George S. Kaufman, FIT trustee and former chairman of the Kaufman Organization and Kaufman Astoria Studios, died Feb. 20. He was a prominent New York real estate developer, civic leader, and philanthropist.
Kaufman was a longtime supporter and friend of FIT. He began his tenure on the college’s Board of Trustees in 1982, and was a member of the board’s audit committee. His commitment to FIT brought to the board particular expertise in the fields of business, real estate, and the arts. A $4 million gift from Kaufman and his wife Mariana enabled the college to purchase and renovate a building on West 31st Street, converting it into a residence for 1,100 students. The building, located in the Hudson Yards neighborhood, is a former bookbindery, and is now a 320,000-square-foot residence hall with 497 suites. This facility, which opened in 2006, has doubled FIT’s housing capacity and helped to ease a severe shortage of on-campus residential space for students. In recognition of his gift, FIT honored the Kaufmans by naming the facility the George S. and Mariana Kaufman Residence Hall in 2007.
The Kaufman Organization has owned, managed, and developed commercial and residential properties, including office buildings, apartment buildings, and shopping centers, located primarily in the New York area for more than a century. George Kaufman participated in the renovation of properties that include the Volney Hotel at 74th Street and Madison; the 36-story McGraw Hill Building on West 42nd Street; and the New York Theological Seminary on East 49th Street, converted into an apartment building. According to Crain’s New York Business, the Kaufman Organization is the 23rd largest independent real estate company in New York City.
In 1980, Kaufman negotiated a deal with New York City to redevelop a historic movie studio in Queens. With the goal of bringing feature film and television production back to New York, his company transformed Kaufman Astoria Studios into a thriving entertainment and telecommunications center. To implement his plan to place the studio on a par with those in Hollywood and other global film centers, Kaufman assembled a group of entertainment industry notables including Neil Simon, Alan King, Terry Allen Kramer, Dina Merrill, Gregory Peck, and Robert W. Sarnoff. With 500,000 square feet of production and office space, the facility was one of the largest and most sophisticated film production studios on the East Coast. Efforts by Kaufman and his studio management team play a central role in bringing film and television productions to New York, including Men in Black III, The Bourne Legacy, Sesame Street, and the Showtime series Nurse Jackie.
Kaufman was a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, and was chairman emeritus of the board of the Fashion Center Business Improvement District. He had been a member of the boards for a number of philanthropic and civic organizations, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of the Moving Image, and Exploring the Arts, a nonprofit whose mission is to strengthen the role of the arts in public high school education. Kaufman, a Korean War veteran, earned his undergraduate degree from Ohio State University and his master’s from New York University.