New Lecture Series Brings Renowned Architects to Dartmouth

When Hancock Place was constructed in the 1970s, there was a serious design flaw: in high winds many of the windows in Boston’s tallest building fell and crashed onto the street. That’s when Victor Mahler ’54 was brought in.

“It was Victor who solved the problem,” says Jerome Goldstein ’54.

A distinguished architect, Mahler, who died in 2011, was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and specialized in designing building exterior coverings with materials such as steel, glass, and aluminum.

In his friend’s memory, Goldstein led fundraising efforts to establish the Victor C. Mahler 1954 Visiting Architects Lecture, which will begin February 13. The inaugural speaker is J. Meejin Yoon, an award-winning architect and designer who is an associate professor at MIT.

The annual event, free and open to the public, begins at 5 p.m. in the Loew Auditorium of the Black Family Visual Arts Center, with a reception to follow in the Nearburg Arts Forum. President Carol L. Folt and Studio Art Chair Colleen Randall will make remarks.

Yoon is the recipient of a 2008 United States Artist Award in Architecture and Design, Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard award in 2007, and the 2005 Rome Prize in Design, among many other accolades. She is the founder of MY Studio and a co-founder for Höweler + Yoon Architecture, LLP. She also serves as the director of MIT’s undergraduate program in architecture.

“The Studio Art Department is honored to have such an important award-winning architect/designer as J. Meejin Yoon, on campus as the Victor C. Mahler 1954 Visiting Architect inaugural speaker,” says Randall. “We are also grateful to Jerome Goldstein who led the fundraising efforts to establish the lectureship in memory of his friend and classmate, distinguished architect, Victor C. Mahler ’54. All Dartmouth undergraduate students and other members of the Dartmouth community with a love of architecture will be inspired and benefit enormously by this generous gift.”

Mahler worked for The Architects Collaborative in Cambridge, Mass., before working with I.M. Pei in New York City, and later started his own company, Mahler Architectural Consultants. He worked on projects around the globe in places such as Iran, Hong Kong, and Paris.

At Dartmouth, Mahler majored in architecture and was active in the Handel Society and the Dartmouth Outing Club. Upon his graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy and later earned a master’s degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Goldstein says the two became closer when Mahler’s health deteriorated in his later years. Despite losing his vision, which Goldstein says was especially trying for an architect, he remained positive and upbeat.

“He was such a wonderful human being,” says Goldstein.