Harold D. Uris (1906-March 28, 1982) was an American real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist.[1]
After earning a civil engineering degree from Cornell in 1925, Harold joined his brother, Percy, who had a 1920 business degree from Columbia University, and their father, Harris, founder of an ornamental ironwork 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 Emery Roth. 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 housing the Uris Theater.[2] Soon after Percy's death in 1971, Harold sold the corporation (including this building) to National Kinney Corporation, 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.[3] 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.[4]
He died on March 28, 1982 at the age 76, at St. Mary's Hospital in Palm Beach, Florida.[5].
Uris Brothers developed the following buildings either solely jointly with others.[6] The Urises maintained ownership of the four buildings in bold.[7]