Grigorii Simonovo was born in 1893 in Troitzk.Graduated from the Institute of Civil Engineering (1920), he headed the project bureau of the Urban Planning Committee.His major projects included the Traktornaia Street Residential Development, 1927 (together with A. I. Gegello and A. S. Nikolskii),the School on Tkachei in 1927-29, the public baths project in the Lesnoe district in 1927-29 and the Batenin-housing project in Leningard 1936.Simonov also designed the House of Tsarist Political Prisoners, which is often cited together with the the Traktornaia Street Residential Development building as the best examples of Constructivism. On Lesnoy Avenue, Simonov constructed a fire station (No.17, 1930) and a residential house for personnel. (No.61, 1934-37).

As of the mid-1930s, Simonov undertook a revision of the classical legacy. The following buildings were designed in the manner of monumental Neoclassicism: the residential building with a cour d'honneur (9-13 Eigth Sovetskaya Street, 1935-38), residential complex with semi-circular buildings, noticeably making the Neva's right bank panorama (84-96 Malookhtinsky Avenue, 1936-40, in collaboration with B.R. Rubanenko), residential house with a tower, the main feature of Moskovsky Avenue (No.190, 1940-53, in collaboration). From 1945, he worked in Moscow. Held the post of Chairman of the Architecture Committee within the USSR Construction and Urban Planning Ministry (1945-55).

Grigorii Simonovo died 1974 in Moscow.