Robert A. M. Stern Buildings

""I want my buildings to be portraits of the places where they are built,"" proclaims eminent postmodernist architect Stern, and this snazzy showcase of 32 of his firm's major projects reveals his acute sensitivity to place, context and tradition, whether in the Georgian-inspired detailing of a red brick, granite and limestone Boston skyscraper, in Tokyo's imperially sedate Bancho House office tower or in the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., this last an iconic representation of small-town New England public life. Along with lavish color photography, plans, drawings and a discussion of each building, Stern provides an unusually personal introductory essay, setting forth his architectural philosophy and recounting his rebellion as a young architect against sterile functionalism. Among the diverse buildings highlighted are the dignified Brooklyn Law School, Disney resort hotels in Florida and France, a Wheaton, Ill., shopping center designed like a Prairie School-style town square and two just-completed projects: Stanford University's computer science building, which reinvents Spanish Colonial, and the University of Virginia's acropolis-like business school. (Dec.)