From iconic apartment buildings like 15 CPW to the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, Texas, Robert A. M. Stern’s 40-plus-year career has made him one of the most recognizable names in American architecture. But a new book will serve as a coming-out of sorts for the four longtime — but lesser-known — architects who’ve helped cement the global status of Stern’s eponymous architecture firm.
“Designs for Living: Houses by Robert A.M. Stern Architects” (The Monacelli Press) showcases 15 projects from the last decade completed by Stern partners Gary Brewer, Randy Correll, Roger Seifter and Grant Marani. Though many of the projects echo the “Modern traditionalist” style coined by Stern, in this volume, the individual style of each “silent” partner is finally heard.
“What is different about this book is when you pick it up and look at it, you can tell there are four voices that speak a common language, but they speak differently,” says Marani, whose principal projects are in Asia and on the West Coast.
The 400-page book, coming out May 13, is both a showcase for the architects and a wish book for affluent and aspirational homebuilders. It illustrates not only how the wealthy live, but also how they think. For each project, the architect wrote a narrative describing the conditions, process and client goals, weaving in details about what really matters most — whether it was a home for art collections or a legacy for grandchildren. “It’s more about an attitude towards living,” Marani says.
Five of the book’s projects are New York area homes — four in waterfront communities and one in Manhattan’s West Village (the townhouse home, in fact, of Stern’s son; no pressure there). The other projects are as varied as a graceful Parisian-style maisonette in Chicago or a sprawling cliff-side compound in Malibu, fashioned after an Andalusian village.
Such European references are common to New York clients, who travel more frequently to the continent — whether for business or pleasure — and also because of the influx of internationals in the city says Seifter, architect of the Malibu project.
“Our clients have a high level of sophistication … and their points of reference aren’t so based in mass media,” Seifter says. “There is a general level of cosmopolitanism here that you don’t see in many other cities.”
Still, the houses reflect down-home sensibilities, such as attention to flow, and some are created in a nod to local history — whether acknowledging a seafaring past or, as in the case of an artist’s former cottage, remembering a past life.
Correll reimagined such a house for Kenneth Lipper, a prominent player in the worlds of finance, media, film and the arts. Lipper, who produced the Academy Award-winning documentary “The Last Days,” purchased the East Hampton home of artist Claus Hoie — a ramshackle 1940s-era cottage in a grove overlooking a necklace of ponds.
“For any other buyer, this would have been a teardown,” Correll says. “[But] he was intrigued by this idea of carrying on the spirit of the artist in his own house.” The renovation included a glassy, two-story shingled addition, while preserving much of the studio where Hoie once painted. Lipper kept some of the artist’s mid-century furniture, while adding in his own eclectic mix.
Another version of the classic shingle house — on Blue Water Hill in Westport, Conn. — makes a bigger statement. Designed by Brewer, the 7,800-square-foot home was inspired by 19th-century beach “cottages” (think Newport, RI). It features generous wraparound porches, dormers and interior details such as a spiral staircase, leaded glass windows and wainscoting.
Built for a couple with two kids, the house had to be functional and expandable for the generations — a theme the architects say is common in most of their homes. “There’s a lot of talk and thought about how the family will live in those spaces.” Brewer says. “They’re certainly thinking that these houses are heirlooms.”
On Georgica Pond, a house originally constructed by architect Peter Cook (Christie Brinkley’s ex), was reconceived by Randy Correll to reflect a family’s changing needs over 20 years of ownership — modernized, yet without losing the family memories it held.
Most compelling about the house was its relationship to the landscape — a romantic expanse framed by old growth trees. So, doorways and porches were reconfigured to create egresses throughout — enabling not only easier passage, but also a more fluid relationship between the inside and outside.
Back in Manhattan, Correll’s West Village townhouse for Stern’s son, Nick, and his wife, is a departure from the other New York projects in the book.
“You can only do so much inside with townhouses, but this allowed us to create something really special,” Correll says.
For the 25-foot-wide Greek Revival townhouse, Correll started with a clean slate, demolishing an interior that had been subdivided into apartments. He freshened up the floorplans to accommodate a young family of three and added whimsical elements. For the children, it was an interior windowed turret in the playroom overlooking a landing. For the adults, it was a double-height glass atrium at the back of the house. Formerly a two-story tea porch, it was reinterpreted to echo the lines of the original structure and create a natural link to the back garden, where the family likes to spend time.
Like the ocean houses, but on a smaller scale, the renovation seemed to have made almost invisible the barrier between indoors and out.
It’s a theme Marani says most clients request — a tweaking of the past that’s very much in the present.
“They go back and they go forward at the same time,” he says. “They may wear a traditional suit, but the thinking is very modern.”