Norbert’s Professional Biography – English

Norbert A. Peiker, FAIA

Norbert Alfred Peiker, born in 1940 in Wertheim am Main, is an architect who grew up in and around Augsburg.  In 1969 he seized the opportunity to practice his profession in the United States of America when he received a job offer from Marr Knapp Crawfis Architects in Ohio.  He accepted this offer with interest and joy.

Preface

“Mr. Norbert A. Peiker Architect Norbert A. Peiker’s inclusion into the historic “Persönlichkeiten Liste” of the Technical University of Applied Sciences in Augsburg, Germany resulted by his 2002 investiture into the American Institute of Architects (AIA), College of Fellows, an honor bestowed upon 3% of AIA architects.  The following describes AIA College of Fellows Category 5 under which Norbert A. Peiker was awarded Fellowship:

Category: Alternative career, volunteer work with organizations not directly connected with the built environment, or service to society “To make the profession of ever-increasing service to society.”

Fellowship in this object is granted to architects who have made notable contributions to one of the following: an alternative career related to architecture that illustrates outstanding achievements that supports the architectural profession; extensive volunteer work with organizations not directly connected with the built environment; or service that transcends the customary architectural practice that have wide reaching impacts that serve as a national model.

Laudatio:

Mr. Norbert Peiker personifies public service at its very best and he provides a model for integrating the architecture profession with community involvement.”

Architectural Work

When Norbert, the oldest of six siblings, as a three-and-a-half-year-old boy, saw the devastation in Augsburg a few days after the nightly WWII bombing raids on February 25/26, 1944, he told his parents, Berta and Herbert Peiker, that he would “help with the reconstruction,” a child’s promise that later would become a reality.

At 14-years-old he worked regularly during school holidays on Martinsbauhütte’s construction sites mixing mortar for masons.  After Elementary School years at Hallschule Norbert entered ‘Humanistisches Gymnasium bei St. Stephan’ but left the Benedictine Monastery School early in lieu of entering a three-year apprenticeship at the Hochzoll construction company Sebastian Klaus that led to journeyman certification, followed passing required testing to enter Rudolf-Diesel-Polytechnikum in 1960 with graduation as ‘Hochbau Ingenieur’ (Architectural Engineering) in 1964.

Two years prior to College Graduation, until immigration to the United States of America in 1969, Norbert Peiker worked as project designer and after earning certification as architect (1968) for the architectural firm of Horst Sterz in Augsburg-Göggingen.

As a German immigrant, Norbert Peiker moved with his family to Mansfield, Ohio on November 4, 1969, to take up a position as project designer at Marr Knapp Crawfis Architects.

Peiker’s first major design project, under the architectural license of D. James Crawfis, AIA, was the design of Mohican Lodge and Conference Center with 96 Hotel Rooms, commissioned by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, a construction project that opened 1974. Heavy Douglas Fir timber, wood shingle roofing over Western Red Cedar deck, and Sandstone wythe native to Ohio.

In 1973, Norbert A. Peiker successfully passed the four-day exams required to obtain his own architect’s license No. 5184 for the State of Ohio.  National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) Entry #18517 with Certificate #14858 and licenses for other US states followed.  

In 1980 Norbert A. Peiker, AIA was promoted to “Principal Architect” as the company’s name and structure has changed to MKC Associates, Inc. – Architects-Engineers-Planners.  As a member of the MKC Board of Directors Peiker’s responsibilities were expanded to leading the company’s Mansfield office, responsible for project design, work planning and several years later taking over the financial management for MKC’s total organization.

From 1980 to 1988, Peiker taught evening and Saturday for freshman classes in “Engineering Graphics” which included space geometry, visual infinitesimal calculus, and empirical equations on behalf of The Ohio State University, College of Engineering.  His teaching tenure ended when he took charge of MKC Associates as President and Chairman of the Board.

Due to having been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer in 1996 at the onset of cancer treatment of stage 4, after working and shaping MKC for 34 years, with primary focus on customer/client satisfaction, not on submittals of projects for awards, Norbert A. Peiker, FAIA retired at the end of 2003.

Norbert A. Peiker, projects as designer, architect, and architect-of record that stretched over 34 years included:

• New, Additions and Renovations of over 100 Educational Building Projects such as Elementary, Middle/Junior High, High Schools, and Vocational Career Centers, many of these in rural areas of Ohio.
• New Mansfield Senior High School, opened in 2003, for Mansfield City School Destrict.
• Higher Education Projects, for example, located at Mansfield’s shared Ohio State University (OSU) and North Central State College (NCSC): OSU Physical Fitness Center, Campus Bookstore, NCSC Health Sciences Center (an AIA 1995 Design Award Recipient.
• Ashland University Seminary:  Ronk Memorial Chapel.
• Brass Office Center (Mansfield historic Landmark): Build-out of 1^st, 4^th ,5^th Floors including MKC Corporate Offices
• Mansfield Main Post Office and Federal Building, commissioned by the US General Service Administration (GSA):  This was a joined design contract involving three architectural firms.  MKC’s responsibility included creating the construction plans with focus on the foundation system detailing to overcome soil conditions incapable to support common foundation systems. Norbert Peiker detailed a reinforced concrete foundation grade beam system, with 1,200 bundled wood piles of average 20 meters length topped with concrete pile caps.
• Kokosing Construction Company’s Office Headquarters, a nationally recognized market leader in self-performing transportation and sitework that ranges from highway construction, bridges, paving, and mass excavation located in Fredericktown, Ohio:  Norbert Peiker’s design included the incorporation of Manufacturer Butler’s ‘spaceframe’ system with pre-engineered ‘landmark” industrial building system, innovative, unique in the 1980s.
• New St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Mansfield-Madison Area:  Due to a tight construction budget Norbert Peiker in cooperation with the building constructor laid out on site the brick altar wall with simple sculpture-like placement of brick units.

After a short-lived retirement, with MKC Board of Directors permission, Norbert A. Peiker established “Architecture by Norbert Peiker, LLC” to advise a former client on project developments.  Peiker used his expertise for advice on building land developments for industrial plants, on construction reports for renovation projects, and putting together expert teams for strategic assessment of future construction investments.

As an example of Peiker’s consulting work shall serve by putting together a planning team for the redevelopment of the 47-story LeVeque Tower, which was built in 1927 and is the historic landmark of Ohio’s capitol city, Columbus.  Based on Peiker’s team of experts compiled construction report, static analyses, renovation planning, and survey results, Peiker’s client Lawyers Development Corporation under the name of “Tower 10” acquired the property and carried out renovations with Schooley Caldwell of Columbus serving as architect-of-record. 

At age 74 and cancer diagnosis in its fourth stage, Norbert A. Peiker, FAIA once again planned his retirement.  However, that was interrupted when the City of Columbus, Department of Building & Zoning Services (BZS) with its 160 employees was looking for an architect or engineer to be plans examiner at short notice.  The “getting over the hump” for 480 workhours employment turned to eight years.  From 27 years of fighting cancer, now physically handicapped, Norbert A. Peiker, FAIA retired on April 28, 2023.

During Norbert Peiker’s years working as master plans examiner, he reviewed plan submittals for estimated 12,000 building projects that included high rise structures, building of miscellaneous use groups, type of constructions to meet Ohio’s related codes such as Ohio Building Code, Ohio Mechanical Code, National Electric Code, Ohio Plumbing Code and related Energy, Handicap Accessibility, and Existing Building Codes for Alternative Compliance.