Robert A. M. Stern

(b Brighton, 5 April 1862; d London, 10 Sept 1904). English cellist. He studied at the RAM and in Leipzig and gave the première of Dvořák's Cello Concerto (London, 1896).

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(b New York, 23 May 1939). American architect, writer and teacher. He studied at Columbia University, New York (BA 1960), and Yale University, New Haven, CT (MArch 1965), and worked for Richard Meier in New York (1966) and for several city programmes on urban design (1966-70). He was in partnership (1969-77) with John S. Hagmann and established his own practice in 1977. His work as an architect can be divided into three distinct themes: the earliest, from the Wiseman house (1965-7), Montauk, NY, to the pool-house (1973-4), Greenwich, CT, explored complex spatial formalism, mostly in an abstracted Shingle style. The second, from the Lang house (1973-4), Washington, CT, to the Point West Place office building (1983-5), Framingham, CT, developed a Post-modernism of ironic historical allusion and exuberant symbolism that drew principally on the classical tradition. The third theme centred on a more scholarly revival of styles, such as Spanish Colonial in Prospect Point (1983-5), La Jolla, CA, or Dutch Colonial, Georgian and Greek Revival in the Copperflagg development (1983- ), Staten Island, NY. This last project, among others, reflects Stern's commitment to enlightened suburban architecture, as called for in his Subway Suburb proposal for the Venice Biennale (1976). He also designed the Newport Bay Club and the Hotel Cheyenne (both 1992) for Euro Disney, Marne la Vall?e. Stern produced a significant body of writings on his architectural preoccupations. His editorship of Perspecta while he was a graduate student at Yale in 1965 introduced Robert Venturi's ideas on architecture to a wide audience, and his New Directions in American Architecture, especially the second edition (1977), made the case for the inclusivism of Post-modernism in relation to the purism of the immediate modernist past. In other books and the television series Pride of Place: Building the American Dream (1986), he attempted to place a broad stylistic diversity in the context of a sense of place. As a teacher Stern was associated with Columbia University from 1970 and in 1984 he became Director of its Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

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(1939– )

American architect. After graduating, he worked with Meier before setting up his own office in 1977. He has been seen as one of the greatest influences in Post-Modernism and a formidable critic of International Modernism. Advocating an architecture of associations, prompting mnemonic perceptions, and firmly rooted in culture, he has argued robustly for a study of history, and for an eclectic use of forms to give buildings meaning. His works include the Lang House, Washington, CT (1974), the Ehrman House, Armonk, NY (1975), and Point West Place, Framingham, MA (1983–5—with a powerful portico of primitive square columns with a pediment like a section through a sar-cophagus-lid, the whole reminiscent of the work of Ledoux). Stern has, in fact, been successful in reviving something of the severe French Neo-Classicism of the late C18 and early C19. Other works include the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA (1987–93), the Observatory Hill Dining Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (1982–4), the Kol Israel Synagogue, Brooklyn, NYC (1985–9), The Disney Casting Center, Lake Buena Vista, FL (1987–9), the Hotel Cheyenne, Eurodisney, Marne-la-Vallée, France (1988–92), Banana Republic Store, Chicago, IL (1990–1), the Ohrstrom Library, St Paul's School, Concord, NH (1987–91), the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (1992–6), and the Spangler Campus Center, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA (1999–2001), all finely detailed and crafted. Among his many houses may be cited various residences at East Hampton, NY (e.g. at Apaquogue (1989–93) ), Preston Hollow, Dallas, TX (2000), and Montecito, Santa Barbara, CA (1999). He has published widely, his contributions including New Directions in American Architecture (1969.

Bibliography

• Anger (1996)
• Ar&Bi (1981)
• P. Dixon (ed.) (1998)
• Kalman (1994)
• Funari (1990)
• Huls (1987)
• Inst. CA (2002)
• Kraft (ed.) (1992)
• Rueda (ed.) (1986)
• Stern (1975, 1977, 1982, 1988, 1996, 1997)
• Stern (ed.) (1979)
• Stern et al. (1995)
• van Vynckt (ed.) (1993)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

(1874--1947), Jewish community leader in Hungary. Born in Janoshaza, Stern was a very successful banker. In addition, he held the title of advisor to the Hungarian royal court. He served for many years as the president of the Jewish community in Pest, which was the largest Jewish community in Hungary, and as the head of the National Bureau of the Jews of Hungary, which was the chief umbrella organization of Hungary's Neolog (Conservative) congregations. As a rich, upper-class Jewish Hungarian, Stern had very good dealings with the Hungarian aristocracy, including the noble and ruling class. He considered himself to be a "Magyar (Hungarian) of the Israelite faith," putting his Hungarian identity before his Jewish one; thus, he was very patriotic to his country and did not support the Zionist idea of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine.

After Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, Stern was appointed the head of the country's central Judenrat (in Hungarian, Kozponti Zsido Tanacs). He held this post until late October 1944, at which time he went into hiding.

Although Stern was clearly a supporter of Jewish causes, when the Germans invaded Hungary, he was not up to the challenge. He dealt with them and with their Hungarian collaborators in an unimaginative and compliant manner. After the war he wrote his memoirs.

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