Stephen Rustow is a principal of Museoplan, a firm specialized in the design and planning of architecture for cultural collections. With his partner, Caroline Voss, the firm has designed and collaborated on over 20 museum and gallery projects in the US, Europe and Asia including the Shed in New York City, the Yuan Museum in Beijing, the Museum of Urbanism in Hangzhou, and the National Museum of Bulgaria in Sofia. The firm is currently completing the design and construction of several projects in Naples, Italy.
Prior to founding Museoplan in 2006, Mr. Rustow was a Senior Associate Principal with Kohn Pedersen Fox and directed that firm’s work on the renovation and expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in New York with Taniguchi Associates. Among his responsibilities were the detailing of the museum’s galleries, the renovation of MoMA’s original building and sculpture garden, and the re-programming and design of the new Education Wing. He led the construction supervision team for the entire expansion project over its seven-year duration. Until 1998, Mr. Rustow was an Associate Partner in charge of design with Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, where he worked for 12 years on the comprehensive renovation of the Louvre. Starting as a member of the original design team in 1983, Mr. Rustow became Director of the Paris Office of PCF&P in 1990 and led the second phase of the project, the Richelieu Wing, for which he designed the galleries of Oriental Antiquities, Islamic Art and the French and Northern Schools of Painting. Mr. Rustow also designed the Tuileries Terrace and was the supervising designer of the Carrousel Gardens, including the installation of the State collection of Maillol bronzes.
Mr. Rustow is a Professor of Architecture at Cooper Union where he also chaired the Feltman Seminar on Light in 2006 and 2007. He was a lecturer and studio critic for six years in Columbia University’s Paris Studio program, and has served as an invited juror and lecturer at Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, as well as UP 3 and 8 in Paris. He has written and lectured on a variety of topics related to the design of museums including lighting, exhibition design and the role of the museum in urban development.
After completing an undergraduate degree with high honors in Anthropology and Fine Arts at the University of Rochester, Mr. Rustow received Masters degrees in Architecture and in Urban Planning from M.I.T. where he was also awarded an Institute Fellowship. He was an invited participant in the inaugural semester of ILAUD in Urbino, Italy in 1976. From 1974 to 1977, concurrently with his graduate studies, he was a Fellow of the National Science Foundation.
Mr. Rustow is a registered architect in the state of New York and holds certification from National Council of Architectural Registration Boards; he is a past member of the Ordre des Architectes in France. He is also an urban planner, a past member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and a member of the American Planning Association.