Binning studied in New York and London and under Fred Varley at the VSA. He taught at the VSA for 15 years starting in 1934 and then taught at the UBC School of Architecture. He was later the founding director of the UBC Fine Arts Department. He was actively involved in promoting modernist painting and design on the west coast. He produced many paintings and murals and designed and built a modern prototype house in West Vancouver in 1941 where he lived until his death on March 16, 1976.