Originally founded as Kelly & Gruzen in 1936, Gruzen Samton's record of planning, design excellence and technical expertise is attested to by more than 100 awards received from both professional groups and government authorities. Honors include the City Club of New York's Bard Award, received on seven different occasions. Other awards include a 1995 New York State AIA Honor Award for Public School 51, a 1994 New York City AIA Citation for Stuyvesant High School, a New York City and a National AIA Interior Architecture Award in 1991 for the Royalton Hotel, and both the New York City and New York State AIA Honor Awards for TriBeCa Pointe in Battery Park City in 2000. Gruzen Samton employs a staff of over a 140 persons and maintains offices in New York and Alexandria, Virginia. The firm has designed and constructed buildings of virtually every type. Its areas of national and international specialization include the fields of education, transportation, housing, justice, master planning and urban design. We are also actively engaged in the planning and design of many government buildings including recent awards through GSA's Design Excellence program.

Gruzen Samton's complete architectural services are drawn from the many talented studios practicing within the firm. Our interiors studio has been active in space planning and interior design for the past two decades. The firm maintains a highly diversified planning studio that provides comprehensive urban design, master planning, programming, and pre-architectural services. All departments work together to provide integrated design solutions to a broad range of clients, including corporations, private developers, public agencies, not-for-profit and religious organizations.

We believe in a collaborative project approach. A team specifically formulated to best meet our clients' needs undertakes each project. Each team is headed by a project manager whose role is to communicate effectively with the client, the design team, any consultants, contractors, and vendors. All work is closely monitored by a principal of the firm who works directly with the client to assure complete satisfaction. We come to each new assignment prepared to listen carefully to our clients' needs so that we can jointly arrive at the best solutions. Central to our success in this approach is our commitment to maintain team continuity throughout the entire project.

The Washington metro office of Gruzen Samton located in Alexandria, VA was established to provide a broad range of interior design, planning, and architectural services to clients within the Capital region. Since its inception in 1995 this practice has grown to include 20 professional and support staff with a diversity of skills and experience. Our Washington focus is providing comprehensive facilities planning and interior design services to private and public sector clients. We utilize state-of-the-art technology to produce our projects efficiently while maintaining schedules, budgets, and design quality.

With all projects our firm strives to implement sustainable design principles developed with some of the firm's largest clients. Since initiating the 2.3 million gsf EPA National Headquarters, completed in 2002, Gruzen Samton has endeavored to incorporate sustainability and high performance design in its work. Recent "green" projects include Lerner Hall and the Kraft Center at Columbia University, the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, NY and we are initiating work on two new federal projects seeking LEED silver certification.