New architecture dean brings positive change

As they walk past the construction taking place at the new Art and Architecture building, many students are probably unaware that significant restructuring is taking place inside as well as outside the building.

Robert A.M. Stern, ARC '65, who was appointed Dean of the School of Art and Architecture in September 1998, is introducing dramatic changes, including the introduction of four new faculty members, an expanded financial aid program, and increased attention to the use of technology.

Many purists were annoyed by the appointment of Stern, who serves on the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company. In the March '99 issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine, Architecture magazine editor Reed Kroloff called Stern "a suede-loafered sultan of suburban retrotecture, a Disney party boy." Indeed, when Yale University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, announced the appointment of Stern to the deanship, a small group of students left the room in protest. Last December, broadcast workers' unions, involved with Disney over a labor dispute, picketed outside the Art and Architecture Building to protest Stern's involvement with Disney.

Yet now that Stern has shown that he is here to stay, he is receiving praise for his active vision for the School of Architecture. Khalit Almo, ART '02, said, "I have great respect for Dean Stern, who I think strives to expose us to a variety of architectural styles through the teachers that he brings to Yale."

Indeed, Stern recently appointed four visiting professors of architectural design for the fall semester. Daniel Libeskind, who built the Jewish Museum in Berlin, is the first incumbent of the Louis I. Kahn Chair. The other chairs are also world-renowned: Cesar Pelli, the former School of Architecture Dean who designed the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur—the tallest buildings in the world—and the new Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.; Frank Gehry, who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize for the Guggenheim Museum in Spain; and Demetri Porphyrios, a leading classicist architect. "They add so much value to the school," former Associate Dean Alan Plattus said.

Stern has also increased the amount of money available for financial aid and began to award merit scholarships this year. Associate Dean John Jacobson, ART '69, who oversees the school's finances, said, "We have not been competitive with financial aid in the past, but we are now." Alumni gifts have also substantially increased.

Another positive change is the school's increased attention to technology in design. One of Stern's first actions as Dean was to appoint a committee of experts on computers in architecture, which has improved technological equipment and helped increase the number of technology-oriented design courses for students to take.

Greg Lynn, an up-and-coming architect and a leader in computers and design, will be the Davenport Visiting Chair in the spring. Right now, the school is offering a course specifically aimed to prepare its students for Lynn's computer-design advanced studio.

Meanwhile, Stern hopes to see the restoration of the 36-year-old Art and Architecture building, designed by the late Paul Rudolph, who held Stern's job from 1957 to 1965. According to Stern, who is also a critically acclaimed architecture historian, the A&A is a landmark of modernism. "What Yale does with the building will become a example to others trying to restore buildings of the same style built around the same time," he said.

Yet among all these changes, the School of Architecture's philosophy of openness remains. Unlike other schools, Yale does not require its students to study any specific styles. The Yale Alumni Magazine suggested in March that "the School's laudable `openness' began to feel like aimlessness."

In response, Stern said, "There will always be those people who think that open things are undirected. `Open,' however, means that many voices should be heard." He says that many students chose Yale over leading architectural schools at Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton, precisely because of the school's reputation as "open."

Almo said that he came to Yale because he sees the school as a place that does not try to define its students. Noah Biklen, ARC '02, agreed. "I love the open exchange that continually goes on here between us and the faculty."

Photo by John Yi.

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