In a distinguished career that has spanned more than 35 years, Robert A. M. Stern has remained true to his principles: “I see myself not as an architectural biographer but as a portraitist devoted to the synthesis of my clients’ ambitions and the social constraints in which my buildings are to be realized.” Whether designing a residential, commercial or institutional building, Stern believes a structure’s form should fit, but not be confined by, its function. “Architecture is like the design of mittens, not gloves,” he says. “Gloves are too tightly shaped to the fingers of a single hand; mittens give you wiggle room for the future.”

Stern, principal of a 230-person firm, dean of the Yale School of Architecture and author of eight books, argues that even private residences have an obligation to the public sphere. “As I approach a building, what it gives back to the public realm, in the form of a welcoming face with interesting details and a sense of the intersection of the public and private realms, is extremely important to me.” Currently at work on houses in Michigan, Massachusetts, Florida, Rhode Island, California and the south of France, Stern says that the most important responsibility of the profession “is to make buildings that go about their business in an elegant, resourceful and affordable way. While we always need mind-expanding, emotionally gripping monuments, not every commission is an occasion for spectacle.”

Robert A. M. Stern

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