Francis Oswell

Francis Bruce Oswell (1920-2003) was an Australian architect from Queensland, one of the first to design high rise apartment buildings in Brisbane.

Early life and career Francis Bruce Oswell was born on 11 January 1920 in Malvern, Victoria. He studied engineering at the University of Melbourne part time beginning in 1939 before enlisting in the Army and RAAF during WW2. He studied his Diploma in Architecture from the Central Technical College in Brisbane and later at the University of Queensland, graduating in 1952 with his Graduate Diploma in Architecture. He had worked as a draughtsman for Bligh Jessup in 1949. His firm F.B. Oswell and Associates found steady work as a result of the post war boom for housing, employing a number of architectural students.

He moved his firm out of the centre of Brisbane city and into nearby Spring Hill where a number of other architects had moved their business. He later joined Basil Veal to form a new partnership in 1965. In 1973, Oswell and Veal joined with Trude and Webster to become Trude, Webster, Oswell and Veal Pty Ltd but this partnership ceased in 1974. Oswell returned to Oswell and Associates and retired in 1978. His firm designed Garfield Towers on the Gold Coast, a high rise holiday rental apartment block which featured glass window walling. He married Glenda in 1945. They had three children, Simon, Christopher, and Margaret.

Notable works Walk Arcade, Gold Coast (1959)

Glencrag Apartments, Leichardt Street, Spring Hill, Brisbane (1960–62)

Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron