John K. Shirley

John Keith Shirley (20 May 1898 – 29 December 1954) was an Australian architect known for his educational buildings for independent schools in Sydney and his substantial Inter-war houses designed in the first half of the 20th century.

Biography
Shirley was born in Chatswood, New South Wales, and was educated at Mowbray House School and subsequently at Sydney Church of England Grammar School Shore from 1911 until 1915. Selecting architecture as his profession Shirley was articled to Kent & Budden and studied architecture at Sydney Technical College before there was a university architecture course available in Sydney. He later attended the School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded a BSc(Arch) in 1922. In 1927, he entered into a partnership with Carlyle Greenwell, an association that continued until 1935. In 1938, he designed the Assembly Hall at Barker College and a substantial homestead at Adaminaby, New South Wales. Bolaro was designed for the Osborne family in a Georgian Revival Style. After the war, during part of which he was associated with the Department of Labour and National Service, he started in practice on his own. In 1947, he designed a block of flats for Barker at 156 Pacific Highway Hornsby. In 1949, he took A. B. Colvin into partnership, having built up a good practice in industrial and scholastic work. He was one of the architects working at his old school, Shore, and prior to the war constructed classrooms and laboratories and carried out extensive remodelling to its North Sydney campus. At the time of his death, he was engaged in designing a new Assembly Hall for the school.