Remembering Robert A.M. Stern

The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) mourns the loss of Robert A.M. Stern, Founder and Senior Partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA), and an eloquent advocate for classical and traditional design. Robert A.M. Stern left an indelible mark on the built environment and the entire field of architecture, and his visionary work transformed skylines around the world, including his beloved New York City. In addition to his enduring architectural contributions, he was also an educator, historian, and mentor who inspired the generations of younger and emerging practitioners, serving as the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture from 1998 to 2016.

Robert A.M. Stern was a three-time recipient of the ICAA’s Arthur Ross Award, winning in the categories of Architecture in 1991, Education in 2016, and receiving the Board of Directors Honor in 2007, and was a longtime champion of the ICAA, contributing to lectures and discussions and inviting students to the RAMSA offices. He was also the subject of the ICAA’s 2018 documentary film, Robert A.M. Stern: Always a Student, which aired on PBS. In addition to the Arthur Ross Award, Stern was also the recipient of the Driehaus Prize, the Vincent Scully Prize, the Topaz Medallion, and the Athena Award.

ICAA President Peter Lyden reflected on Stern’s legacy: “Bob was a devoted supporter of the ICAA, and has had an extraordinary impact on the world of contemporary classical and traditional architecture. His dedication to education was unshakable, as demonstrated during his tenure as Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, and also through his involvement in bringing ICAA students and young practitioners to his studio, not to mention the remarkable scholarship contained within his copious published body of work. I consider it a privilege to have worked so closely with Bob over the years, and lament the passing of a legendary talent.”

Mark Ferguson, ICAA Board Member and principal at Ferguson & Shamamian Architects, had this to say:

“On Thanksgiving morning, a day when Americans give thanks, I learned of the passing of Bob Stern, a man who joyfully, energetically, with erudition and wit made my life measurably fuller from the day I met him as an undergraduate student. As the employer of my wife, Natalie, teacher of my business partner, Oscar, and advisor to me at key moments in my career, Bob nurtured my aspirations as practitioner and educator to steward architectural culture in service to communities. He was among the first of his generation to insist on making enduring neighborhoods where people want to raise their children and their grandchildren. He knew everyone, spoke to everyone, and had an opinion about everything. I recall a comment he made during a public panel discussion parsing the criteria for New York City landmark districts—he advised landmarking the entire city! Nothing was excluded from his cosmology of architecture.”

At the ICAA’s McKim, Mead & White Awards, which took place on Wednesday, December 3rd, architect Peter Pennoyer offered a tribute to Robert A.M. Stern’s lasting influence:

“For all of us here this evening—architects, designers, builders, and clients—a star has gone out. The death of Robert A. M. Stern is a loss that makes us take stock of this man’s astounding accomplishments. His buildings stand throughout New York and in cities around the world, and his scholarship offers us endless clues for future studies.

As a student in his undergraduate class and then as an intern in his then 9-person studio I learned that Bob was the most demanding of the Columbia faculty and the most generous. He insisted that we enrich our imaginations with history and that we pay for his tutelage by dedicating ourselves to architecture. He was not there to teach us to channel his designs but to share in the challenge of pressing forward based on our own ways of joining the continuum of architectural practice. Many of us here would not have taken that challenge were it not for Bob’s force-of-nature (and sometimes prickly) persistence.

Among his circle, one special accomplishment was creating a firm that outlasts his life. Tonight, we should be grateful that RAMSA remains the leader in making architecture that is fused—to use the title of his memoir—between memory and invention. We remember Bob and we salute his partners.”

The ICAA is grateful for the far-sighted vision and the unflagging devotion of Robert A.M. Stern, and we celebrate a monumental legacy that will continue to reverberate for generations.

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