Seymour R. Joseph

Seymour R. Joseph

AGE: 96 • Old Bridge

Seymour R. Joseph, an architect for Mayor John V. Lindsay's model cities project, died Thursday, March 17, 2011, at the age of 96. Mr. Joseph was born in New York City to Rose and Louis Joseph, he graduated from NYU's school of Architecture and Allied Arts in 1941. Working during the day, attending school at night, he spent many late hours after class talking about design with his colleagues, architectural professor and mentor, Edward Durrell Stone. Mr. Joseph won 1st place in the Kawneer Aluminum Curtain Wall Competition, which launched his career as a forerunner of modern glass front store design. He established his eponymous firm in New York in 1944 designing private residences and retail stores. His work was published in many architectural magazines, books and newspapers. His store design for the Carol Antell shop with a floor to ceiling glass front and the branch of a tree virtually growing through the showroom window blurring the division between the inside and the outside was published in many magazines and papers. Governor Dewey presented him with the first prize award for his design in a public housing competition. He formed a partnership with William Charney Vladeck in 1950, their firm designed the Borgia Butler Houses in the Bronx, where Mr. Joseph designed the skip floor plan for public housing which was hailed by The New York Times headline on Feb. 16, 1958 as a new design first time ever done. The project was eventually built, but the skip floor plan was considered too avante guard at the time and was not incorporated, nevertheless the design was noted in the Encyclopedia Britannica. After Mr. Vladeck's untimely death, Mr. Joseph continued the firm in his own name designing retail stores and housing. His positive attitude and sense of humor was a delight to all who knew him.

He was predeceased by his wife, Frances, in 1985; his son-in-law, Michael Cohen, in 1991; and his son, Jay, in 2009. Surviving are his daughter, Carol Cohen and her husband Roger Severin of Little Silver; a granddaughter, Amy Cohen Phillips; and great-grandsons, Michael and Christopher Phillips of Greenwich Conn.

Bloomfield-Cooper Jewish Chapels, Ocean Twp., is in charge of arrangements.