Robert A.M. Stern, the renowned architect and founder of the eponymous firm that shaped Manhattan’s luxury residential landscape, has died.
He was 86. His death followed a brief pulmonary illness, his son told the New York Times.
Stern told The Real Deal in a 2009 interview that he “announced” his intention to be an architect around the age of 14, and as a child was “busy playing with blocks, making drawings of hypothetical cities.”
He went on to earn a Bachelor’s in History from Columbia University in 1960 and a master’s degree in architecture from Yale University in 1965. (He later served as dean of the Yale School of Architecture from 1998 to 2016.)
He founded Robert A.M. Stern Architects in 1969, and shaped the firm with an emphasis on incorporating architectural history and “the complexities of place.”
The New York-based firm was behind commercial and civic projects, but made its mark in history with a rare combination of commercial and design acclaim at 15 Central Park West.
The luxury residential building developed by Arthur and William Lie Zeckendorf sold out before completing construction and earned the reputation as the most successful condominium in New York City history. Dubbed “Limestone Jesus” for its facade’s distinct nod to prewar grandeur, the property attracted celebrities and Manhattan power players as residents and earned more than $2 billion in total sales.
Elsewhere in Manhattan, the firm made its mark on the luxury market with the Superior Ink Condominiums in the West Village, 30 Park Place in Lower Manhattan and the Chatham on the Upper East Side, where Stern was a resident until his death.
Outside of New York City, the firm was also behind a number of commercial projects, including Philadelphia’s Comcast Center skyscraper, residential colleges at Yale University and the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, Texas.
Stern’s work has been the subject of 20 books and included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Paris’ Centre Pompidou, among others, according to a bio on his firm’s website.
On the subject of being deemed a “starchitect,” he told TRD in 2009 that he would differentiate the “star status” of certain architects from the acclaim awarded most movie stars.
“We’re much more interesting than movie stars and much more important, and what we do is much more enduring,” Stern said.
“If you don’t like the movie you’re watching, you can turn it off or walk out of the theater, or fall asleep. I do all of those things. But if it’s a building and it’s across the street from your window and it’s an abomination, what are you going to do about it? Not much.”
Read TRD’s The Closing interview with Robert A.M. Stern here.
