Douglas Babbington Gardiner (26 February 1905 – 23 May 2001) was an Australian architect active in the mid 20th century as a partner of

Bates Smart Bates Smart is an architectural firm with studios in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1853 by Joseph Reed, it is known as one of Australia's oldest architectural firms. Over the decades, the firm's multidisciplinary practices involv ...

& McCutcheon.Goad, P. ''Bates Smart: 150 years of Australian Architecture'' Thames & Hudson Australia (Melbourne, 2004) pp 299

Early life

Gardiner was born in Sydney and spent his early years living in Harrow Road,

Bexley Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Char ...

. His father, Edward John Gardiner, a long-serving Mayor of Rockdale, and mother Mary Estelle (née Beard) then built a new house c.1912–1916 at 18 Oakura Street. During this period, Gardiner attended

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

. He was

articled Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

to Peddle, Thorp and Walker and graduated in architecture from Sydney Technical College.

Architectural career

In 1926, Gardiner travelled abroad and worked in New York City for

York and Sawyer York and Sawyer was an American architectural firm active between 1898 and 1949. The firms' work is exemplary of Beaux-Arts architecture as it was practiced in the United States. The partners Edward York (July 23, 1863– December 30, 1928) and ...

and later in London for

Joseph Emberton Joseph Emberton (23 December 1889 – 20 November 1956) was an English architect of the early modernist period. He was born 23 December 1889 in Audley, Staffordshire and was educated at the Royal College of Art. He first worked for the London a ...

. On his return to Sydney in 1929, he worked in the office of

Emil Sodersten Emil Lawrence Sodersten (30 August 1899 – 14 December 1961) was an Australian architect active in the second quarter of the 20th century. His work encompassed the Australian architectural styles of Art Deco and Functionalist & Moderne. His de ...

and then with

Hennessy & Hennessy Hennessy & Hennessy was an architectural firm established in 1912 in Sydney, Australia that was responsible for a series of large scale office buildings in the 1930s in all capital cities in Australia, as well as New Zealand and South Africa, de ...

. In the 1930s he lived next door to his old family home at 16 Oakura Street, Rockdale, and worked for himself in private practice. In 1940, construction commenced on a new

Rockdale Town Hall The Rockdale Town Hall is a civic building located on the corner of the Princes Highway and Bryant Street in Rockdale, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. History Rockdale Town Hall was opened by The Rt Hon. The Lord Wakehurst , G ...

to his design. During World War II he served as an architect in the

US Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

in the south-west Pacific areaNarrating Architecture: A Retrospective Anthology
Retrieved 15 April 2019. and met Osborn McCutcheon. At war's end, Gardiner was appointed a partner at Bates Smrt & McCutcheon. His work within the firm included: *

MLC Limited MLC was an Australian business that provides investments, insurance and superannuation solutions to corporate, institutional, and retail customers. Due to divestments in the early 21st century, there are now two businesses, with no ownership lin ...

Buildings in,

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

, and

Morwell Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne. Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the . It is both the seat of local governme ...

in Victoria and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

and

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wa ...

in NSW; * Footscray,

Myrtleford Myrtleford is a town in northeast Victoria, Australia, 280 km (170 miles) northeast of Melbourne and 46 km (29 miles) southeast of Wangaratta. Myrtleford is part of the Alpine Shire local government area and in 2016 the town had a po ...

Yarram The township of Yarram (formerly Yarram Yarram) is in Victoria, Australia, in the Shire of Wellington, located in the southeast of Gippsland. At the , the population of the town was . The town is the regional centre of a prosperous farming distri ...

and

Western Port Western Port, ( Boonwurrung: ''Warn Marin'') commonly but unofficially known as Western Port Bay, is a large tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia, opening into Bass Strait. It is the second largest bay in the state. Geographically, it is ...

hospitals in Victoria; * Tally Ho Boys Village; * The

Standard Motor Company The Standard Motor Company Limited was a motor vehicle manufacturer, founded in Coventry, England, in 1903 by Reginald Walter Maudslay. For many years, it manufactured Ferguson TE20 tractors powered by its Vanguard engine. All Standard's tracto ...

Building; * The

Prudential Insurance Company Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both retail and institutional customers th ...

Building (1960); and * The H C Sleigh Ltd Building, cnr Queen Street and

Bourke Street, Melbourne Bourke Street is one of the main streets in the Melbourne central business district and a core feature of the Hoddle Grid. It was traditionally the entertainment hub of inner-city Melbourne, and is now also a popular tourist destination and t ...

(1962).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardiner, Douglas 1905 births 2001 deaths Architects from Sydney New South Wales architects Architects from Melbourne People educated at Newington College