Enter Through the Gift Shop: Bob Stern's Score-Settling Strategy for New NYC Museum

Architect Robert A.M. Stern is courting a new generation of fans with his firm’s design for the Museum for African Art, slated to open next spring in its new $95 million home on Fifth Avenue and East 110th Street. The museum, which spans approximately 75,000 feet and four floors of a 19-story residential tower, features a soaring glass atrium through which all visitors will enter—including children and school groups. It’s Stern’s way of settling a score with the museums of his youth, notably the Museum of Natural History.