Jordan L. Gruzen, Noted Architect
Jordan L. Gruzen, an architect whose firm played a significant role in the landscape of New York City, died of cancer on Jan. 27 at home in Manhattan’s Battery Park City on Jan. 27 He was 80 and had been ill for the past year.
Mr. Gruzen lived in the apartment buildings and houses he designed, including the building on South End Avenue where he died. He summered in Amagansett for more than 50 years, living at Lazy Point for the last eight and building a house on Cranberry Hole Road, which is to be completed in June.
From 1967 until early last year, Mr. Gruzen was a partner in the firm his father founded in 1936, now known as IBI Group-Gruzen Samton. Over a six-decade career, he and his firm of architects and urban planners designed or revitalized Stuyvesant High School, the New York Police Department’s 1 Police Plaza headquarters, five residential buildings in Battery Park City, and the horse stables at 86th Street in Central Park. Also among the firm’s projects were university buildings, courthouses, transportation terminals, facilities for the elderly, synagogues, the United States Embassy in Moscow, civic work in Tel Aviv, and buildings and developments in Dubai, Nairobi, and Tehran.
A fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Mr. Gruzen’s firm won five national A.I.A. design awards and numerous state and city A.I.A. awards. He had bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Pennsylvania and also won a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Italy.
Mr. Gruzen’s architecture was apparently shaped by his cultural and artistic influences. He once wrote that at M.I.T. he “took as many courses in planning, art, music, and philosophy as I did in architecture.”
His family described him as a passionate preservationist who was driven by a desire to create socially responsible work. He was a co-founder of the Action Group for Better Architecture and had been a leading figure in the fight to save Penn Station. Among his favorite Manhattan projects was the Museo Del Barrio at 104th Street and Fifth Avenue.
On the South Fork, Mr. Gruzen loved the natural beauty, the bays, and his neighbors, his family said. He was a member of the Devon Yacht Club, where he played tennis, and he enjoyed exploring Gardiner’s Bay on a Sunfish, being proud to have won a Lazy Point Sunfish regatta. He also loved skiing and biking. He was a man of great accomplishment, joie de vivre, warmth, and optimism, who fully embraced life in both work and play, his family said.
He was born on April 5, 1934, in Jersey City, N.J., to Barney Sumner Gruzen and the former Ethel Brof, a singer with the Metropolitan Opera. He grew up in Maplewood, N.J., before moving to New York in 1960.
On June 26, 1976, he married Lee Ferguson, who survives. He also is survived by a son, Alex Gruzen of Austin, Tex., two daughters, Rachel Gruzen of Amagansett and Georgia Gruzen of Altadena, Calif., and four grandchildren. A brother, Maxson Gruzen of San Diego, survives, as does his first wife, Joan Gruzen of New York City.
Mr. Gruzen was cremated. A memorial service and dispersal of his ashes will take place in the summer. The family has suggested memorial contributions to the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, which he and his wife helped to found, at www.knickerbocker-orchestra.org.