Victor Curt Mahler, 1932-2011

Publication Year: 2012.

Victor Curt Mahler, 1932-2011

Victor passed away following a bout of pneumonia, on September 7 in New York City. An incredibly brave man, he refused to be knocked down by the loss of his sight and a stroke and continued to attend the New York Section’s Annual Black Tie Dinner, with his beloved wife Mimi. Several fellow club members attended his memorial service at the only Germanspeaking church in Manhattan.

An alumnus of Deerfield Academy, he graduated from Dartmouth with a major in Architecture. Victor’s sampling of what Dartmouth had to offer included the Outing Club and the Winter Sports Board. After graduation, he spent time in the Navy, on a destroyer.

After leaving the Navy he received a Masters in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His first foray into the field was with the Architects.Collaborative in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He then joined I.M. Pei in New York, before founding his own firm. In 1973 the infamous Hancock Tower problem in Boston brought Victor fame and applause. A design flaw caused the windows to fall out, and Victor diagnosed and solved the problem, which had baffled many experts. His career then took him to Hong Kong, and other exotic locations, and he was elevated to Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Victor climbed in the Andes, Alps, and Canadian Rockies, where he partnered with Bill Putnam on first ascents. He was a fellow AAC member of whom we can be proud.

Phil Erard