The design world has lost one of its most influential voices. Robert A. M. Stern’s passing leaves a remarkable void in American architecture. Yet his legacy endures everywhere his work invited people to gather, learn, and share in a sense of place. Stern’s architecture has always felt like a kindred craft: rooted in tradition, shaped with discipline, and engineered to serve the daily life of an institution.
Eustis Chair had the rare honor of collaborating on several spaces shaped by Stern and his firm. These buildings asked for furniture that could live up to their architectural ambition. Our role, small but meaningful, bridged his vision with the everyday human experience of sitting down in a room designed to elevate thought, conversation, and community.
Harvard Business School: Spangler Center
When the Harvard Business School unveiled the Spangler Center, Stern delivered more than a building. He created a modern-day commons for executive education, where formality and warmth coexist. Our hardwood seating found its place among the paneled rooms and study lounges designed to feel both stately and inviting.
Marist College: Murray Student Center and Rotunda
One of Stern’s great strengths was his ability to take a campus fabric seriously, respect its history, and reinterpret it for contemporary needs. The renovation and addition to the Murray Student Center at Marist College is a masterclass in that philosophy.
The project transformed the heart of the campus. A 1960s façade gave way to a sweeping curtain wall that finally unlocked the views to the Hudson River. The existing dining areas were redesigned as light-filled, flexible spaces that welcome students from morning to night. A once-open courtyard became an enclosed dining hall crowned with clerestory windows. The new wing created both an entrance from the campus green and a north-facing terrace that serves as the gateway to the Cabaret lounge and performance space.
Stern also gave the Music Department a true home: a symphonic room, a recital hall, ensemble spaces, practice rooms, and faculty offices—all designed with the acoustic and architectural dignity musicians deserve. Sustainability measures were thoughtfully embedded, from green roofs to high-performance glazing. The entire composition respects the campus’s quiet Gothic heritage, drawing cues from Greystone Hall and the Hancock Center.
College of William & Mary: Mason School of Business
Stern’s contribution to the Mason School of Business brought Georgian inspiration into the twenty-first century. The architectural language—red brick, limestone, symmetrical massing—calls back to the origins of American collegiate design.
Phillips Exeter Academy
Stern’s presence at Exeter carries profound resonance. His design for the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance renewed the campus’s artistic life, while the nearly completed Hahn Center for Global Inquiry embodies Exeter’s commitment to interdisciplinary learning. The Hahn Center is a space shaped for curiosity, collaboration, and international perspective. Its architecture merges warm materials, daylight, and carefully proportioned rooms to create places where students want to work and linger.
A Shared Commitment to Legacy
What we admired most about Robert A. M. Stern was his willingness to honor the past without being confined by it. He understood that materials matter. Proportion matters. Craft matters. And he believed, as we do, that the spaces shaping our intellectual and cultural lives should be built with integrity.
Our chairs occupy only a fraction of the rooms he designed, but each installation felt like a conversation with an architect who cared deeply about every detail, down to the curve of a backrest or the rhythm of a dining hall.
Stern left behind buildings that will outlive all of us. We are proud that in a small way, the furniture we build will continue to serve those spaces as steadfastly as he designed them.