Stern grew up at a time when here was a lot of interesting architecture being created in New York.

Question: What sparked your interest in architecture?

Stern: I have no idea. No particular event comes to my mind or whatever. It’s certainly true that in the post World War II era when I was . . . I was born in 1939 so you can do the math. Lots of stuff was happening in New York City. The United Nations was being built. Lever House was being built. I remember seeing Lever House when it was nearing completion for the first time because my dentist’s office was down the block so to speak; things that you could see at the Museum of Modern Art; the various houses that were built in the garden. I went to all of them with . . . my parents took me to them. And so let’s say subliminally that interested me. I did have a teacher in junior high school, and she was the art teacher or an art teacher. Her brother was a city planner. And when I expressed my interests I suppose, she connected me to the brother who was living in Cleveland as I recall. So it was just the fact there was somebody out there who might be interested in what I was doing – making little drawings and so forth.

Recorded on: 12/5/07