Zantzinger studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1892. He then studied at the School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania from which he graduated in 1895. He then went to Paris where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in the atelier of Blondel-Sellier de Gisors and received his diploma in 1901. He married Margaret Shippen Buckley in 1903 and returned to Paris where the couple remained for some years.
Zantzinger served on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Academy (1906-20) and was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects where he served as chairman of the Committee on Architectural Education. In 1951 he retired from the firm of Zantzinger and Borie.
His works include the Masonic Homes at Elizabethtown, PA; the William Penn Charter School, Germantown, PA; the Pennsylvania Athletic Club, Philadelphia; the Bryn Mawr Hospital, Bryn Mawr, PA; The Bank building of E.W. Clark & Co., Philadelphia; St. Paul's Church, Chestnut Hill, PA; Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church, Plainfield, NJ; the administration building for the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale; the Men's dormitory group, University of Chicago; Department of Justice Building, Washington, DC; Public Adminstration Building, University of Chicago; Graduate Cottage, School for the Blind, Overbrook, PA; Nurses Home, Abington Hospital, Abington, PA; Warehouse for the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Zantzinger was nominated to the NAD by Paul Cret. He presented a portfolio of six photographs of the Department of Justice Building in Washngton, DC to qualify as Academician.
PAFA, Board of Directors 1906-1920
