George M. Notter
George M. Notter was an American architect and preservationist. He is best known for his work completed while a member of the Boston firm now known as Finegold Alexander Architects between 1965 and 1992. He served as president of the American Institute of Architects for the year 1984.
Life and career
George Madison Notter Jr. was born August 7, 1933, in Jacksonville, Florida to George Madison Notter, a contractor, and Ione Notter. He was educated in the Jacksonville Beach public schools and at Harvard University, earning an AB in 1955 followed by an MArch from the Harvard [Graduate School of Design] in 1958. He spent the next two years as a planning engineer with the United States Air Force and in 1960 joined the Birmingham, Michigan office of Minoru Yamasaki. He became a licensed architect in 1961 and in 1965 returned to Boston, where he joined the firm of his former classmate J. Timothy Anderson. Early projects by Notter for J. Timothy Anderson & Associates include the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, completed in 1969. In 1970 the firm became Anderson Notter Associates and in 1971 they completed the adaptive reuse of Boston's Old [City Hall |Old City Hall] into commercial space. This was a pioneering example of the type and in 1976 was awarded an AIA Honor Award for extended use. This led to other projects such as the New London Union Station in which Anderson Notter Associates was a primary investor. Other restoration and reuse projects include:- Mechanics Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts
- Cabot House and Pforzheimer House, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Sidney R. Yates Federal Building, Washington, D.C.
- Ellis Island, New York City
- William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, Washington, D.C.
Notter joined the American Institute of Architects in 1967 as a member of the Boston Society of Architects and the Massachusetts State Association of Architects, which were merged in 1989. He served as the president of the BSA in 1976, of the MSAA in 1978 and served as AIA regional director from New England from 1978 to 1980. He served as a vice president of the AIA in 1981 and in 1982 he was elected first vice president/president elect for 1983 and president for 1984. As president Notter built on the initiatives of his predecessor Robert C. Broshar to make architects active members of their community. He was elected a Fellow of [the American Institute of Architects|fellow] of the AIA in 1978 and was elected to honorary membership in the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Federation of Colleges of Architects of the Mexican Republic.
Notter was involved in several other preservation-oriented organizations including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Society of Architectural Historians, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and the Victorian Society in America and was president of the Society for Industrial Archeology for the year 1978.