Holzman has designed many important civic and academic structures throughout the United States, especially libraries, museums and performing arts venues. His collagist plans with rotated grids, diagonals and eclectic sensibilities, quickly established him as a pioneer. His use of industrial and rural vernacular, as well as salvaged and local materials ran counter to
reductionist modernist tendencies, resulting in a more humanist approach. Beginning his career in the 1960s, Holzman was an early champion of the creative reuse of older buildings at a time when the profession of architecture embraced pristine
modernism, exemplified by
urban renewal. In the aftermath of the
demolition of New York City's Penn Station, for example, HHPA published the book
Reusing Railroad Stations, which championed the
adaptive reuse of historic transportation terminals across America. Several of Holzman's designs included
collages of repurposed elements of historic buildings that had been slated for demolition. For example, the entrance to the
Brooklyn Children's Museum (1974) was made from an old terra cotta
trolley kiosk from the Queensboro Bridge. Holzman also salvaged one of the original
Art Deco mahogany elevator cabs from the
RCA Building (30 Rockefeller Plaza) for the
Best Products Headquarters. The large selection of elevator buttons for the skyscraper's many floors was quite incongruous in a two-story building. Holzman's signature is a courageous and creative materials palette, and he has recently published two books on the subject. "No other contemporary architect uses traditional and unconventional materials with such invention, exuberance and wit.” Holzman's interiors are "legendary" for his bold and eclectic use of color, pattern and texture, exemplified by his custom-designed fabrics, upholstery and carpeting. Holzman frequently uses stone, usually as large blocks with rich texture in a load-bearing capacity, as opposed to the
contemporary stone veneers of curtain wall construction. He often collaborates with artists and incorporates their works into his buildings, most notably sculptors
Albert Paley and
Tom Otterness, as well as the painter
Jack Beal. In 2023,
Sewanee, the University of the South, awarded Holzman an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, recognizing the impact of McClurg Hall on the university's campus life. Completed in 2000, McClurg was built using irregular sandstone quarried on the grounds of the campus itself. Early on, Holzman avoided characterizations or a design manifesto. Practicing in an era when architecture became increasingly dominated by
factions, Holzman was an architect who “would rather build than talk,” believing that successful buildings are not born from theory but from careful attention to location and clients. This garnered
Peter Eisenman’s pejorative assessment of “
functionalism in
drag.” His 50-year career has spanned the majority of the
Late Modernist movement. == List of published works ==