Maurice and I

I always said too much and you always said too little.

– Sir Miles Warren laughs with his longtime collaborator Maurice Mahoney

I'm a great believer in the old adage, "people get the buildings they deserve".

– Sir Miles Warren reflects on a life in architecture

You can be lucky in this life or unlucky, and we were just damn lucky.

– Sir Miles Warren reflects on his long working relationship with Maurice Mahoney

I tended to look after a lot of the services: toilets, the drains . . . Well, it had to be done.

– The 'quiet' Maurice Mahoney on his area of expertise

Maurice and I is just a terrific wee film. There is a slew of New Zealand social history here, as well as a neatly condensed and focused history of architecture in the 20th century, all wrapped around a love letter to the city of Christchurch and a few of the people who have made it the place that it is.

– Film reviewer Graeme Tuckett on this documentary, The Sunday Star-Times, 16 June 2024

Sir Miles talks in animated fashion, with gestures and literary licence. Maurice says little, other than a brief interjection to correct something Miles had said. And then Miles resumes his storytelling, as if there had been no interruption at all. It’s priceless. It must have been like that between them for years. Clearly, they both recognised their own and each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and the fact that, together, they were completely complementary. Sir Miles would charm the clients, produce great designs and presentation drawings, and enjoy the public profile and accolades. Maurice was happy out of the public eye: almost invisible but always ensuring buildability and precision documentation. 

– Julia Gatley reviews this documentary, Architecture Now, July 2024

Maurice & I began life as a project about the Christchurch Town Hall — a monument to new brutalism and probably the apogee of the Warren & Mahoney aesthetic. It was lauded for its acoustics and vast yet intimate auditorium. Both architects later said it was their best building. Co-producer/director Rick Harvie sat on the idea for years until a chance meeting with Warren in 2010. “He kept referring to ‘Maurice and I’... ‘Maurice and I did this and we did that’ and I realised the partnership was the story.

– Excerpt from an article about what inspired documentary Maurice and I, The Press, 27 April 2024

There is something terribly wrong in our city when people say it's okay to knock down repairable buildings because they're in the wrong place.

– Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel on the proposition of demolishing the quake damaged Christchurch Town Hall

All congratulations to Rick Harvie and Jane Mahoney on this carefully crafted production. They have raised the bar for films about New Zealand architecture.

– Julia Gatley reviews this documentary, Architecture Now, July 2024

Co-producer/director Rick Harvie sat on the idea for years until a chance meeting with Warren in 2010. “He kept referring to ‘Maurice and I’... ‘Maurice and I did this and we did that’ and I realised the partnership was the story.”Soon after, Harvie met Jane Mahoney, daughter of the titular Maurice, through her work for the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Brownlee’s ministry; Warren probably enjoyed that, too). They sat on the idea some more until Maurice Mahoney was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018 and given months to live. Within a week, they were interviewing both men, separately and then together, and a feature film was in the works.

– Producer Rick Harvie on making documentary Maurice and I with Jane Mahoney, The Press, 27 April 2024