With sadness, the Institute notes the passing of Ted McCoy, recipient in 2002 of the NZIA Gold Medal for career achievement. Ted died in Dunedin last Wednesday (17 January) at the age of 92.
Ted was born in Dunedin in 1925, and attended Otago Boys High School before going on to the School of Architecture at the University of Auckland where his teachers included Vernon Brown and Richard Toy. After a year in Auckland with the Education Department he returned to Dunedin and set up his own practice and won early recognition for Aquinas Hall and Nees House which in 1956 won the NZIA Gold Award and Bronze Award, respectively. [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].
Ted worked on his own as EJ McCoy for many years, in which time he designed one of his favourite projects, Kavanagh College, before being joined by the late Peter Wixon in 1968. For the best part of four decades the two partners worked together, establishing McCoy and Wixon as a leading practice in its city and region. Ted’s son John and Peter’s son Hamish joined and later led the practice. The partnership of two very compatible architects produced a series of award-winning buildings, including St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral (completion), Shacklock House, University College and the Hocken Building at Otago University, and Otago Boys High School Redevelopment.
Ted was a large figure in New Zealand’s architecture profession. He served as President of the Institute in 1979-80, and as chair of the Southern Branch. He chaired the Otago regional committee of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) and for several years was a member of the Trust’s national board. With Gary Blackman, Ted authored Victorian City (1968), a study of Dunedin architecture, and he contributed to the NZHPT book Historic Buildings of New Zealand: South Island (1983). In 2007, he produced a monograph on his work, Southern Architect (Otago University Press).
The Institute expresses its condolences to Ted’s wife, Nola, and his children and extended family, and his friends and former colleagues. A funeral service will be held today (Tuesday, 23 January) at 1.30pm, St Joseph’s Cathedral, Dunedin.
