SAYS THE REAL DEAL: “Paul Whalen is one of the most influential New York architects whom many of those outside the industry have never heard of. But there’s a good reason for that: He works for his former teacher — the famed Robert A.M. Stern — who’s the founder and face of Robert A.M. Stern Architects. Behind the scenes, however, Whalen has been a lead designer on some of the city’s most celebrated residential buildings, including 15 Central Park West, 18 Gramercy Park and a slew of others.In total, he’s designed a dozen New York buildings since graduating from Princeton University in 1981 with his master’s in architecture and joining RAMSA full time. (He also interned at the firm in the late 1970s). “In 1976, there were 10 people here,” said Whalen, one of the firm’s longest-serving partners, noting that today there are 325 architects, interior designers, landscape designers and support staff. Whalen’s geographically “complicated” upbringing included traveling in South America with his parents (his mother is Chilean and his father is from Minnesota) and living in Orlando and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Today, he’s designing the classic-looking urban apartment houses that have become synonymous with RAMSA. And he and some of the firm’s other top partners have recently stepped into the spotlight, co-authoring a coffee-table tome with Stern on their designs in New York City and beyond.”

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