Robert A. M. Stern

by Stern, Robert A. M.

• ISBN13: 9781580932349
• ISBN10: 1580932347
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-12-01
• Publisher: Random House Inc

Summary

I think that all architecture comes from what went before. And how carefully one hews to precedent or how many liberties one takes, in my view, is part of a larger set of judgments as to what is, or could be called, "appropriate." Appropriate from every point of view, especially from the site, the cultural expectations of a community and of the specific client. -Robert A. M. Stern Central to the work of Robert A. M. Stern is a commitment to an architecture that reinterprets the past to serve contemporary life. This monograph, the fifth volume since Stern opened his practice in 1969, explores the application of this principle to a wide range of building types, including libraries, university buildings, cultural centers, offices, towers, and private residences. Focused on the years 2004 through 2009, an exceptionally productive period for Sternrs"s firm, this volume includes designs for the Miami Beach, Jacksonville, and Clearwater Public Libraries in Florida, the vast Zubiarte retail complex in Bilbao, Spain, two new residential colleges at Yale University, the widely acclaimed 15 Central Park West condominium in New York, Comcast, a crystalline addition to the Philadelphia skyline, and the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas. In a conversation with renowned architecture critic Paul Goldberger, Stern discusses the principles that have guided the firm since its inception, focusing on the collaborative nature of the work and the importance of precedent and context. He also describes his own role as an educator, as dean of the architecture school at Yale University, and his deep interest in the history of architecture, first awakened during his student days at Yale.

Author Biography

Robert A. M. Stern, the principal partner of the architectural practice he founded in 1969, is also dean of the Yale School of Architecture. In addition to monographs on the firm's work, Stern has written a series of books on New York's architecture and urbanism, including New York 1880, New York 1900, New York 1930, and New York 1960.

Table of Contents

Robert A. M. Stern and Paul Goldberger: A conversation

Projects featured include:

Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York
Miami Beach Library, Miami Beach, Florida
Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse, Swindler Cove Park, Upper Manhattan, New York, New York
Clearwater Public Library, Clearwater, Florida
Zubiarte Retail and Leisure Complex, Bilbao, Spain
Comcast Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Robinson and Merhige Courthouse, Richmond, Virginia
Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts
American Revolution Center at Valley Forge, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
Residence at One Central Park, New York, New York
55 West, Las Vegas, Nevada
St. Regis Hotel, Bal Harbor, Florida
Fifteen Central Park West, New York, New York
Wasserstein Hall, Caspersen Student Center, and Clinical Wing, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Museum for African Art, Museum Mile, New York, New York
International Quilt Study Center and Museum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska
The Mansion on Peachtree, Atlanta, Georgia
Four Seasons Downtown, Hotel and Private Residences at 30 Park Place, New York, New York
Tour Carpe Diem, La Défense, Courbevoie, France
Classical Opera and Ballet Theater, Astana, Kazakhstan
George W. Bush Presidential Center, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
New Residential Colleges, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Excerpts

From:
Robert A. M. Stern and Paul Goldberger: A Conversation

PAUL GOLDBERGER: Bob, forty years of practice is an extraordinary thing, all the more because you continue at such a rapid pace. I remember the office over the storefront on West Seventy-second Street, which was probably smaller than your reception area is right now. Let me first ask you if there’s anything you miss from those early days when it was a kind of office on a shoestring.

ROBERT A. M. STERN: “Office on a shoestring” sums it up perfectly. What one does miss, of course, from when one is brand new in practice, is the thrill of the first or the second or the third commission or telephone call as it were. And the very close camaraderie of a few people. But there is no question that a larger office—and I’m not sure how much larger “larger” should really be—provides one with all kinds of other things and a more solid professionalism. You avoid some of the horrible mistakes that many small practices make, both technical errors in execution of the work and mistakes in terms of how to position the firm and how to write a contract and a hundred other things.

I was thinking of that, actually, as I was waiting for your arrival. Of course, it was much nicer in some ways when it was smaller and I knew everybody. And I knew them warts and all, and they knew me warts and all. Now I think they know me warts and all and I’m not sure I know them.

But there are people in our practice today who don’t go back to day one but do go back to say, day three. People who have been here thirty years or more and are now partners, and we have a close camaraderie. But of course, many others who came to the practice have become partners and associates as well.

PG: It is remarkable, though, that there are some people who really spent their entire careers here.

RS: I’m always disappointed when people leave. But I recognize that for some people, for many people, it’s a good thing to do. Find their own way. Sometimes people don’t work better in a different environment than the one they’re leaving, but they think it’s going to be better, that the grass will be greener. Sometimes, they think they’re going to be able to do it on their own, and they suddenly discover that independent practice is not for everyone or not for them. Some chose to return to the nest. But we’ve spawned a lot of firms.

PG: You know, for a while, it seemed right to compare Robert A. M. Stern Architects to a practice like Delano & Aldrich or John Russell Pope or James Gamble Rogers, great eclectic firms of the 1920s, ’30s, and so forth.

But given that they were less concerned about formal innovation than they were about careful, conscientious re-use of historical form and given the sheer volume of work you now have, larger than any of those firms, I think even in their heyday, I wonder to whom would you want to be compared, ideally?

RS: There were no really large firms in the time of the architects you mentioned, to my knowledge. None that was very large. McKim, Mead & White and Daniel Burnham set the model, but it was just the model for big practice, not the reality. It’s only since the founding of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in the late 1930s and after that the large firm taking on many different kinds of work began to emerge.

I like to think that we are able to compete with different firms for different kinds of work, that we can compete with a KPF or a Skidmore for a corporate project and other firms for other kinds of work. Maybe we’re sui generis, egomaniac though such a claim might be.

PG: We all know you are sui generis, so the question is therefore, perhaps the firm also is?

RS: We run our practice differently. First of all, we run side by

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Excerpted from Robert A. M. Stern: Buildings and Projects, 2004-2009 by Robert A. M. Stern, Paul Goldberger
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.