{"id":57675,"date":"2025-12-01T21:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T21:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/57675\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T21:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T21:30:08","slug":"remembering-robert-a-m-stern-starchitect-who-revived-limestone-glamour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/57675\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Robert A.M. Stern, Starchitect Who Revived Limestone Glamour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Architect\u00a0Robert A.M. Stern<\/a>, who brought a new dawn of luxury to New York City\u2019s skyline, died Thanksgiving Day at the age of 86.<\/p>\n

The cause was a brief pulmonary illness, his son, Nicholas,\u00a0told The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Courtesy of RAMSA\n <\/p>\n

\n Robert Stern, founder of the eponymous architecture firm, died Thursday at the age of 86.\n <\/p>\n

Throughout his career, Stern \u2014 who founded the eponymous firm\u00a0Robert A.M. Stern Architects\u00a0in 1969 \u2014 became known as one of the most eminent postmodern architects, weaving classical elements into contemporary buildings.<\/p>\n

Among his most prominent works is Zeckendorf<\/a>‘s 15 Central Park West<\/a>, a luxury condominium that sits between 61st and 62nd streets\u00a0and was\u00a0nicknamed \u201cLimestone Jesus\u201d<\/a> because of its commercial and critical appeal. The building consists of a 19-story structure, dubbed \u201cthe House,\u201d and a 35-story tower. Sales of the roughly 200 apartments, including to a plethora of celebrities, topped $2B.<\/p>\n

He was also behind 220 Central Park South<\/a>, Vornado Realty Trust<\/a>\u2019s 70-story Billionaires’ Row development. The ultraluxe supertall contains the penthouse that Citadel hedge fund founder Ken Griffin<\/a> bought for $238M in 2019<\/a>, which\u00a0still holds the record<\/a>\u00a0for the most expensive U.S. home ever sold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both feature a facade made of limestone, a material that Stern expressed an appreciation for at a time\u00a0when glass boxes were rising across Manhattan. Architects had largely pivoted away from traditional masonry following World War II, prior to RAMSA\u2019s revival of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey take the light in a beautiful way, and they look solid,\u201d he told Commercial Observer in 2016<\/a>. \u201cThey don\u2019t look like buildings you can open with a can opener.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n 15 Central Park West, viewed from Central Park\n <\/p>\n

Stern was adamant that buildings must \u201cengage with the larger whole.\u201d As a result, under the skin, his projects were equipped with open-plan layouts, state-of-the-art amenity floors and hotel-like lobbies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMany modernist works of our time tend to be self-important objects, and that\u2019s a real quarrel that I have,\u201d he told the Times in 2007<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his memoir, Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture, Stern wrote about the relationship between the old and the new, calling it \u201cthe conversation across time that I have continuously sought to advance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the inescapable facts of historical circumstance compel us to be modern, to make a building only about its own moment is to doom it to be forgotten in another,\u201d Stern wrote.<\/p>\n

Still, he remained candid in voicing his distaste for futuristic and sleek styles that have come into fashion. In his interview with CO, he said he loved\u00a0Grand Central Terminal<\/a>\u00a0and disliked The\u00a0Oculus<\/a>, the\u00a0skeletonlike shopping mall in\u00a0the World Trade Center<\/a>, and\u00a0Hudson Yards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is there to smile about?\u201d Stern told CO, speaking about the megaproject. \u201cMy view of the Hudson [River] is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was traditional in his process too. At age 84, he told the Times that he still drew everything by hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But like his projects, even he couldn\u2019t avoid some of the more modern adornments. Stern designed\u00a0Disney World<\/a>\u2019s Yacht and Beach Club resorts in Florida, and he would wear a Disney wristwatch that he was gifted while serving on the company\u2019s board of directors,\u00a0according to CO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Courtesy of RAMSA\n <\/p>\n

\n Robert Stern was behind some of New York City’s best-known luxury condo developments.\n <\/p>\n

Stern\u2019s portfolio also includes the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Comcast Center and Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Stern taught at both of his alma maters, Columbia University and the Yale School of Architecture, beginning his teaching career in 1970.<\/p>\n

In 1984, he was appointed the first director of Columbia\u2019s Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture. In 1990, he became director of the M. Arch. Advanced Studio, and in 1991, he was named director of the university\u2019s historic preservation program.<\/p>\n

Between 1998 and 2016, Stern was Dean of the Yale School of Architecture. Throughout that time, he commuted between New Haven, Connecticut, and Manhattan to lead his firm, which has grown to employ\u00a0more than 250 designers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even in his old age, Stern never abandoned New York City. He died in his Manhattan home Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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,\u201d he wrote in his memoir. \u201cBut I pride myself in sticking to principles \u2014 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is much more \u2014 architecture is part of a continuum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Architect\u00a0Robert A.M. Stern, who brought a new dawn of luxury to New York City\u2019s skyline, died Thanksgiving Day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[31209,31208,98,100,99,9,24,63,31210,31206,31207],"class_list":["post-57675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-15-central-park-west","tag-220-central-park-south","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-ramsa","tag-robert-a-m-stern","tag-robert-a-m-stern-architects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}