Edward Keegan: Robert A.M. Stern wrote 7,000 pages about New York architecture. Who can write Chicago’s tome? |
Chicagoans know Robert A.M. Stern better than they might realize; his ubiquitous designs for bus stop shelters and other street furniture for JC Decaux have graced streets throughout the city since 2002.
The noted New York-based architect passed away on Thanksgiving at the age of 86.
The bus shelters are an amalgam of varied historical influences and reveal a bit of the contradictory forces that shaped Stern’s most intriguing work. The structures deploy largely traditional columns that support shallow arched roofs above glass partitions — save for a single wall that always holds the ever-changing supersized advertisements that financially supported the wholesale replication of the structures at most CTA stops. They are memorable while being quiet and discreet, becoming thoughtful background players in the larger Chicago story.
Stern was no stranger to Chicago. His father was raised here and attended the Dwight Perkins-designed Carl Schurz High School — a building that a young Stern visited with his dad. Beyond the bus shelters, he designed a handful of notable buildings here including the old Banana Republic on North Michigan Avenue (now demolished), the One Bennett Park residential tower in Streeterville and a new south portico for the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry that’s slated to be completed in 2027. In the early 1980s, Stern produced a memorable “late entry” to the Chicago Tribune Tower competition and was among a group of architects and planners who worked on the proposed 1992........