LidJ_Gary_Gardner

I graduated from the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in 1974. I was an owner of an architectural firm for twenty years, where I was the architect for one of the first green buildings designed that used the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System. Many projects featuring environmental responsibility followed, including projects that had their own degrees of complexity and difficulty. I retired (sort of) in 2017. I live in Beaver, PA in a high performing net zero home designed with my wife, Barbara, that was certified as a Passive House. “Not Too Fast” is my first book. I thought that it was about time that architects were the protagonists in a thriller novel.

One thing that spurred me to writing the book was an article I read about the most admired professions in the U.S. The National Opinion Research Center (1989), Harris Polls (2006) and Forbes (2014) all identified architects as one of the ten most respected professions in the U.S. Using architects as protagonists and inviting the reader into their professional world is the vehicle for this story.

I read about five books a month. They are mostly adventure/thriller/suspense. I also read history books such as Bruce Catton, David McCullough as well as more obscure authors. History for me does not have any time preference, though I confess to gravitating to the Vikings, Romans in Europe, medieval and especially Egyptian accounts. Archaeology fascinates me.