Tadhg Sweeney, 81 years, died at sunrise on June 21st, in a summer home of his own design, surrounded by his wife, children, and grandchildren. His death was due to complications from neurological disease. Mr. Sweeney was an architect and athlete, as well as a poet, by both vocation and temperament.
The fourth of five children born to the museum director James Johnson Sweeney, Tadhg became familiar with the great masters of modernism by serving them martinis, most famously, from the glass nose of a B-52 bomber his mother had set on a block of dry ice. His family’s apartment in New York City was filled with the colorful abstract sculptures and paintings of Alexander Calder and Joan Miro, who were, along with many other artists of the pre and post- war era, frequent visitors.
The high-minded atmosphere of the Sweeney home instilled in all the children a love for the arts which could not be shaken (but was nonetheless stirred). When Tadhg followed his two older brothers from St. Bernard’s School to Phillips Exeter Academy, he continued his interest in classics and climbing -- specifically, scaling penthouse apartment and dormitory walls. He won the classics prize, and though he was not congratulated for reaching his house master’s window sill, his physical resolve was rewarded by his growing involvement in sport, at which he later excelled. At Harvard University, he was the captain of the lacrosse team, as well as the first team all-ivy soccer player of the year, in 1961.
Tadhg’s detailed exploration of the bricks, balconies, and lintels of the various buildings he livedin later blossomed into a passion for architectural history and the practice of drawing. He attended Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 1965. Under the mentorship of the celebrated Spanish architect José Luis Sert, he took an increasing interest in city planning and urban development. To this end, he served as a Deputy Secretary with the Massachusetts Department of Community Affairs, before co-establishing Donham and Sweeney Architects in downtown Boston. At the firm he focussed on equal access – individuated homes in public housing, and integrated services for the elderly and disabled. He prided himself on the diversity of his clients, and undertook a wide variety of projects, from police stations, fire houses and schools to private summer homes, often balancing the concerns of conservation with those of innovation.
He met his wife, Edith Sweeney, in 1963, and married her a year later. They had four children, all of whom felt themselves to be the center of his life, while well-aware that the honor went to their mother, whom he loved, beyond all measure, just shy of sixty years. He was generous with his time, and remained as committed to his work as he was to the communities his family was a part of, sharing his expertise as an architect with countless local boards. In 1976, he ran as a candidate for state legislature in the government of Massachusetts.
In later life, he turned to further artistic pursuits, writing his own poetry and lyrics, which he shared, a capella, on special occasions. His flamboyant bow ties, sewn first by his wife and then, each Christmas, by his eldest daughter, were a signature of his style. He was a gentleman, with an emphasis on the gentle, whose colorful flair and graceful, attentive demeanour elevated the mood and manner of everyone who met him.
He is survived by his siblings, Sean Sweeney and Ciannait Tait, and by his beloved wife Edith Sweeney; their four children, Colm, Caoilfhionn, Aoibheann and Lean; their spouses, Kate Sweeney, Inez Murray and John O’Leary, and his grandchildren, Siadhal and Eamon Sweeney, Meadbh and Seamus Koenigsberg, Willa and Finn Murray- Sweeney, and Amelia and Arthur O’Leary.
]A memorial service will be held on his 82nd birthday at 2pm on Wednesday, July 20th, in the Storey Chapel in the Mt. Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mt Auburn St, Cambridge, MA 02138.
All welcome. RSVP helpful, by email, to [email protected].
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18