He initially intended to fulfill his mother's wish to study medicine but enrolled for architecture after graduating from Sydney Boys High School.

He also had an accident that led to brain surgery causing the loss of most of his memory, including for details such as door dimensions, which he most attentively relearned.

The impressions exerted on him on his trips to Japan—mainly by the traditional post and beam architecture he saw at places like Katsura Imperial Villa—influenced some of the homes he created and into which he eventually included Japanese elements[7] (Goodman House, Middle Cove).

[10] Gruzman is loosely connected to the Sydney School of architects of the 1950s and 1960s[11]—a movement that started in opposition to the International Style of modernism supported by other Australian architects and that has recently been re-discovered by home buyers and architectural fans, leading to a trend to preserve the homes from the period.

[13] Hills House — Turramurra, New South Wales (1966, 1983) Original client was Sam Rosenburg, a nudist and vegetarian.

Gruzman's idea was to build a series of hills that surround the site on three sides making it visually and acoustically private.

[14] The living area was joyous, with its classical organic interior embellished with a collection of paintings, sculpture, and porcelain.

[15] Another focus point is Gruzman's wife's dressing room with infinite light reflections from the mirrors on the walls on all four sides and on the ceiling.

It was designed in 1968, development application lodged on 18 March 1969 and later opened by NSW Premier Robert Askin on 25 November 1971.

In a 2018 heritage assessment Anne Warr described how the project "... challenged the status quo of suburban shopping centres and transformed what could have been an ordinary suburban office and retail building into a work of art, pushing the design boundaries to produce a building that was a sculpture, both as an object in the streetscape at night as well as during the day, and in the interiors as a delightful and environmentally comfortable place to work.

[21] In the 1980s Gruzman joined the Anti-Wall Committee formed to protect the Sydney Opera House from nearby urban development.

[24] In the 1990s Gruzman became politically active and was elected first as a councilor and then mayor of Woollahra, on a platform of responsible urban development.

[6] Gruzman began teaching at the University of New South Wales in the 1960s with a number of contemporary modernist architects such as Bill Lucas and Harry Howard.

In his studio practise, beginning from the 1950s, he also employed and trained many notable Sydney architects, including Pritzker Prize winner Glenn Murcutt.

[29][30] Eric Smith later painted Gruzman's client and gallery owner Rudy Komon in 1981, again winning the Archibald Prize.

Gruzman's memoirs, incorporated into a book written by Philip Goad and featuring many of the Dupain and Moore photographs, was published posthumously in 2006 by Craftsman House.