Charles Hoyt
Essex — Charles King Hoyt, a retired architect, editor and author, died Oct. 19, 2017, at the skilled nursing center at Essex Meadows in Essex, after a long illness. He was 79.
Mr. Hoyt had a lifelong passion for historic preservation. He restored old houses in Bellport, on the South Shore of Long Island and then in Lyme, where he had lived since 1985. After graduating with a degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, he worked at the New York firm of Harrison & Abramovitz and then for the famed modern architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. He was later the chief architect in the New York City regional office of the New York State Urban Development Corporation.
In 1973, Mr. Hoyt joined Architectural Record, the pre-eminent trade publication for his profession. He became senior editor in charge of interior design coverage and lectured frequently on interior design. In addition to numerous articles for professional journals, Mr. Hoyt wrote four books on architecture, including “Interior Spaces Designed by Architects,” and “More Places for People.” He retired from the magazine in 1997 and established an individual practice devoted to restoration in the Lyme area.
He was a fierce champion of fine design. In his introduction to “Interior Spaces,” Mr. Hoyt wrote, “As in all endeavors, interior design has been produced by the skilled, the merely competent and the unskilled. Perhaps the difference between interior design and other fields such as athletics is that bad athletes are far less tolerated ... As we see more and more architects entering the field, we are going to see better interiors that are well thought out, that function appropriately and that give a clear design message.” In his book, he promised, the reader would see “no draped fabric over leaky steam pipes or routes for a restaurant’s waiters through the cashier’s booth.”
Mr. Hoyt served on numerous professional committees and was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, an honor conferred on only 3 percent of AIA members for “their exceptional work and contributions to architecture and society.”
He was born April 23, 1938, in Lakehurst, N.J., where his father, a U.S. naval officer, was stationed. He graduated from Blair Academy in New Jersey before attending Penn.
Mr. Hoyt is survived by his life partner of 48 years, Roger Parkman. They were married one week before Mr. Hoyt’s death. Other survivors include his brother and sister-in-law, Clark Hoyt and Linda Kauss of Great Falls, Va.; sister-inlaw and brother-in-law, Jane and Anthony Else of Herts, England; nephew Jason Else and wife, Lorna, of Herts; niece Lucy and husband, Matthew Living, of New York City; great-niece Annabel Living of New York City; and great-nephews Tomas, Sam and Alexander Else of Herts.
A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 27, at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Old Lyme.
The family requests, in lieu of flowers, donations to the Connecticut Humane Society or Safe Futures, a New London nonprofit devoted to assisting victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.