Robert A.M. Stern, American architect, teacher, and author, passed away on November 27, 2025, in New York City at the age of 86 from a pulmonary illness. He was the founding member of the architecture firm RAMSA (Robert A. M. Stern Architects) in 1977 and had a hand in multiple important projects for The Walt Disney Company.
His major works for the City of New York, earning him the nickname “King of Central Park West,” include 15 Central Park West, 220 Central Park South, 520 Park Avenue, and 30 Park Place.
He worked closely with the Walt Disney Company in the 1980s and 1990s, serving on the board of directors from 1992 to 2003. His first design for the Walt Disney Company was the Walt Disney World Casting Center, which opened in 1989. The main projects he designed for Walt Disney World Resort were Disney’s Yacht Club Resort and Disney’s Beach Club Resort, both finished in 1990, as well as Disney’s Boardwalk Resort, finished in 1996.
His firm also designed two hotels for the Euro Disney Resort (now Disneyland Paris), namely the Disney Newport Bay Club and Disney Hotel Cheyenne, both of which opened with the park in 1992.
He designed the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank, California, completed in 1994, which was recently featured in the short film Once Upon A Studio in 2023.
His firm was behind the master plan and design for the community of Celebration in Florida in 1997, as well as Florida Hospital’s Celebration Health campus, completed in 1998.
He designed the Disney Ambassador Hotel, the first Disney-branded hotel at Tokyo Disney Resort (though the sixth hotel on the Tokyo Disney Resort property), which opened in 2000.
Later in his career he designed the Comcast Center in Philadelphia (2008), The Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia (2017) and the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas (2013). He served as the dean of Yale School of Architecture from 1998 to 2016.
“Many Modernist works of our time tend to be self-important objects, and that’s a real quarrel that I have,” he told the New York Times in 2007. “Buildings can be icons or objects, but they still have to engage with the larger whole. I’m not considered avant-garde because I’m not avant-garde. But there is a parallel world out there – of excellence.”
Bob Iger, current CEO of The Walt Disney Company, made a post on Instagram in which he states: “Rest in peace, Robert Stern, a long-time member of the Disney board of directors, and the architect of many of our highest quality buildings. We will miss his talent, his charm, and his support.“
A new experience in Disney’s Hollywood Studios was announced earlier this year, whose exterior will draw inspiration from the Roy E. Disney Animation Building.
Stern is survived by one child.
What is your favorite work of this architect’s vast body of work? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
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