Robert A. M. Stern is dedicated to the synthesis of tradition and innovation. In more than thirty-five years of practice, he has produced a wide range of building types with a variety of stylistic influences, all inspired by the great legacy of American architecture. His firm, Robert A. M. Stern Architects, was first recognized for its distinguished houses, and residential design remains the cornerstone of the practice. This beautifully illustrated monograph―a companion to the best-selling Robert A. M. Stern: Houses―presents twenty-six of the firm's most memorable houses. Located in diverse settings across North America―from a valley in Colorado with sweeping views of the Aspen mountains to a bluff overlooking Long Island Sound to an island off the coast of British Columbia―these remarkable houses reveal the architect's emphasis on the importance of context and his dedication to exploring the nature of space. Each house invokes the vernacular architectural heritage particular to its region while gracefully reflecting its unique natural surroundings. Whether they are Shingle Style "cottages" by the sea, colonial Georgian country estates, or elegant Regency designs, Stern's houses are unique both for their timelessness and their ability to evoke a conversation with the past―a dialogue he believes lies at the heart of architecture. Pilar Viladas is the design editor of the New York Times Magazine. "Stern ably tells his stories, as do the spectacular photographs and drawings in this weighty tome. Unlike many neo-conservatives who genuflect at a monolithic altar of the past, Stern has a playfully pluralistic relationship to architectural history and contemporary design. And unlike the hippest of the hip, he has no need to dadaistically defy or defame the architectural canon . . . For that and more, this book warrants our appreciative attention." ―Norman Weinstein, ArchNewsNow Robert A. M. Stern , the principal partner of the architectural practice he founded in 1969, is also dean of the Yale School of Architecture. In addition to monographs on the firm's work, Stern has written a series of books on New York's architecture and urbanism, including New York 1880, New York 1900, New York 1930, and New York 1960 . From: Robert A. M. Stern and Paul Goldberger: A Conversation PAUL GOLDBERGER : Bob, forty years of practice is an extraordinary thing, all the more because you continue at such a rapid pace. I remember the office over the storefront on West Seventy-second Street, which was probably smaller than your reception area is right now. Let me first ask you if there’s anything you miss from those early days when it was a kind of office on a shoestring. ROBERT A. M. STERN : “Office on a shoestring” sums it up perfectly. What one does miss, of course, from when one is brand new in practice, is the thrill of the first or the second or the third commission or telephone call as it were. And the very close camaraderie of a few people. But there is no question that a larger office—and I’m not sure how much larger “larger” should really be—provides one with all kinds of other things and a more solid professionalism. You avoid some of the horrible mistakes that many small practices make, both technical errors in execution of the work and mistakes in terms of how to position the firm and how to write a contract and a hundred other things. I was thinking of that, actually, as I was waiting for your arrival. Of course, it was much nicer in some ways when it was smaller and I knew everybody. And I knew them warts and all, and they knew me warts and all. Now I think they know me warts and all and I’m not sure I know them. But there are people in our practice today who don’t go back to day one but do go back to say, day three. People who have been here thirty years or more and are now partners, and we have a close camaraderie. But of course, many others who came to the practice have become partners and associates as well. PG : It is remarkable, though, that there are some people who really spent their entire careers here. RS : I’m always disappointed when people leave. But I recognize that for some people, for many people, it’s a good thing to do. Find their own way. Sometimes people don’t work better in a different environment than the one they’re leaving, but they think it’s going to be better, that the grass will be greener. Sometimes, they think they’re going to be able to do it on their own, and they suddenly discover that independent practice is not for everyone or not for them. Some chose to return to the nest. But we’ve spawned a lot of firms. PG : You know, for a while, it seemed right to compare Robert A. M. Stern Architects to a practice like Delano & Aldrich or John Russell Pope or James Gamble Rogers, great eclectic firms of the 1920s, ’30s, and so forth. But given that they were less concerned about formal innovation than they were about careful, conscientious re-use of historical form and given t