Architect Designed Towers, Bush Center

Robert AM Stern, a leading figure in American architecture and education, died Thursday. He was 86. His son said Stern died at his Manhattan home after a brief pulmonary illness, the Washington Post reports. In a career spanning six decades, Stern led the Yale School of Architecture from 1998 to 2016, authored or co-authored more than 20 books—including a multivolume history of New York City architecture—and hosted the PBS series Pride of Place in the 1980s, and engaged in preservation efforts. His firm designed houses in the Hamptons, office and elegant condo towers, and the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, though the latter was one of Stern's designs not universally praised by architecture critics.

Among the projects by Manhattan-based Robert AM Stern Architects was the New York luxury apartment tower 15 Central Park West, a limestone-clad building modeled on those built before World War II. It recorded more than $2 billion in initial sales, driven by rave reviews of its design, making it perhaps the most successful condominium building in the city's history, and brought Stern international acclaim, per the New York Times. RAMSA's portfolio also includes commercial and university buildings, as well as hotels across the US and internationally—including projects in Los Angeles, Chicago, Hong Kong, and London. Stern's architectural style evolved from early postmodernism—adding historical details to modernist structures—to more traditional designs. His firm's partners issued a statement Thursday saying they "remain committed to carrying forth his ideals."

Reaction to the prolific architect's work was mixed overall, with some critics praising the quality and scale of his buildings and others viewing them as overly grand or stylized. The Bush Center on the campus of Southern Methodist University was one work that was criticized. In 2019, Stern told the Post it's "a traditional building with modern overtones" that "fits into the campus of SMU, which is an exclusively Georgian-style campus." He was a member of Disney's board of directors for a decade, and designed Disney's Yacht Club Resort and Disney's Beach Club Resort, as well as the Feature Animation Building in Burbank. Over its main entrance, Stern put a monumental version of Mickey Mouse's hat from The Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence in Fantasia.

Other Stern projects included the American Revolution Museum in Philadelphia and the Carpe Diem tower in Paris. Of his most-praised work, Paul Goldberger, architecture critic of the New Yorker, wrote that "Stern knows how to do a building like 15 Central Park West better than anyone." When he was 84, Stern told the Times, "It was my breakthrough." He added: "I still don't use a computer. I draw everything by hand."