Kelly & Gruzen
Gruzen & Partners
Gruzen Partnership
Gruzen Samton Steinglass
Gruzen Samton
Practice information
PartnersHugh A. Kelly ASCE AIA; B. Sumner Gruzen FAIA; Jordan Gruzen FAIA; Peter Samton FAIA; Ralph Steinglass FAIA
FoundersHugh A. Kelly ASCE AIA; B. Sumner Gruzen FAIA
Founded1937
Dissolved2009
LocationNew York City
Hardenbergh Hall of Rutgers University, designed by Kelly & Gruzen and completed in 1956.
The High School of Graphic Communication Arts in New York City, designed by Kelly & Gruzen and completed in 1959.
The Canton City Hall in Canton, Ohio, designed by Kelly & Gruzen and completed in 1961.
The Earth and Space Sciences Building at Stony Brook University, designed by Kelly & Gruzen and completed in 1967.
The Social and Behavioral Sciences Building at Stony Brook University, designed by Gruzen & Partners and completed in 1972.
The staff residence of NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, designed by Gruzen & Partners and completed in 1972.
One Police Plaza in New York City, designed by Gruzen & Partners and completed in 1973.
Galaxy Towers in Guttenberg, New Jersey, designed by Gruzen & Partners and completed in 1976.
The Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, Queens College, designed by Gruzen Samton Steinglass and completed in 1988.
Two Hannover Square in Raleigh, North Carolina, designed by Gruzen Samton Steinglass and completed in 1991.
The Tribeca Pointe in Battery Park City, designed by Gruzen Samton and completed in 1999.
The Port Imperial ferry terminal in Weehawken, New Jersey, designed by Gruzen Samton and completed in 2006.

Gruzen Samton was an American architectural firm based in New York City. It was founded in Jersey City in 1937 as Kelly & Gruzen by architects Hugh A. Kelly ASCE AIA (February 6, 1888 – January 31, 1966) and B. Sumner Gruzen FAIA (July 25, 1903 – September 27, 1974). Gruzen assumed control of the firm in 1941 and moved its main office to New York City in 1946. It was renamed Gruzen & Partners in 1967, Gruzen Samton Steinglass in 1986 and Gruzen Samton in 1994. In 2009 the firm was acquired by IBI Group of Toronto.

Partners and history

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Kelly & Gruzen was established in 1937 in Jersey City, New Jersey as the merger of the practices of architect and engineer Hugh A. Kelly and architect B. Sumner Gruzen.[1]

Hugh Ambrose Kelly Jr. was born February 6, 1888 in Jersey City. He was educated in the public schools and was employed as an engineer by the city before entering private practice. He joined the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1916, was licensed as an architect in 1917 and joined the American Institute of Architects in 1923.[2] In 1924 he formed the partnership of Kelly & Cowan with architect Leroy A. Cowan which lasted into the early years of the Great Depression.[3]

Barnett Sumner Gruzen was born July 25, 1903 in Riga, Latvia. His family moved to the United States in 1905, and Gruzen was naturalized in 1925. He was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a BArch in 1926 and an MArch in 1928 with further study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After work for Boston and New York City architects Gruzen opened his own office in Jersey City in 1932.[1]

In 1941 Gruzen became the chief executive of Kelly & Gruzen and in 1946 relocated the main office to New York City, with Kelly maintaining the Jersey City office.[1] Kelly retired from the partnership in 1950.[4] For fifteen years after 1950 Gruzen was the sole partner, but with several associates, in Kelly & Gruzen. Kelly died in 1966, and Gruzen initiated a larger reorganization. In 1967 the firm was renamed Gruzen & Partners and the partnership was expanded to include six new partners, including Norval White and Julian Whittlesey. Three were former associates and three, including White and Whittlesey, were outside architects.[5] As head of the firm Gruzen developed its specialty in large housing developments, and was responsible for ten such projects in New York City and others elsewhere before 1967. They were also known for large public projects such as One Police Plaza (1973) and for projects for Jewish institutions in the New York area.[1] The elder Gruzen retired from the partnership in 1971 but remained a consultant to the firm until his death in 1974.[1] After his retirement his son and partner since 1965, Jordan Gruzen took over as chief executive.[6]

Jordan Lee Gruzen was born April 5, 1934 in Jersey City. He was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the former in 1957 with a BArch and from the latter in 1961 with an MArch. He joined Kelly & Gruzen in 1962 as design director and became a partner in 1965.[6]

As head of the firm Gruzen pursued new types of projects, including hotels, affordable housing and correctional facilities, beginning with Bayside State Prison (1970).[7]

In 1982 the firm was renamed to the Gruzen Partnership to reflect their expanding staff and business,[8] and in 1986 was renamed again to Gruzen Samton Steinglass to reflect the growing importance of two partners, Peter Samton and Ralph Steinglass.

Peter Samton was born February 26, 1935 in Berlin. He was a classmate of Jordan Gruzen at MIT, graduating with a BArch in the same year, followed by postgraduate study at the Sorbonne in Paris. He worked for Hugh Stubbins & Associates and Marcel Breuer & Associates before establishing his own New York City practice, Samton Associates, in 1962. He joined Kelly & Gruzen in 1963 as a designer but continued to maintain his own practice on the side for several years. In 1967 he was one of the group of associated admitted to partnership and was also made design director, replacing Jordan Gruzen.

Ralph Steinglass was educated at the Cooper Union and at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, graduating from the latter in 1964 with an MArch. He worked for Welton Becket & Associates, for whom he was project manager for the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill (1976) in Washington, D.C. Steinglass joined Gruzen & Partners in 1977 and became a partner in 1983, leading the firm's hotel projects.[9][10]

In 1993 Steinglass left the partnership to pursue other projects, and the firm was renamed Gruzen Samton.[11] Several new partners joined during the 1990s. Shortly before 9/11, the firm moved its offices into 90 West Street, which was heavily damaged by the collapse of the South Tower. The office was substantially destroyed but all members of the staff survived. The office was shortly thereafter restablished on 13th Street. In 2009 the firm was acquired IBI Group of Toronto.

Architectural works

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Works in Manhattan

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Works in the outer boroughs of New York City

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Works elsewhere in New York and in New Jersey

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Works elsewhere

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Notes

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  1. ^ Mitchell/Giurgola, architects; Gruzen & Partners, associate architects.
  2. ^ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Gruzen & Partners, associated architects. Construction began in 1979 but was halted in 1985 after the discovery of listening devices. Beginning in 1994 the building was partially dismantled and rebuilt.
  3. ^ Featuring a stained glass facade by Adolph Gottlieb, now distributed throughout the neighboring Park Avenue Synagogue complex.
  4. ^ Kelly & Gruzen and Kahn & Jacobs, associated architects.
  5. ^ Junzō Yoshimura, architect; Gruzen & Partners, associate architects.
  6. ^ Gruzen & Partners and Castro-Blanco, Piscioneri & Feder, associated architects.
  7. ^ Abraham Rothenberg Associates, architect; Gruzen Samton Steinglass, associate architects.
  8. ^ Cooper, Robertson & Partners, architects; Gruzen Samton Steinglass, associate architects.
  9. ^ Bernard Tschumi, architect; Gruzen Samton, associate architects.
  10. ^ Morphosis, architects; Gruzen Samton, associate architects.
  11. ^ Javier Carvajal, architect; Kelly & Gruzen, associate architects. Rebuilt in St. Louis in 1969.
  12. ^ Kelly & Gruzen and Helge Westermann/Richard Miller/Associates, associated architects.
  13. ^ Gruzen & Partners and Helge Westermann/Richard Miller/Associates, associated architects.
  14. ^ Gruzen Samson Steinglass and Ehrenkrantz Group and Eckstut, associated architects.
  15. ^ Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Gruzen Samton, associated architects.
  16. ^ The Gruzen Partnership and the Grad Partnership, joint venture architects.
  17. ^ Kelly & Gruzen, architects; Cox & Forsythe, associate architects.
  18. ^ Gruzen Samson Steinglass, architects; Haskins, Rice, Savage & Pearce, associate architects.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Colin Naylor, "Gruzen, Barnett Sumner" in Contemporary Architects, ed. Muriel Emanuel (Andover: St. James Press, 1994): 393-394. Cite error: The named reference "Con" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Kelly, Hugh A." in History of the Municipalities of Hudson County, New Jersey, 1630–1923 3, ed. Daniel Van Winkle (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing company, 1924): 608-609.
  3. ^ "Personals" in American Architect 125, no. 2442 (March 26, 1924): 16.
  4. ^ "Kelly, Hugh A(mbrose)" in American Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1956): 293.
  5. ^ Architectural Record 142, no. 1 (July, 1967): 56.
  6. ^ a b "Gruzen, Jordan Lee" in Who's Who in America (Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1978): 1315.
  7. ^ "Gruzen, Jordan Lee" in Who's Who in America (Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1978): 1315.
  8. ^ "Name Change at Gruzen" in Interiors 141, no. 7 (February, 1982): 12.
  9. ^ Andrea O. Dean, "A Hotel Chain Built upon An Architectural Concept" in AIA Journal 67, no. 8 (July, 1978): 65-71.
  10. ^ "Names and News" in Oculus 44, no. 7 (March, 1983): 7.
  11. ^ "Unpartnering" in Oculus 56, no. 1 (September, 1993): 4.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cite error: The named reference Queens was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av Norval White, Elliot Willensky and Fran Leadon, AIA Guide to New York City (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010)
  14. ^ Nicole Saraniero, "1964 NYC WORLD’S FAIR BUILDING IS NOW A PIZZA PLACE IN ST. LOUIS," Untapped New York, August 6, 2020. Accessed June 15, 2023.
  15. ^ "Sophisticated Supermarket" in Architectural Record 97, no. 3 (September, 1952): 136-140.
  16. ^ "Three Dormitory Buildings With Classroom Floors" in Architectural Record 122, no. 2 (August, 1957): 202.
  17. ^ Randall Gabrielan, Images of America: Rumson (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 1996)
  18. ^ Susan G. Solomon, Louis I. Kahn's Trenton Jewish Community Center (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000)
  19. ^ a b c Philip S. Kennedy-Grant, Mark Alan Hewitt and Michael J. Mills, AIA New Jersey Guidebook (New Brunswick: Rivergate Books, 2011)
  20. ^ AIA Journal 49, no. 6 (June, 1968): 98.
  21. ^ "Photo-drafting: time-saving aid to quality" in Architectural Record 151, no. 2 (February, 1972): 53-56.
  22. ^ "Maximum-maximum Security" in Architectural Record 171, no. 3 (March, 1983): 88-89.
  23. ^ James L. Yarnall, Newport Through its Architecture: A History of Styles from Postmedieval to Postmodern (Hanover: University Press of New England, 2005)
  24. ^ "Better Answers in Housing the Elderly With Care: Maple Knoll Village" in Architectural Record 163, no. 3 (March, 1978): 95-100.
  25. ^ Eric J. Hill, AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003)
  26. ^ "Briefs" in Architectural Record x, no. x (April, 1990): 27.