West Orange Architect Turns 105: ‘A Helluva Way To Make A Living’

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Gilbert Seltzer of New Jersey might be the only 105-year-old practicing architect in the world. And he’s earned the right to be a little quirky.

“They say it’s a helluva hard way to make a living,” he quips about what he calls “the mother of all arts.”

At his office in West Orange, Seltzer helms the eponymously named Gilbert L. Seltzer Associates, where he still draws with a pencil and shuns computers. “I can’t stand them,” he recently told the American Institute of Architects’ New Jersey chapter (AIA-NJ).

Seltzer also rolls his eyes when people bring up the subject of advertising.

“I remember a time before we advertised,” he said. “People ask me, ‘Is that true?’ In fact, it was considered unethical. We got many of our jobs through word of mouth.”

A perfect example of this is the biggest job he ever worked on, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

“I was dining with a client and the maître d' shouted my name: ‘Mr. Seltzer! You have a call,’” he recollected. “It was my secretary. She said, ‘The state treasurer of New Jersey called. He wants you at your desk at 1 p.m.’ I went back to my office and soon after, the telephone rang. It was the treasurer, and he said, ‘Do you remember that medical school you expressed interest in? I want to talk to you about the project.’”

Seltzer hung up and asked his secretary if they’d ever “expressed interest” in building a medical school.

“She checked our records,” Seltzer remembered. “We had indeed come across a notice in the newspaper about the state building a medical school. But all we did was send a letter that said, ‘We heard you were building a school, and we’d be interested.’ No resume, no brochure; just that letter. That’s how it worked sometimes. You sent a letter… you got a phone call.”

Born in Toronto, Seltzer began his architecture career during the Great Depression. His academic program required him to have 12 months of experience in the field, but work was hard to find.

The budding architect eventually moved to New York City to work with a mentor whom he'd worked for during all of his school vacations. "After graduation," he says, "I got the job for good.”

Seltzer became a partner in the business, and when his mentor passed away, he took the leap into ownership. He's been working there ever since, except for a four-year stint in the U.S. Army during World War II.

In a life filled with unusual accomplishments, it was one of the most surreal, he says.

Seltzer recently spoke about his time with the Ghost Army, a famed deception unit that was classified as “top-secret” until 1996. Credited with saving the lives of thousands of soldiers, the unit used inflatable tanks, sound effects and the power of the human imagination to fool their German counterparts on the battlefields of Europe.

“To us, it was a job,” he said. “We didn’t recognize that we were being uniquely heroic or saving lives. We had a job to do, and we did it.”

In one instance, Seltzer’s unit helped to protect Allied forces crossing the Rhine, faking troop movements so that the Germans thought the crossing was about 20 miles south of the actual location.

The U.S. Army expected casualties of around 30,000 that day. They lost a total of four.

“They attribute that to the fact that we lured the Germans to the wrong place,” Seltzer remembers with a humble satisfaction.

As one might imagine, such a unit had a serious artistic pedigree, counting Ellsworth Kelly, Bill Blass and Seltzer among their ranks. Many of them continued to sketch in their spare time, taking pride in the weirdness of their assignment as well as their own eccentricities.

“We recognized that these soldiers weren’t quite the GI type that you’d find elsewhere,” Seltzer said.

After returning to civilian life and taking up architecture again, Seltzer found work designing buildings such as the Utica Memorial Auditorium – the inspiration for Madison Square Garden – as well as New Jersey City University and William Paterson University. He’s also designed local buildings such as the library at West Orange High School and the West Orange School District’s headquarters.

But while Seltzer’s list of accomplishments as an architect are enough to make a person break a sweat just glancing at them, his overall life philosophy is as easy-going as it gets.

“I don't believe in exercise,” the indefatigable Seltzer said five years ago, after his 100th birthday. “I eat whatever I want, do whatever I want, and I don't worry about it.”

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