Product Description

Architecture should be an affirmation of place—that is, the physical product of a truly environmentally responsive approach. To work with the place and its traditions is not to be trapped in a dull set of conventions. The tension between timeless ways and the all-too-timely circumstances that call a new building into being should lead to a vital architecture. The tension between the past and the presence of the past should foster an architecture more culturally resonant than one that is either is all about the past or all about the present. —Robert A. M. Stern

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 place. 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #242544 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-17
• Released on: 2005-11-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 624 pages

Review
For sheer star power, it's hard to beat Robert A. M. Stern Houses and Gardens, a heavyweight extravaganza... -- The New York Times, December 4, 2005

About the Author
Robert A. M. Stern, the principal partner of the architectural practice he founded in 1969, is also a renowned historian of American architecture and dean of the Yale School of Architecture. Stern has written many important books, including the extraordinary series on New York's architecture and urbanism, most recently New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age, and his architecture has been the subject of several more volumes, including Robert A. M. Stern Buildings and Projects: 1999-2003.

Witold Rybczynski is the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of A Perfect House: A Journey with the Renaissance Architect Andrea Palladio and the prizewinning A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century.

Customer Reviews

Stern Yet Elegant
This book on Robert Stern, the latest in a series, is very well executed. Mr. Stern really has a knack for anachronistic grand homes, they are a throw back to another time, but with all the modern luxuries money can buy. Stern has a real feel for the kind of gardens that complement each type of home, and the interaction between the two is often quite breathtaking. The images in this book are first rate and the homes are amazing. If you appreciate excellent photography, elegant architecture, and spectacular homes and gardens then you will love this book

Very Similar to Houses
I thoroughly loved his first residential book "Houses." With the amount of work he has done I expected this book to focus on new work but many of the same projects and pictures from the first book were used in this one.