Edward John (Ted) McCoy – ODT Obituary 28/01/2012 Ted McCoy – Architect

Hardly surprising then to learn Mr McCoy was pleased to be “pulled from retirement” in 2000 for a project involving the redevelopment of the Otago Museum.

In an interview in 2002, Mr McCoy called the museum project “one of those jobs where you feel you’ve got where you want to be”.

The writer noted “the hallmarks of McCoy’s career are all over this job: the clear design thinking that has got the building working (visitor numbers have increased significantly since work was completed); the personality that persuaded the (museum) board to tear down a recently completed chunk of work in order to realise his vision; careful use of materials – Oamaru stone pillars at the entrance, beautifully detailed rimu-slatted tiles on the ceiling of the new extension; a specially commissioned Marilyn Webb artwork of Otago that hangs down in the atrium; and his sheer pleasure in being a working architect”.

While the legacy of Mr McCoy’s creativity is certainly most evident in Dunedin, the city where he was born and chose to spend his long and productive life, his work also reached beyond this country, including to Papua-New Guinea, where he designed the Chancery for the New Zealand High Commission in 1982.

His designs are undoubtedly modern but Mr McCoy had a huge interest in Dunedin’s historic buildings. His work reflected the character of the region which was both “his home and his inspiration” as he drew, consciously or subconsciously on the area’s build heritage, the sculptural land forms of Otago Peninsula and the magnificent landscapes of Central Otago.

Mr McCoy died at home on January 17 just short of his 93rd birthday.

Edward John McCoy (Ted) was born in Dunedin on February 23, 1925, the middle child of four sons and one daughter of Edmond and Agnes McCoy. His mother was a nurse from Northern Ireland volunteering during World War 1 when she met Edmond McCoy, a soldier convalescing in hospital. They returned to New Zealand, married and settled in Dunedin. Ted’s father died when he was just 4 years old.

Agnes took on the difficult task raising the children herself and their education was foremost in her mind.

The children all excelled at school, and Ted and his brother James were both Dux of Otago Boys’ High School and his sister Betty Dux of St Dominic’s.

Mr McCoy’s three brothers went on to medical school and his sister graduated as a nurse. On the advice of a family friend, who recognised Ted’s artistic talents, he chose to study architecture at Auckland University, graduating in 1949. During his time there, he boarded for several years with a family where he met his future wife, Nola Brine.

For about a year Mr McCoy worked for the Ministry of Education in Auckland before returning to Dunedin where he established his own architectural practice in 1950. Not long after that he received a commission which essentially set his career on its successful path.

He was interviewed for a major project, Aquinas Hall, a student hall of residence on a steep site in Pine Hill.

“Against all odds, I was awarded the commission: a sole practitioner with no staff and two years’ experience working in architect’s offices in Auckland, one during a year off from my course and one after graduation.

“I was 25 years old at the time, with all the confidence of youth, and plunged into the work with little consideration of what I was undertaking.” Mr McCoy wrote in 2007, in the preface to A Southern Architecture: The work of Ted McCoy, a monograph on his work.

“I did the whole project on my own; sketch designs, working drawings, coordination of consultants and supervision of the building work.”

The project went well and in 1956 the building received the New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal for the best public building of the year. In the same year, he was also awarded the bronze medal by the institute for best house of the year.

It was the first time two medals had been awarded to one architect in one year. At that time, the NZIA awarded three medals annually: gold for best public building, silver for best industrial building and bronze for best residential building.

Mr McCroy worked on his own for 17 years before being joined by Peter Wixon in 1967, who then became his business partner. Mr McCoy said this was the best thing that could have happened. They had a very productive and successful working relationship until they both retired.

After marrying Nola in 1953, the McCoy family lived in Eglington Road before moving in 1959 to Vauxhall, where he had designed a house for the growing family.

The McCoy offspring recall their father as having been very involved with, and supportive of, them, giving them “endless freedom” to express themselves. They also recalled having “a rounded upbringing” – their father introducing them to music and art, of which he was a keen local supporter.

Of Mr and Mrs McCoy’s 13 children, four are architects, as is one of his grandsons. Although a busy architect and family man, Mr McCoy was a keen sportsman. In his school days he was captain of both the 1st XV and the 1st XI at Otago Boys’. At university in Auckland, he received a university blue for basketball and in his later years he enjoyed squash, tennis and golf.

“He loved his golf,” Mrs McCoy said, and he continued to play well into his 80s.

Photography was another love of Mr McCoy’s. In 1968, driven by concern at the loss of earlier Dunedin buildings, he and his friend Gary Blackman, for whom he had earlier designed a house on “a rather precarious site in Maori Hill", decided to photograph the buildings they agreed made an important contribution to Dunedin’s townscape.

They organised an exhibition of 100 photographs, a collaboration which culminated in the publication of Victorian City of New Zealand.

Between Aquinas Hall, the commission which launched his career in the 1950’s and the 2002 Otago Museum redevelopment, Mr McCoy had numerous landmark buildings to his credit – St Paul’s High School (now Kavanagh College), Otago Boys’ High School, University College, the Castle Lecture Theatres and the Hocken Building (now Richardson Building), with its pre-cast concrete panels, patterned to catch the light, creating a texture which related to the surrounding neo-gothic buildings.

His Otago Boys’ redevelopment also won a national New Zealand Institute of Architects award in 1982 and in 2012 was awarded and Enduring Architecture Award.

Over the course of his career he designed several churches in Otago and Southland but his most celebrated church project would have to be the completion of St Paul’s Cathedral in Dunedin, where his new sanctuary received a national award from the NZIA in 1970. It later also earned an enduring Architecture Award.

Mr McCoy always enjoyed designing houses and, over the years, designed more than 150 throughout New Zealand.

One of the great disappointments in his professional life was the abandonment of the National Gallery project in Wellington that was cancelled after a change of government. As a significant figure in New Zealand’s architecture profession, he served as national president of the NZIA in 1979 – 80 and as chairman of the southern branch.

He chaired the Otago regional committee of the then New Zealand Historic Places Trust and was a member of the trust’s national board for several years. He also contributed to the NZHPT book – Historic Building of New Zealand: South Island (1993).

The many honours and awards bestowed on him over the years include eight national awards from the NZIA, including the award for lifetime achievement in architecture, 20 NZIA Otago regional awards and in 2004, the award of Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to architecture and heritage.

In 1970, Mr McCoy was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (London) and in 1980 he became an honorary fellow of the Royal Canadian Institute of Architects.

He also received an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Otago in recognition to his contribution to architecture and Dunedin heritage buildings.

Another recognition of his standing in the profession was the institute’s naming of the Ted McCoy Award for Education, one of the highest awards it now gives for outstanding design.

Ted McCoy is survived by his wife Nola, two sons, 11 daughters, 20 grandchildren and 12 great- grandchildren.