Harold D. Uris was an American builder, real estate investor and philanthropist. After earning a civil engineering

Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

 degree from Cornell in 1925, Harold joined his brother, Percy, who had a 1920 business degree from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, and their father, Harris, founder of an ornamental ironwork

Ironwork

Ironwork is any weapon, artwork, utensil or architectural feature made of iron especially used for decoration. There are two main types of ironwork wrought iron and cast iron. While the use of iron dates as far back as 4000BC, it was the Hittites who first knew how to extract it and develop weapons...

 factory, in developing residential real estate. After WWII, the brothers focused on commercial development, with one handling the construction and the other the financial aspects.Claiming to be the largest private developers in New York City, the Uris Brothers primarily used architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Emery Roth

Emery Roth

Emery Roth was an American architect who designed many of the definitive New York City hotels and apartment buildings of the 1920s and 30s, incorporating Beaux-Arts and Art Deco details...

. In 1960, they created Uris Buildings Corp. as an real estate investment company. One of the last buildings the brothers built together was the Uris Building

Paramount Plaza

Paramount Plaza is a 48-story skyscraper on Broadway in New York City that houses two Broadway theatres. In 2007 it was listed as number 46 on the list of tallest buildings in New York City.-History:...

 housing the Uris Theater

George Gershwin Theatre

The Gershwin Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 222 West 51st Street in midtown-Manhattan in the Paramount Plaza building. The theatre is named after composer George Gershwin and lyricist Ira Gershwin...

. Soon after Percy's death in 1971, Harold sold the corporation (including this building) to National Kinney Corporation

Kinney Parking Company

Kinney Parking Company was a New Jersey parking lot company owned by Manny Kimmel, Sigmund Dornbusch and mob figure Abner Zwillman. Prior to its public listing in 1960, it merged with a funeral home company, Riverside, and then expanded into car-rentals, office cleaning firms and construction...

, but the assets were soon foreclosed in NY's real estate recession.

Harold and Percy Uris created the Uris Brothers Foundation in 1956, and gave money to Cornell, Columbia, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Harold Uris was a Cornell trustee from 1967 to 1972, and was an influential member of Cornell's Buildings and Properties Committee. Two buildings bear his name on Cornell's Ithaca campus. A social sciences building built in 1972 was named for Uris and his brother Percy. Earlier in 1962, the main University Library building was renamed Uris Library.

In 1983, Uris donated $10 million to establish the Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center of Education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

.

He died on March 28, 1982 at the age 76, at St. Mary's Hospital in Palm Beach, Florida

Palm Beach, Florida

The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...

..

Notable projects

Uris Brothers developed the following buildings either solely jointly with others. The Urises maintained ownership of the four buildings in bold.

• Hotel Carter
  Hotel Carter, Manhattan
  The Hotel Carter, Manhattan is a historic Manhattan establishment located a half block west of Times Square. The hotel was financed by a $2,200,000 loan to Harris and Percy Uris by the New York State Title and Mortgage Company in May 1929....
  
  
• 930 Fifth Avenue
  930 Fifth Avenue
  930 Fifth Avenue is a luxury apartment building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The eighteen-story structure and penthouse was designed by noted architect Emery Roth and built in 1940...
  
  
• 880 Fifth Avenue
  880 Fifth Avenue
  880 Fifth Avenue is a luxury apartment building on Fifth Avenue at the northeast corner of 69th Street in New York City.It was the final building by architect Emery Roth. The developers were Harold Uris and Percy Uris...
  
   (Emery Roth's final building)
• 2 Sutton Place
  Sutton Place
  Sutton Place may refer to:* Sutton Place Hotel, a luxury brand of hotel properties based in North America* Sutton Place, Surrey, an estate* Sutton Place, Hackney, Georgian terrace* Sutton Place, Manhattan, a neighborhood and street in New York City...
  
  
• 55 Water Street
  55 Water Street
  55 Water Street is a 687ft tall skyscraper in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It was completed in 1972 and has 53 floors. Emery Roth & Sons designed the building, which is tied with 277 Park Avenue as the 40th tallest building in New York City. When it was completed it was the largest office...
  
  , 1972, New York
• American Tobacco Company Building
  245 Park Avenue
  245 Park Avenue is a 648ft tall skyscraper in New York City, New York. It was completed in 1967 and has 48 floors. Shreve, Lamb and Harmon designed the building, which is the 57th tallest building in New York City...
  
  
• J.C. Penney Building (333 E 33rd St.)
• I.T.T. Building
  Millennium High School (New York City)
  Millennium High School is a public high school located in 75 Broad Street in New York City. Unusual to New York public high schools, the school occupies the 11th, 12th, and 13th floors of the former ITT building, in the financial district of Lower Manhattan, according to insideschools.org .The...
  
  
• RCA Communications Building (60 Broad Street)
• Paramount Plaza
  Paramount Plaza
  Paramount Plaza is a 48-story skyscraper on Broadway in New York City that houses two Broadway theatres. In 2007 it was listed as number 46 on the list of tallest buildings in New York City.-History:...
  
  , 1971, New York (also included the Gershwin Theatre then called the Uris Theatre
• 245 Park Avenue
  245 Park Avenue
  245 Park Avenue is a 648ft tall skyscraper in New York City, New York. It was completed in 1967 and has 48 floors. Shreve, Lamb and Harmon designed the building, which is the 57th tallest building in New York City...
  
  , 1967, New York
• Hilton Washington
  Hilton Washington
  The Hilton Washington is a hotel in Washington, D.C. It is located at 1919 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., roughly at the boundaries of the Kalorama, Dupont Circle, and Adams Morgan neighborhoods.Developed by Uris Brothers and built in 1965 in a double-arched design, the hotel long sported the largest...
  
  , 1965, Washington, DC
• Credit Lyonnais Building
  Credit Lyonnais Building
  Calyon Building is a 609 ft tall skyscraper located at 1301 Avenue of the Americas, New York City, New York. It was developed by Uris Brothers and was completed in 1964 and has 45 floors...
  
  , 1964, New York
• New York Hilton, 1963, New York
• Look Building
  Look (American magazine)
  Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
  
   488 Madison Avenue, 1950, New York (on National Register of Historic Places)
• 380 Madison Avenue
• 300 Park Avenue (Colgate-Palmolive Building)
• 575 Madison Avenue
• 485 Lexington Avenue
• 750 Third Avenue
• 2 Broadway
  2 Broadway
  2 Broadway is an office building located on Broadway in New York City.- History :The plot is located next to the historic Bowling Green. The building that used to stand there was the Produce Exchange Building, which was a representative structure constructed out of brick with terracotta decorations...
  
  
• 850 Third Avenue
• 320 Park Avenue
• 350 Park Avenue (Manufacturers Hanover Trust Building)
• 1290 Avenue of the Americas (Sperry Rand Building)
• 1301 Avenue of the Americas
• 111 Wall Street
• 1633 Broadway
• 10 East 53rd Street

External links

• Uris Brothers buildings at Emporis website