"The kind of quality that I believe must stand alongside the superior quality of this Byzantine-inspired, beautifully organized, wonderfully ornate church," Norman said at the time, "is so lacking that it becomes a case of night and night. " Day."
Recognition…about the Norman family
Alfred Warren Gene Norman was born on February 14, 1935 in Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands, to Rufus Norman and Edith O'Neal, a nurse. The family moved to New York as a child.
After graduating from Morris High School in the Bronx, he attended Hunter College in New York and the Pratt Institute School of Architecture in Brooklyn, and served in the Marine Corps.
In 1959 he married Juanita Diaz, who survived him with her daughter; two sons, Gene A. Norman Jr. and Paul Norman; a sister, Patricia Kyle; eight grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Prior to joining the Landmarks Commission, Mr. Norman was the manager of a minority architectural firm, worked for the New York and New Jersey Port Authority and Urban Development Corporation, and served as Executive Vice President of Harlem Urban Development Corporation from 1975 to 1983, when she built subsidized housing, renovated brownstone facades, and refurbished the West 125th Street commercial corridor.
After leaving City Service, he served from 1989 to 1994 as President and CEO of Harlem International Trade Center Corporation, a quasi-public development that never went beyond the planning stage that its followers said would eventually spur renewal.
Later, Mr. Norman taught at the Pratt Institute and started a company called Architecture Plus !, which dealt with design and heritage conservation.
