Isaac Luck

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Isaac Luck (1817 - 1881) was a New Zealand architect. A professional builder, he arrived in Lyttelton on the Steadfast in 1851. Luck co-designed with his brother-in-law and business partner Benjamin Mountfort Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings in Christchurch between 1858 and 1865. The council building is considered to be the finest Gothic building in the southern hemisphere. Luck and Mountfort formed their partnership circa 1857 when they made a bid to gain the contract for designing Government House, Auckland.

In 1861 the duo designed the Christchurch Club which was probably New Zealand’s first club. Luck seems to have been the less dominant half of the partnership as credit for their joint work is generally given to the better known Mountfort.

Like Mountfort, Luck was committed to the Gothic revival style, particularly when adherent to the Anglo-Catholic, Oxford Movement ideals inspired by such architects as Augustus Pugin and Richard Cromwell Carpenter.