Born to a Jewish family of Russian Immigrants in Toronto, Gilbert Selzer discovered architecture at the University of Toronto in the 1930's. He interned with William Gehron in New Jersey but left in 1939 to serve as a member of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, aka the 'Ghost Army', a top secret decoy mission that would misdirect Nazi troops away from the actual invasion beaches. The unit consisted of a carefully selected group of artists, engineers, professional soldiers, and draftees. The group included Bill Blass, painter Ellsworth Kelly, and photographer Art Kane. They did this by creating a Potemkin village of inflatable tanks and vehicles, fake radio traffic and sound effects. It was the first mobile, multimedia, tactical deception unit in US Army history. They were sworn to secrecy after the war. Seltzer returned to New Jersey and continued to practice until he died at the age of 107 in August, 2021. In his long career he designed many civic and academic buildings at West Point, Denison University as well as the East Coast War Memorial. He is noted for the Utica Municipal Auditorium which was the first building to use a cable suspended roof (Lev Zetlin was the Engineer); its other innovation was telescopic seating.
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