Member Profile: Nicholas S. G. Stern, Builder: In Conversation with Our President

I recently had a conversation with long-time ICA&CA stalwart Nicholas S.G. Stern, who serves as Executive Vice President of Taconic Builders from its Manhattan office, which he launched in 2002  as a vital hub in Taconic's growing network of offices and operations. He is the New York City-born and raised son of architect and educator, Robert A.M. Stern, and photographer, Lynn Stern. He attended the Buckley School and St. Paul's in Concord, New Hampshire and then received a B.A. Degree in Architecture from Columbia College. Besides the longtime generosity of Taconic for both the annual Arthur Ross Awards for Excellence in the Classical Tradition and various educational programs, Nick has been instrumental in securing funds from the Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation, where he serves as a trustee, earmarked for the Institute's ongoing affordable housing initiative.  A Pattern Book for Neighborly Houses and its lessons and guiding blueprints continue as the rich centerpiece of this innovative program. 

 

Nick's example is thus a worthy one from a number of perspectives.  -Paul Gunther

 

PG: What shaped the trajectory of your career as a builder?  Did your childhood make it inevitable?  

NS:  I’m not sure whether I found design and architecture or if it found me.  Most likely it is a function simply of the fact that I was immersed in it my entire life.  My father is an architect, my step-father is an architect, my mother is an artist and my wife is an interior designer.  My father has a passion for design and its practice as well as its historical, contextual, and academic study.  I was lucky enough to have traveled with him extensively while growing up so by the time I was fifteen, I had informally completed several semesters’ worth of survey courses and tours of Western architecture.  In high school and then college I pursued and nurtured these  interests and I engaged in more formal study, ultimately majoring in Architecture at Columbia.

Greenwich Village townhouse renovation.  Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Courtney Stern Design.  2005.

PG: Did you think about going on for a Masters in Architecture?

 NS:  I did; I dropped out of the Yale School of Architecture almost immediately after I enrolled.  Going through the changes of a twenty-two year old, I decided that if I graduated tomorrow, the first thing I’d do was get into showbiz.  So I left as quick as I started.  This was many years before my father was the dean, but he has forgiven neither me nor his colleagues for letting me off the hook so easily!

I wound up in a ten -year career arc in show business.  I actually had spent a year in Los Angeles working at Walt Disney Imagineering in the architectural department – design development for the Hollywood Hotel and Euro Disney outside of Paris among other things.  Combined with some other jobs I had in college, I had some introduction to the entertainment business and I took a job at International Creative Management.

Later I worked for producer John Hart on Broadway productions and subsequent road and world tours of Guys and Dolls, Tommy, and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.   I then went back to Disney – this time as a material scout for a newly created New York development division serving the film and television divisions.

In 1999, I established Mixolydian Entertainment, an independent production company.  I was fortunate enough to develop working relationships with terrific like-minded colleagues and we produced two very successful Off Broadway shows, FULLY COMMITTED and THE GOOD THIEF.  I wrote several screenplays both on my own and with a far-more-talented partner, Estep Nagy.  Always with a toe in the design work, I also wrote during that time some freelance pieces for ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

 

PG: So your show business career was paying off well. Why the change?

NS:  Well, I wouldn’t say ‘paying off’ in a literal sense.  I was boxing myself into a very small corner in terms of the business side of things.  I wanted to stay in New York and the forms of entertainment to which I was attracted were more labor of love type ventures – there was little long term up side.  Artistic success in the entertainment industry does not always walk hand-in-hand with reward and vice versa (sad but true probably in much of American culture).  I can't say that I simply woke up and said, ‘OK, I’ll be a builder.’  But I did know that I needed to find a creative outlet that better married my tastes with my business sensibilities.

I already gravitated towards the collaborative nature of construction, then I fell into its practice.  I was trained as an architect, surrounded by architecture, the media arts and the performing arts and an overall culture of perfectionism (not always a blessing).  I always thought I’d either be an actor or an architect. The elements in the production work which I’d been doing and that of what’s done in construction are nearly identical to me in that they are the cornerstones for my career work to date:  team driven creative design characterized by the implementation of layered and sophisticated works of functional art.  Add the mobility and malleability of production schedules and budget constraints and I realized that making a film is not too different than making a building. 

For me, a movie or play must “function” as entertainment just as a good building/house/apartment/store/school office must function for its end-users and stand the test of time.  The tenets of Western drama and architecture were evolved (and, to a certain academic/structural extent, perfected) by the Greeks and the Romans.  Certainly, history has done much to transform these foundations and formulas, but I can’t see a good movie or walk through a good building without some concept that was solidified in the cradle of Western civilization popping into my mind.  Here’s the ‘act’, ‘chorus’, ‘deus ex machina’, ‘entablature’, etc….not to say that I think in terms of textbooks!

 

Manhattan condominium after-market build-out.  Smiros & Smiros Architects & Scott Snyder Inc.  2008.

PG: Tell me a bit about your mission at Taconic.

NS: Taconic was a two man partnership founded in the mid 1980s.   I came on board to realize accelerated and significant growth.  Specifically, I targeted architects and designers, with whom I felt we should be working on an aesthetic level and, in time, develop relationships.  Ideally, this is a pool not only of talented industry leaders, but also of team players who make every project a learning experience and, of course, fun.  Our signature location is the tri-state area and most of my projects are in Manhattan, Greenwich, East Hampton and points in between, but we also have outposts in Seattle for West Coast operations and are venturing into England with a London office.

East Hampton summer colony renovation and new construction.  Barry Rice Architects.  2007.

PG :  How do you see economic challenges affecting client needs?

Today’s challenges -- even without the glare of the current economic crisis -- are cost and schedule.  We live in a world of instant information and complex electronics which are widely and inexpensively available.   Would-be clients of high-end construction expect the immediate convenience and mass market economies of the ‘real world’ in the finite arena of intricate and unique artisanship.  Unfortunately, much of high-end and specialized construction is fundamentally different from and out of line with 21^st Century manufacturing.  Sure, we use the most advanced tools to do what we do better, faster and for far less money than has been done heretofore, but at the heart of our work is training, apprenticeship, experience, specialization, consultancy, r & d, skilled labor, and craft – and all these elements are neither mechanically replicable or available inexpensively.  I suppose I’m preaching to the choir here, but many of these key players are educated, supported and/or affected in some way by the Institute and its programs.  In short, it is cost intensive to do what we do and the hardest part for us to explain to our clients is that our margins are slim.

PG : To produce a show in whatever medium resembles the complex role of builder come to think of it.

NS : Exactly. It requires a comparable capacity to recognize and then integrate all stakeholders --from the design team to the artisans and engineers always with an eye to the client and cognizant throughout of budget and timetable.  A building project is not unlike a film production. 

 

PG:  I am curious to learn more about those early experiences mentioned before that most shaped your role as builder?

NS :  I was privileged to travel a good deal in my childhood and my parents encouraged and enabled me to continue to do so in high school and college.  A few of the places that particularly have informed my ideals in design are Baroque Rome --especially Bernini’s St. Ivo alla Sapienza -- Venice and the nearby Cimiterio Brio Vega  by Carlo Scarpa, a wonderful trip I made though pre war-torn Yugoslavia in 1989 – the once glorious small city of Ljubljana -- and countless European hillside towns with layers of organic building history  -- Positano, Portofino, Eze, to name a few.  I suppose if I was dropped randomly in the world anywhere in history, I’d be very happy in an Italian Mediterranean village.  Although I’d venture that this is a human characteristic, I feel particularly sensitive to my environment – built and otherwise.  The natural world awes and informs me as much as man’s contributions – Bryce Canyon (and much of the American Southwest), blue lagooned islands –I’d love to go to Tahiti, Indonesia and other points Pacific -- barren and hard places --sand deserts and mountains -- and a million basks in the sun in places both mundane and magnificent.

            Greenwich Village townhouse renovation and restoration.  M.A.D.E.  2005.

PG: Do you have a guiding design philosophy or modus operandi?

NS:  I gravitate towards and greatly enjoy working with architects.  We share training and skill sets, but really I think it’s simply a mutual calibration of our eyes.  A fantastic thing about truly great architecture and design is the comprehensive nature of its vision and execution.  The wonders of the built world amaze us on so many levels: scale, engineering, attention to minute details, solutions to challenges of geography/climate/technology (or lack thereof), cultural relevance and a sense of place.   Sort of like the unquantifiable swing and joy of musical improvisation.  So when I find an architect, designer or project that embraces this generalist yet oh-so-specific commitment to the craft, I’m excited.  Certainly, not every job elevates to such a level, but with ideals shared among architects, craftsmen, and patrons, any trade task can offer challenges and solutions on par with the loftiest successes.

 

      Manhattan condominium after-market build-out.  Smiros & Smiros Architects & Scott Snyder Inc.  2008.

PG:  How does ICA/CA fit in with your not-for-profit work? 

Architectural education is a sensory one and ICA&CA make it their mission to celebrate, and therefore, perpetuate craft and accomplishment.  Without the preservation, practice and education of classicism, we fail to evolve all fields of design and construction.  More immediately, ICA&CA’s affordable housing initiative and the housing pattern book are fantastic and pro-active solutions to a deepening national crisis of urban blight and the clear-cutting of American civic architecture.  In the past, Taconic has lent a hand locally as best we physically can by providing labor to Habitat For Humanity programs and for local disaster recovery.  With respect to my foundation work, it’s wonderful to be involved with something that gives to those who need it most – and that this giving is with the same spirit of design and detail that informs everything else that we do.

 

April 2009

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