Tom McLaughlin

Tom McLaughlin
Richmond, VA
Tom McLaughlin, architect of the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia, died in his sleep Wednesday night after two years of treatment for mantle cell non-hodgkins lymphoma. He was cared for till the end by his son Tommy, his daughter Mary Elizabeth, and his wife Mary. He is survived also by his sister Katherine Pollard and her husband Morty Pollard, of Greenville, NC.
Mr. McLaughlin held an undergraduate degree in architecture from North Carolina State University and a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. In 1983, he became the 100th recipient of the Rotch Traveling Scholarship, the oldest award of its kind in the United States, granted to one architect per year after a two-stage design competition. The roster of Rotch Scholars includes many of America's finest architects.
After moving to Richmond from Boston in 1989, Mr. McLaughlin designed a number of significant Virginia projects involving new construction. Among these are Richmond Newspapers' Production Facilities in Hanover County, winner of multiple awards including an Award for Design Excellence (Virginia Society of Architects, 1993) and a Grand Award for Excellence/Best Industrial Building (National Commercial Builders Council, 1994); HeiligMeyers Corporate Headquarters in Richmond, the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, and St Francis Cancer Center in Richmond, all winners of an Award for Design Excellence (Virginia Society of Architects, James River Chapter, 1997, 2004, 2005); the Oliver Hill Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courts Building in Richmond; new courts facilities for Spotsylvania County, Henry County, and the City of Hopewell. Traces may be found in these buildings of Mr. McLaughlin's favorite architects, including Willem Marinus Dudok and Frank Lloyd Wright.
After architecture, history was Mr. McLaughlin's preoccupation. Throughout his career, he loved researching and designing the reconstruction and renovation of historic structures. In 1986, he wond a Massachusetts Governor's Design Award for the Boston Children's Museum and Museum of Transportation on Museum Wharf, a project involving the renovation of an 1890's six story, 300 foot long masonry and heavy-timber framed warehouse. Most recently, Mr. McLaughlin served as Principal/Researcher and Architect for Henricus Historical Park, where he researched and directed the reconstruction of Mt. Malady (1611), the first hospital in Virginia's newly founded colony; the Phoenix Ordinary or Tavern (1618); the rectory of Reverend Alexander Whitaker (1612), where Pocahontas lived after her capture by the English, and the 1611 Church at Henricus Citie.
However, it is the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia, that Mr. McLaughlin himself regarded as best illustrating his talents. In 200l, it became the only recreation ever completed anywhere in the world of Shakespeare's early 17th-century indoor venue. Mr. McLaughlin came to this project after co-founding the Richmond Shakespeare Globe Center (RSGC), a non-profit corporation whose objective was to develop a performing arts complex within downtown Richmond with an historically accurate reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Playhouse as its centerpiece and focus. As part of this effort, Mr. McLaughlin developed a comprehensive Master Plan for a complex of three performance venues with support facilities, extensively researched design, construction and cost issues related to the project, and engaged the Institute for Outdoor Drama in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to undertake a feasibility study jointly financed by Richmond Renaissance and Virginia Tourism Corporation. In 1998, he received a Technical Assistance Grant from the Commonwealth Commission for the Arts to travel to England to research issues related to the design and construction of Elizabethan and Jacobean performance structures. When support for the RSGC failed to materialize in Richmond, Mr. McLaughlin turned to the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express (which has since become the American Shakespeare Center) and placed his expertise and the fruits of his research at the disposal of its directors. The result was the Blackfriars Playhouse where thousands of Virginians and Americans over the past ten years have experienced Shakespeare's plays in a setting resembling as closely as possible the venue of their original production. Andrew Gurr, author of The Shakespearian Stage, 1574 – 1642 and Playgoing in Shakespeare's London among other distinguished scholarly studies and former Director of Research for Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (London, England), referred to the Blackfriars Playhouse as "one of the most historically important theatres in the world . . . ."
In addition to his architectural work Mr. McLaughlin collaborated with his wife Mary McLaughlin, a graphic and exhibit designer teaching at VCU, on several exhibit design and environmental design projects, including the development of comprehensive signage programs for the Boston Common and Public Gardens, Harvard's Arnold Arboretum and the Emerald Necklace Park System in Boston designed by Frederick Law Olmstead.
Dating from his early days in Tarboro, North Carolina, where he played quarterback, point guard, and starting pitcher for his highschool teams, Mr. McLaughlin was an inveterate sports fan and Wolfpack booster. He rated his greatest personal achievement as "going perfect from the foul line (4 for 4) in 1968 as a freshman walk on at NC State.". A memorial service will be held Tuesday January 10 from 4:30 to 6:30pm at the Branch House, 2501 Monument Ave. Richmond, VA 23220. In lieu of flowers, send donations to the American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, Virginia.