THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409210628
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
ROBERT A.M. STERN is about as popular as living architects get. His wit and wisdom on building matters provided Life magazine's June cover story. His latest whimsical design for Disney - a feature animation building crowned with Mickey's ``Fantasia'' sorcerer's hat - was one of just three New York Times critics choices for this year's most fabulous structures.
He's such a celebrity that he probably hardly noticed these accolades.
``Oh, I care about these things indeed,'' blurted an amused Stern in a recent phone interview from his Manhattan office.
Stern also has written or edited 24 books on design, hosted a PBS series on American architecture and taught the subject since 1970 at Columbia University.
The 55-year-old Brooklyn-born architect is making his first visit to Hampton Roads. Next Wednesday, he will give a slide talk on his work at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts. His appearance is sponsored by American Institute of Architects Hampton Roads.
He rarely gives talks. He said he is making time in an unbelievably hectic schedule ``because I like Virginia. And, I'm doing another project at the University of Virginia'' in Charlottesville.
Stern's Colgate Darden School of Business is under construction, to be completed in 1995. It is his third structure to be built on U.Va.'s campus, which was originally designed by Thomas Jefferson, a major influence on Stern.
``I like Virginia because of lots of things, but Thomas Jefferson is very high on my list,'' he said. ``Architecturally, the Georgian and Jeffersonian traditions are wonderful in Virginia and have remained remarkably intact in many areas. Not only the older buildings, but, into the 20th century, people have built beautifully in those traditions.''
Mike Padden, a Virginia Beach architect and local AIA president, said Stern is ``one of the hottest architects in the country right now, and he has wide appeal.''
Padden expects ``more architects at his talk than we've ever had together for anything. His work is just wonderful. I can't think of anybody who is equal to him.''
The world of contemporary architecture contains leading-edge types who use analytical, disorienting shapes and unfriendly materials.
``Stern is much more traditional,'' Padden said. ``But he's today. To me, Stern does the work that you're going to love today. You would have loved it yesterday. And, in 50 years, someone is going to want to renovate it, save it.''
With trendier buildings, ``in 50 years people will say, `Let's get rid of that thing,' '' Padden said.
Stern calls his style Modern Traditionalism.
In his 1986 monograph - one of four published by Rizzoli International Publications - he explained: ``Architecture is a dialogue with the past carried on in the present with an eye cast toward the future. Rather than breaking from the past, we must all try to root ourselves more deeply in it.''
Yet, ``by embracing tradition, I don't throw out innovation.''
He is bothered by modernist attempts to rebel against the past and create a new language. He doesn't believe either is possible ``or even desirable.''
But modernism isn't all bad, he said. ``I love the exuberant forms'' of some modernist buildings. ``And the sense that the architect could play with a sculptor's freedom. Of course, anything carried too far . . .''
When self-important, impassioned architects ignore the context of their buildings, he finds it ``childish or destructive.''
Stern goes for innovations that serve the project and that stem from the roots of design ideas and function.
He is perhaps best known for his large Shingle Style houses but has also designed hotels, libraries, city apartments, university projects, commercial stores and embassy buildings.
Among his recent designs: the Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, Mass., which draws on New England classicism; a villalike clubhouse for a Japanese golf resort; and a hotel for Euro Disney that pays homage to American Shingle Style seaside resorts.
Stern has not developed a consistent, easily recognizable style, and he sees that as a plus.
``I'd rather my buildings seem to be the logical and maybe inspired response to a set of conditions specific to that site, that client, that institution, that place,'' he said. ``I'd rather have somebody say, `God, that building is so smart, so clever, the way it picks up on Jefferson or Joe Scho.' ''
Stern has made his mark on hundreds of buildings in dozens of cities in three decades. Yet he remains a Brooklyn boy in awe of Manhattan. From his youth, he remembers ``great big skyscrapers with pinnacles and an incredible skyline of forms. Each one was topped with a temple or a Greek monument. It made this fantastic, totally 20th century silhouette but with deep roots in the past.
``So I responded to these wonderful buildings.''
It's been 20 years since he designed a structure for Manhattan. ``Nothing since then has poked its head out onto the street,'' he said. That's what he would really like. ``To make a gift to the street of my own.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BARBRA WALZ
New York architect Robert A.M. Stern will talk next Wednesday at the
Virginia Beach Center for the Arts.
Graphic
LECTURE FACTS
What: ``An Evening With Robert A.M. Stern,'' a slide talk
sponsored by American Institute of Architects Hampton Roads
Where: Virginia Beach Center for the Arts, 2200 Parks Ave.
When: 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday
How much: $30. Pre-talk hors d'oeuvres and after-talk champagne
and desserts are included. Reservation deadline is noon Sept. 26.
Call: 461-2899
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY ARCHITECTURE by CNB