Gillies, J. Kenneth

GILLIES, Jemis Kenneth (1894-1966), a partner in the important New Brunswick architectural firm of Alward & Gillies. Born in Saint John, N.B. he trained there under Harry Mott and worked as a draftsman for the Saint John Iron Works in 1920-24, then took a position with a leading New Brunswick architect F. Neil Brodie, where he was employed as assistant and draftsman (Saint John City Directory, 1925, 260). In 1926 he formed a partnership with W. Wallace Alward (see list of works under Alward & Gillies). Much of their early work was executed in a conservative Georgian Revival style, but after WWII they were credited with introducing a progressive modernist style in a range of institutional, commercial and residential commissions that included projects located in Saint John and throughout New Brunswick. Gillies retired in 1960 and the partnership was dissolved shortly after. He died in Saint John, N.B. on 24 October 1966 (obit. Evening Times-Globe [Saint John], 25 Oct. 1966, 13). The Public Archives of Canada in Ottawa holds an extensive collection of nearly 3,500 architectural drawings from the firm of Alward & Gillies produced between 1926 and 1963.