A great, humble and exceptionally beautiful man has died.
On Sunday morning, 7th August, Kevin Taylor, Principal of Taylor Cullity Lethlean, Landscape Architects, Designers and community consultation specialists, Adelaide and Melbourne, was killed instantly in a vehicle crash in Darwin.
He was 57.
His passing is mourned by many, many friends all over the world who valued his quiet brilliance, his talent and design skills, his compassion and his love for his friends, colleagues and family.
Kevin was one of the brightest students I ever had the blessing to teach.
As an undergraduate in architecture at what was then the S.A. Institute of Technology, in 1977 he produced a stunningly radical and perceptive final-year thesis on “Ecological Awareness and the Practice of Architecture”, co-supervised by me and Doug Swanson, with remote advice from environmental activist Strider of Humpty Doo.
As the submission deadline approached, Doug and I were terrified that he was too bright — and the thesis too radical — for the dusty academics at SAIT. They’d either fail him or give him the medal.
They gave him the medal and he went on to work in architecture with David Yencken at Merchant Builders in Melbourne, to teach at RMIT, to become a landscape architect, to found an award-winning firm, father two great children (now adults) — Emily and Danae — and to find in his second wife, artist Kate Cullity, a soulmate and partner in both his personal and professional life.
Those of us who knew him and love him are devastated by this tragic news.
We share our grief with Kate and her family, Emily and Danae, their mother, his brother, his sister, his step-brother, his extended family, his business partner, Perry Lethlean, many professional colleagues and numerous clients and all the staff of Taylor Cullity Lethlean in Adelaide and Melbourne who respected and loved him so dearly.
Tribute from the Planning Institute of Australia
For a beautiful tribute from the Planning Institute of Australia, go to:
https://www.planning.org.au/newsletters/id/717/idString/4ae1c49b35874
Funeral arrangements
Kevin’s funeral will be held on Thursday 18 August at 9:30 am for 10 am in Adelaide Town Hall, 128 King William Street.
For details, see: https://www.heavenaddress.com/funeral-notice/Kevin-Ross-Taylor/395087/obituary.aspx
Vale Kevin Taylor.
Hi Wendy,
It’s been a very long time since we last communicated, and I recall very well how thoughtful and helpful you were with my request to get in contact with Kevin Taylor’s family.
I wish to ride my motorcycle to SA to visit Sharon Taylor (mother of Danae and Emily).
I am contacting you now to request that you please, in your wisdom, forward my message onto Sharon with my mobile contact number 0438 073 247 and email address and ask her to contact me.
It is important!
Many thanks Wendy!
Carmen Ludeman