designer. He has been actively involved in the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects since the late 1970s holding leadership positions at state and national level. He taught landscape architecture at RMIT during the founding years of the current programme.
In 1981 he founded Urban Initiatives Pty Ltd after working with the City of Melbourne, and the architectural practice, Denton Corker Marshall, including a period establishing and directing their Malaysian office.
Bruce was a founding member of the Urban Design Forum in Australia and has continued an involvement for over 25 years that was marked by being a joint editor of a book “Urban Voices, Celebrating urban design in Australia” published in 2013.
He continues as a director of Urban initiatives, a studio format landscape architecture and urban design practice that provides services to government and institutional clients around Australia and in Asia. Its work has been recognised with numerous awards including the Australia Award for Urban Design 2007 and the 2008 AILA Australian Medal.