Robert A.M. Stern, founding partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA), has died at the age of 86. His impact as an architect, educator, and historian spanned seven decades of influence and accomplishment. Throughout his long and distinguished career, Stern shaped the built environment, contributed to the education of multiple generations of architects, and raised public awareness of the importance of preservation and the role design plays in communities and in our society at large.
In 1969, Stern established the firm known today as RAMSA, infusing his values into its DNA: discerning thought and a high standard of excellence; a responsibility to the communities in which we build; the blending of past, present, and future through design; and a culture that challenges each individual to bring their best each day. At RAMSA, 250+ designers carry forth his name and legacy.
Stern’s impactful teaching career began in 1970 and spanned both of his alma maters: Columbia University and the Yale School of Architecture. From 1998 to 2016, Bob served as Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, commuting between New Haven and Manhattan to remain hands-on in his firm’s practice.
“In my belief that architecture is a never-ending obsession, I regret that the buildings could not have been a little better, that the books could not have been a little clearer. But I pride myself in sticking to principles—I have no regrets over staying true to my conviction that architecture cannot flourish so long as architects believe they stand before a tabula rasa, so long as they believe that architecture is just the product of an individual program, individual talent, and individual personality. It is much more—architecture is part of a continuum.”
—Robert A.M. Stern, Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture
A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Stern received the Topaz Medallion for outstanding service to architectural education in 2017. He was the 2011 Driehaus Prize Laureate and a recipient of the Congress for the New Urbanism’s Athena Award and the National Building Museum’s Vincent Scully Prize. The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art recognized him with the Board of Directors Honor as well as Arthur Ross Awards for Architecture and Education.
“Generations of architecture students and young architects have benefited from [Stern’s] uncanny ability to gauge architecture’s pulse at any given moment and his commitment to opening up the conversation to all capable voices,” says Frank Gehry, FAIA. “And, admirably, he has done this with a focus on the profession and an emphasis on architecture’s real impact on the communities in which we live.”
Read more about Stern’s life and legacy.
—RAMSA