Gary Brewer Architect
Gary Brewer established his own independent architectural practice in early 2024 after more than 25 years at Robert A.M. Stern Architects. With this new endeavor, Gary will continue to offer clients his ability to create houses and buildings rooted in tradition and tailored for our modern world. Working with a select group of clients, Gary will continue to add to his broad portfolio of award-winning houses, as well as clubhouses, apartment houses, university buildings, and civic and cultural centers.
A Commitment to scholarship and tradition
The attention he devotes to understanding the goals and aspirations of each client, and the energy he brings to learning the advantages and challenges of each site—including, importantly, its regional and local cultural history—enable Gary to develop the right architectural vocabulary for each project.
With his deep understanding of scholarly classicism, his practiced fluency in many regional approaches to traditional architecture, and his facility for clever and expressive detailing, Gary imbues each of his projects with its own intelligent charm and character that grow out of the nature of the assignment.
A skillful collaborator
Working directly for his clients as a design architect, Gary enjoys successful collaborative relationships with many talented interior designers, landscape designers, associate architects, and builders.
He has demonstrated an outstanding ability to get projects approved by historic and environmental review boards, and he knows how to create superior design, and great value, at all manner of budgets. His experience taking projects from concept design through construction supervision will help him to organize and lead the right team for each project.
A leader in the profession
Gary has long been an active leader in the profession. He was a founder and longtime board member of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, where he co-chairs the committee that organizes the ICAA’s annual peer-reviewed journal The Classicist; he remains an ICAA fellow emeritus.
He has organized conferences for the ICAA and for the American Institute of Architects’ Custom Residential Architects Network, and has lectured broadly on topics as diverse as traditional town planning and the history of pattern-book houses for professional organizations including the Congress for the New Urbanism, the Urban Guild, and the American Institute of Building Designers. He has taught at the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture and is currently teaching at the Catholic University of America’s School of Architecture and Planning in Washington, DC.
A widely published architect
Gary’s writing credits include the architectural monographs Houses: Robert A.M. Stern Architects (The Monacelli Press, 2021), Designs for Living (2014), and Designs for Learning: College and University Buildings by Robert A.M. Stern Architects (2017).
His architectural work has been widely published, including “dream houses” for both Life magazine and This Old House magazine and private houses featured in Galerie, Ocean Home, Cottages & Gardens, Period Homes, and Architectural Digest—notably, one of his houses was the cover story of AD’s April 2008 issue.
For Gary Brewer, Whose orthodoxies I delight in,
Whose charm I delight in, Whose talent
contributes so much to our spirit.
Robert Stern, 1991
A long-time partner of Robert A.M. Stern
As a RAMSA Partner and Studio Head, Gary was instrumental in championing the firm’s scholarly approach to traditional architecture. Long one of RAMSA’s design partners, Gary is well positioned to carry forward the firm’s founding principles; and now free of the administrative responsibilities inherent to a large firm, he offers clients his extensive design experience together with focused, close personal attention and the more competitive rates of a sole proprietorship.
Gary lives in a 1915 American foursquare house, which he has lovingly restored, in the Park Hill section of Yonkers in New York’s Westchester County, which serves as his home base when he’s not traveling, surrounded by his library of architectural books and his collections of garden- and architecture-inspired ornaments and art.
Gary Brewer, Bob Stern, Andres Duany
“As important as Gary’s success in designing extraordinary buildings is his ability to bring the architectural community together.
I will never forget how he hosted me for a day-long tour of his office, which I had long admired,
and then at the end of the day moderated a conversation between Bob Stern and me for the benefit of his colleagues. Gary is as generous with his friendship as he is with his talent.”
—Andrés Duany, DPZ CoDesign