Smith & Caughey’s History
Window
Designing the final Smith & Caughey’s window displays was a bittersweet task. My aim was to evoke a layered mix of emotions, nostalgia, gratitude, wonder, and a quiet sadness, fitting for the farewell of a 145-year-old Auckland institution.
Our largest window in this series presents an archival room, paying tribute to the journey of Smith & Caughey’s since its founding in 1880. This window focuses on the business’s early decades, its founders, and the family behind it, featuring original items such as handwritten ledgers, components of the pneumatic tube system, and guardbooks overflowing with newspaper advertisements dating back to 1925, and beyond.
The intention was to evoke the feeling of sneaking into your grandparent’s study, a space filled with photo albums, keepsakes, and
quiet stories waiting to be discovered. Visually, we approached it like an attic or home library, dark and moody, yet warm and inviting. With layers of historical artifacts, the scene invites viewers to linger, and the longer you look, the more details you uncover. Many pieces show signs of age and wear, which only adds to the authenticity and intimacy of the archive.
Flanking the side faces of the windows are masonry-style grids filled with photographs, spanning from the earliest known images of the business through to the present day.
Class to the very end. Congratulations for maintaining the integrity and dignity of Smith & Caughey's to the final hours.
— FEEDBACK SMITH & CAUGHEY’S SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWER
The intention behind this design was to present beauty in imperfection and ground this final visual in warmth. It draws on the sentimental side of the business, a gesture to human emotion, memory, and the people at its heart. Soft draping fabric nods to Smith & Caughey’s beginnings as a fabric merchant, while chandeliers that once hung in the store return as sculptural fragments, echoing its past grandeur.
Across the backdrop, we projected decades of moments; staff at work, customers shopping, celebrations, interiors, and the everyday scenes that shaped the store’s story. These shifting memories brought life and movement to an otherwise quiet tribute.
Within these fragments, you find what made Smith & Caughey’s more than just a store: a place of connection, of community, of people.
Your final windows are art.
— FEEDBACK SMITH & CAUGHEY’S CUSTOMER
CREDITS145 Years of History window displays for the Smith & Caughey’s closure, 2025.
Overarching Design, Concept and Planning Tash Coyle.
Installation Saimai Utto, Kevin Broadfoot and Tash Coyle.
Photography Tash Coyle.