The Municipal Art Society of New York

The staff of MAS lost a beloved colleague this week. Patricia “Pat” McHugh was chief librarian and archivist of the MAS Reference Library, incorporating the Greenacre Reference Resource. Although Pat volunteered her time to the MAS, she took her job as seriously as a full-time member of the staff, bringing to it tremendous creativity, energy and dedication. She was also ambitious. Three years ago, she initiated a project to catalog all MAS records of the past 30 years – a long-range initiative to preserve the scores of projects, achievements, and milestones of our organization’s history. She also managed a group of six volunteers who have been assisting with this effort.

Before focusing her energies on our library, Pat wrote the text for two major exhibitions at MAS: Steel, Stone and Backbone: New York Builds in Hard Times (1992), and The Triumph of Grand Central (1998). A stint as Public Information Officer at the Landmarks Preservation Commission followed her return to New York from Toronto, where she authored that city’s first architectural guidebook. Pat and her husband, professor Peter McHugh, lived and worked in Los Angeles, Chicago and London.

Pat died on Sunday, September 7, 2008 after a battle with lymphoma. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her daughter Caitlin, son Joshua and grandson Calder. The staff expresses our deepest condolences to Pat’s family. We will miss her enormously.