Fredric (Rick) Bell
Adjunct Associate Professor and the Acting Director of the Center for Buildings, Infrastructure and Public Space
Rick Bell is an Adjunct Associate Professor and the Acting Director of the Center for Buildings, Infrastructure and Public Space.
He previously served as Assistant Commissioner of Architecture and Engineering at the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) where he also was Executive Director of Design and Construction Excellence. At that municipal public works agency he also previously led the interdisciplinary in-house design team of fifty architects and engineers. On leave from DDC, Rick served as the Executive Director of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY) where he helped create and animate the Center for Architecture on LaGuardia Place in Greenwich Village. Apart from his public sector experience, Rick has worked in architectural offices in the US, France and Switzerland. A registered architect in New York and New Jersey, Rick is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and of the the Urban Design Forum. He is past president of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization. Rick holds architectural degrees from Yale and Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation (GSAPP). His areas of research include active design, accessibility, public housing, resilience and sustainable urbanization. He has been recognized by the French Ministry of Culture as a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.