Michael Gelfand likes the rules of the game.

As head of the housing division at Gruzen Samton, one of the most influential architectural firms in the northeast, Michael Gelfand plays an important role in designing the way in which New Yorkers live.

The firm wins developers' favor with efficient and elegant architectural designs, but according to Gelfand, "We're drawn to projects that have the opportunity and the aspirations for a higher level of design--not only design for us but for the people who live there.

"What we bring is the sensitivity to creatively capitalize on each project's inherent value to produce better views and light--more inviting places to live. That's the difference in the attitude we take towards housing. We don't see it as just a commodity to store people."

Gelfand developed an affinity for housing design and development early in his life.

"I'm a Bronx boy, born and raised," he says. "My father worked in lower Manhattan and when I was a young boy I loved coming down to Manhattan to go to his office and look at the skyscrapers. The whole idea of building became part of me at a very young age and stayed with me all my life."

Having worked a summer at Gruzen Samton during his school years, Gelfand knew its design philosophy well and joined the company in 1986.

"The firm fit my interests in housing," he recalls, "especially my primary love: specialty housing for senior citizens."

Gruzen Samton's housing division has completed senior housing projects that have comprised some of the most innovative facilities in the New York area, including the Woodlands Senior Housing campus, Sunrise at Mill Basin in Brooklyn, Maple Pointe in Rockville Center and a recently constructed nursing home in Riverdale for The Hebrew Home for the Aged.

The Riverdale project, The Jacob Reingold Pavillion, has the distinction of being the only New York State-funded nursing home with all single rooms and private baths. It is a product of Gelfand's and Gruzen Samton's overall attitude toward senior housing: "It's all about independence and giving people choices."

"The challenge," according to Gelfand, "is how do you give people with limited mobility choices and the opportunities they have in the larger world? It's creating an entire environment, a whole sense of community, within smaller confines."

This requires an intimate understanding of seniors.

"There's a social side to it that I find interesting," says Gelfand.

"A lot of people are not used to living in big anonymous apartment blocks. They're from the outer boroughs, like my grandparents, who ended up settling in the Bronx or Brooklyn, living in six-story walk-ups on residential blocks where you knew your neighbors. People used to sit on stoops--a semi-public space--and that's where a lot of the social interaction happened."

This resident-centered approach works well for the residential high-rise sector as well, adding value to the luxury condominiums that bear the Gruzen Samton signature.

"A lot of our clients come to us when they have exciting sites with a lot of physical amenities that can be taken advantage of," says Gelfand. "We do a lot of buildings on the water."

These include some true landmarks, such as TriBeCa Pointe, the tallest tower on the northern edge of Battery Park City, Pare Place, 22 River Terrace, The Regatta, the Roosevelt Island Southtown Buildings, Liberty Towers in Jersey City and J-Condominium, which will be the tallest building in Dumbo, Brooklyn, when it is complete.

According to Gelfand, "We're very skilled at manipulating the shapes of the buildings in an efficient way that doesn't cost the owner any more to build, but allows the greatest number of units to take advantage of the views and the light of the sites."

For example, by curving the twin Liberty Towers in Jersey City, apartment views are directed away from the building across the way and toward the open vista.

Gelfand enjoys working with developers.

"I understand where they're coming from," he says. "We try to talk their language and this allows them to see things they might not have seen before that add value to their project.

"The more we can do that, the better it is for the developer, for the residents, for the community and for architecture."

Gelfand is active in the Assisted Living Federation of America, and, along with Gruzen Samton partner Gerard Vasisko, serves on the Model Codes Committee, helping to rewrite New York City's building code.