WHEREAS, Robert Arthur Morton Stern was born May 23, 1939, in Brooklyn, the eldest of two to Sidney and Sonya Stern. His father sold insurance, ran a hardware store, and drove a cab, while his mother sold china at a Manhattan department store; and
WHEREAS, Stern excelled in Latin and math while at Brooklyn’s Manual Training High School, and set his sights on a career in architecture shortly before graduating in 1956; and
WHEREAS, Receiving his bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University (it had no undergraduate architecture program), Stern studied architecture at Yale University for his master’s, then returned to New York City as a curator and later an architect for the City’s Housing Preservation and Development Corporation under Mayor John V. Lindsay; and
WHEREAS, In 1969, Stern co-founded a New York architectural practice that ran for eight years before founding Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA), the firm at which he would be renowned for his work designing museums, schools, houses, and libraries with a distinctive postmodern style that incorporated elements of classical architecture. Stern’s stylistic influence litters the Manhattan skyline, as luxury apartment towers became his firm’s bread and butter; and
WHEREAS, In 1970, Stern joined Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and directed its Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture from 1984 to 1988. From 1998 to 2016, he served as the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture. He wrote or co-wrote more than a dozen books about architecture, and would receive honors for his architectural work including the Vincent Scully Prize in 2008, the Richard H. Driehaus Prize in 2011, and the Louis Auchincloss Prize in 2019; and
WHEREAS, Stern’s architectural style touched down in Philadelphia with his firm’s designing of the Comcast Center and the Museum of the American Revolution. RAMSA also prepared the master plan for the Navy Yard and designed buildings on Crescent Drive in that development and the 10 Rittenhouse condominium, as well as the American Water tower on the Camden Waterfront and Drexel University’s Lebow College of Business. To date, the latest RAMSA design in Philadelphia is nearing completion, a massive life sciences research building at Drexel University; and
WHEREAS, Robert A.M. Stern’s work permanently changed Philadelphia’s skyline and has influenced the glassy postmodernist architecture that has heralded Philadelphia’s step into the future as a knowledge economy power; now, therefore be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That it hereby honors the life and legacy of architect Robert A.M. Stern.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this Resolution be presented to the family of Robert A.M. Stern as evidence of the true and sincere admiration and respect of this legislative body.
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