AD is saddened to mark the death of architect Robert A.M. Stern, who died on Thursday, November 27, at the age of 86.
The Brooklyn-born architect founded Robert A.M. Stern Architects in 1969, a practice that would grow into RAMSA, one of the world’s most influential firms. Over seven decades, the AD100 Hall of Fame talent left an indelible mark as an architect, educator, and historian. His built work ranged from museums and schools to libraries and luxury residences—most notably 15 Central Park West, which married the limestone grandeur of New York City’s prewar buildings with the clean lines of an ultramodern high-rise.
As an educator, Stern shaped generations of young architects. He taught at Columbia and Yale and led the Yale School of Architecture from 1998 to 2016. He also wrote more than a dozen books about architecture, including a six-volume encyclopedic history of New York City. Through his teaching and writing, he raised public awareness of preservation’s importance and design’s essential role in shaping communities and society.
We’re republishing Stern’s recollections of his early career, which he shared with AD in 2014.
After architecture school at Yale, one small house, a brief stint in Richard Meier’s office, and two and a half years in New York City’s Housing and Development Administration under Mayor John Lindsay, I began my independent practice. At about the same time I began to teach at Columbia University. The action for me as a young architect, along with others of my generation, was to reconfigure fairly large apartments in Manhattan’s affluent neighborhoods—three-bedrooms, sometimes four—for young families who were choosing to live in the city rather than the suburbs. To meet a new generation’s needs—and it was my generation—plans were opened up. Staff rooms were combined to create family rooms, and living and dining rooms were frequently thrown together—something I now view with mixed feelings. I took apart more beautifully planned apartments of an earlier era than I would like to admit. But in so doing I learned how to put them together. The same is true with houses: Lots of the houses I did early in my career were renovations of the shingled houses I love, and in fixing them up I eventually learned how to design new versions.
