Vale Peter John Courtney FRAIA
25 April 1932 — 4 September 2024
It is with great sadness that we inform the membership of the passing of Peter John Courtney FRAIA on Wednesday 4 September 2024 in Hobart, Tasmania.
After completing his education in architecture at Sydney University in 1957, Peter travelled to the USA where he practised and lived for six years in Boston, Massachusetts. Returning to Australia in 1963, Peter partnered with two local architects, Horace Hancock and Neil Renfree, to establish his practice in Canberra, Hancock, Courtney & Renfree Architects. The architectural firm mainly designed residential architecture across many of the new and upcoming suburbs in ACT across the 1960s-70s. In 1967, Peter designed a house in Deakin for Dr Graeme and his wife Margaret Heap, featured in the “100 Canberra Houses—A Century of Capital Architecture” by Tim Reeves and Alan Roberts.
In 1969, Peter joined architect John Andrews in Palm Beach (NSW) to become a partner in the firm, John Andrews International. Peter had studied alongside John at Sydney University and was also the best man at his wedding in Cape Code.
In 1970 the Australian National University commissioned John Andrews International to design a new student residence and a residential centre for continuing education. The proposed hall of residence (later renamed Toad Hall) was opened in 1974, with Peter Courtney as the project architect while John was living in Toronto, Canada at the time.
Over the next few years, the practice continued to design significant large projects including; the acclaimed and heritage-listed Cameron Offices in Belconnen in the ACT, the American Express Tower in Sydney, and the very large Intelsat headquarters in Washington, D.C.
In 1970, Peter was awarded a fellowship by the ACT Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects. On his 50th birthday in 1982, Peter retired from architectural practice and turned to his deep passion and talent—drawing and painting. He established Barrenjoey Art School at his home, as well as an “Art in the Environment” course at Ku-ring-gai College of Advanced Education. During those years, Peter also produced a book with an accompanying video of art instruction titled “Art Class: An Introduction to Drawing & Watercolour Painting”.
In 1989, Peter again retired, this time from teaching art, to devote time to his professional artistic career and in that year held his first solo exhibition, “From Barrenjoey to Kakadu” at Wycombe Galleries in Sydney.
Following this, Peter and his wife Kitty travelled to Africa on a World Wildlife Fund tour, “Into Africa” in 1989. This experience produced his second solo exhibition, ”Into Africa with WWF”, again at Wycombe Galleries in 1990.
In 1991, Peter & Kitty moved to Hobart, Tasmania where he designed and personally built their home in the Tinderbox Hills as well as a beach cottage at Dolphin Sands. Their many bushwalks in the Tasmanian wilderness inspired a third solo exhibition in 1999, “A Walk in the Bush & Flinders Island Bushwalks” at Handmark Gallery in Hobart.
Peter has been a continuous member of the Australian Institute of Architecture since 1958. With architectural projects spanning across the USA, Canada and Australia we gratefully acknowledge his contribution and legacy to architecture.
