Yale’s Robert A.M. Stern honored for his ‘profound’ impact in architectural education
Robert A.M. Stern ’65 M.Arch., former dean of the Yale School of Architecture (YSoA) and the J.M. Hoppin Professor of Architecture, has been recognized with the 2017 Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, the highest honor given for architectural education in the United States.
The AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education is awarded jointly by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture to an individual who has been involved in architectural education for at least a decade, and whose teaching has influenced a broad range of students. The award will be presented at a ceremony during the AIA Convention in April.
“I can think of no one more deserving of the Topaz Medallion than my friend and predecessor Bob Stern,” says Deborah Berke, dean of YSoA. “In his 18 years as dean of the Yale School of Architecture, he led the school with vigor, integrity, intelligence, and wit. As a professor, he engages, inspires, and provokes his students to gain new perspectives on the history and future of architecture.”
The award citation reads in part: “In his role as an educator, most recently as the dean of the Yale School of Architecture, a position he held for 18 years, Stern’s impact on a generation of architects and ideas has been profound.”
Architectural historian Vincent Scully Jr. ’40, ’49 GRD, Sterling Professor Emeritus in the History of Art, noted in the citation that Stern flourished in his role as dean of YSoA “because his reputation as a scholar and teacher acted as a magnet and drew many of the best teachers and critics of every stripe to Yale, encouraging the students to think it all through for themselves.” He added: “It was Stern’s enormously intelligent ability as an organizer that carried this off.”
Stern is the founder and senior partner in the firm of Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York City. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he has received both the Athena Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Board of Directors’ Honor from the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America. Stern was the 10th recipient of the Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum, and was the Driehaus Prize laureate for traditional and classical architecture and urbanism. He has lectured extensively in the United States and abroad on both historical and contemporary topics in architecture, and is the author of several books, including “New Directions in American Architecture,”“George Howe: Toward a Modern American Architecture,” and “Modern Classicism.”In 1986, Stern hosted “Pride of Place: Building the American Dream,” an eight-part, eight-hour documentary television series that aired on PBS.
“True to his role as a steward of architectural education,” the citation notes, “Stern’s firm, the 300-person strong Robert A.M. Stern Architects, functions as an extraordinary teaching institution. Intentionally designed to provide a first-rate apprenticeship that is not simply a byproduct of the firm’s practice, the experience in the office has propelled many of its alumni to excellence.”
“Bob is also a model for how architects can engage with the public,” says Berke. “His encyclopedic history of New York City has equipped countless people with a deeper understanding of the great American metropolis. He has also been on the front lines of saving important buildings and shaping major civic institutions. He has become a legend in his own time.”
During his tenure as dean at Yale, Stern stressed the availability of digital applications while still reinforcing the importance of drawing and hand-built models. He led the $126 million restoration and renovation of Paul Rudolph’s Art & Architecture Building by commissioning Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects. Stern’s legacy at Yale has been documented extensively through the publication of catalogs for all 50 of the exhibitions hung at the YSoA gallery during his time as dean; the school’s biannual journal, Constructs; and the 2016 publication of the book that he co-authored, titled “Pedagogy and Place: 100 Years of Architecture Education at Yale.”
Past Yale winners of the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education include Serge Chermayeff (1980), faculty 1963-1969; Vincent Scully Jr. ’40, ’49 GRD (1986), Sterling Professor Emeritus in the History of Art; Charles Moore (1989), dean of the Yale School of Architecture 1965–1970; Spiro Kostof ’61 Ph.D. (1992), faculty 1961-1965; and Peter Eisenman (2014), the Charles Gwathmey Professor in Practice.
Media Contact
Bess Connolly : elizabeth.connolly@yale.edu,