The Centenarian Architect

Before You Go

By Anthony Bucci, Assistant Editor On Jan 29, 2015

For 100-year-old Gilbert Seltzer, becoming an architect wasn’t something he was initially interested in while growing up, but he eventually came to love the field and today says he is “still going strong.”

Born in Toronto, Canada in 1914, Seltzer truly fell in love with his profession during his time at the University of Toronto in the 1930s. While going to college, he worked for architectural firm William Gehron in New York. Upon graduation in 1937, he moved to the city for good to continue his career with the firm. In 1952, Seltzer eventually became a partner with Gehron and, in 1958, after Gehron’s passing, took over the firm that became West Orange-based Gilbert L. Seltzer Associates.

“People are amazed at the fact that I’m 100 years old and I’m still active and working,” Seltzer says. “They always ask me how I became involved in architecture and I tell them that, ‘It’s a good question, with a bad answer.’

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be an artist and one day that just changed to architecture. I knew nothing about the profession,” he continues. “But when it came time to go to college, I decided I would study it and was well suited to the profession.”

He says that “architecture is considered by many as a form art.”

“I think that architecture is the mother of all art, in that all art springs from it,” he says. “For music, you need an auditorium. For paintings, you need a museum. And the list goes on.”

Seltzer’s notable work as an architect includes: the Utica Municipal Auditorium in Utica, NY, in which his design was the first to successfully use cables in constructing a roof (a feat that has been copied in other buildings such as Madison Square Garden); a $200-million dollar project at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in which he was the lead architect; the design of the East Coast Memorial at Battery Park; and work at schools such as William Paterson University, New Jersey City University, Rutgers University, West Point and the Merchant Marine Academy. Seltzer is still doing work for colleges and universities throughout the tri-state area, today.

In addition to his career as an architect, Seltzer was a member of 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, also known as The Ghost Army, during World War II. The mission of The Ghost Army was to distract and draw German artillery to save lives and protect other American units in the area.

But no matter what Seltzer accomplished in his life, he has no regrets. He has loved every moment and has no plans of slowing down.

“I’ve led a very interesting life and I’m going to continue my work as long as people trust me with their projects and as long as I’m able to physically and mentally do it,” he concludes. “I wouldn’t trade my life for anything in the world.”

 

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