Michael Hemmings FRAIA reflects on the life of Gary Garnett FRAIA
Our friend, mentor and colleague, Gary John Garnett, passed away on the 1st of June 2024. He died of natural causes after a few years of illness that had greatly affected his wellbeing.
Gary first registered as an architect in Queensland in 1978. He was a fellow of the Institute and also a long-time member of the Practising Architects Guild.
Gary grew up in the southern suburbs of Brisbane, and eventually studied Architecture at Queensland Institute of Technology. From how he himself described it; he was always destined to be an Architect. There were a number of connections with Architects in the wider family circle and he was encouraged to pursue architecture by his parents, particularly his father who worked in the Queensland War service homes office.
During his time as a student architect Gary met and married his wife, Barbara.
In his early career Gary worked for a number of entities including the Queensland Government, University of Queensland Architects Office, and the offices of Geoffrey Pie, however, Gary was always intent on having his own company.
He formed his own architectural practice in 1979 evolving that into the company Gary J Garnett and Associates in 1981 and this entity continued until his retirement in 2019. A lot of his work in the next decade or so were residences around Southeast Queensland. Gary’s designs were regularly featured in local popular housing literature in this period. He was a well-known timber pole house proponent and undertook a string of prize homes for local charity Mater.
Along the journey though there was an organic refocussing of the business toward Aged Care and Retirement living which was the sector of work which Gary would become most associated with. He designed scores of Aged Care buildings and numerous retirement villages. Gary possessed a vast knowledge of Aged Care regulations and requirements both contemporary and historical and was always the advocate for the frail residents of his buildings. His designs were novel and motivated by the individual requirements of a project and the needs of the users of his buildings.
Gary will be sadly missed by all who knew him, but none more so than his wife Barbara, his two children Dayne and Zoe and his grandchildren.
