William Richards ’04 has

Author, creative consultant explores meaning and responsibility in world of architecture

By Jayne M. Iafrate

When 14-year-old William Richards ’04 accepted his first summer job as a computer lab proctor, he had no idea it would lead to a lifelong passion. That changed in a moment.

Richards was immediately captivated by the Class of 1945 Library at his high school, Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, the library quietly marries local materials, classical concepts like the golden ratio and soaring spaces that are meant to inspire students. It certainly inspired Richards.

“I spent less time doing my actual job and more time wandering around the library,” he said. “It was the first time I really paid attention to how an architect could make careful, thoughtful decisions about materials and the arrangement of spaces. I had no idea what any of it meant, but at the time I remember being struck by the details.”

His stint there set him on a path in art and architecture history that today includes: an award-winning career in writing about the business, culture and practice of architecture, cities and design; three books on architecture, with a fourth on the way; and an editorial and creative consultancy, Team Three, LLC.

Richards brought all these experiences back to Wheaton in 2021 when he virtually delivered the 13th Annual Mary L. Heuser Lecture. Discussing intentional communities and why the choices we make in living together can enrich the values of the communities we choose, he told current students: “A lot of my work over the years involves spending a great deal of time with architects, learning about their choices, and seeing evidence of those choices in their work.

“Yes, architects are always working within parameters like budgets and codes. Yes, working with clients can be just as challenging as it can be rewarding. But, architecture is a responsibility and a privilege—and through that privilege, architects influence the quality of our lives.”

Setting his own agenda

Richards was drawn to architecture from an early age. Always close at hand today is his mother’s first edition of H.W. Janson’s History of Art. As a young child he gravitated toward the pictures and descriptions of temples, cathedrals and building plans. He knew he would pursue a degree in art history well before he identified Wheaton as the place where he would do it.

He spent his final year of high school at Phillips Exeter Academy exhausting all the electives in art and architectural history, as well as searching for a college that would offer him a world-class art history program. He felt that Wheaton fit his needs perfectly: small classes, a favorable student-teacher ratio and the possibility of finding academic mentorship. He found it all, and then some.

“I feel fortunate to call him a friend and peer these days, but honestly it was often difficult to remember he was an undergraduate during his time at Wheaton,” Professor of the History of Art R. Tripp Evans said of Richards, who enrolled in Evans’s senior seminar as a first-year student.

“Bill had an intellectual maturity and curiosity well beyond his years. He gave the seniors in that seminar a real run for their money,” Evans said.

At Wheaton, Richards took a variety of courses across disciplines—from Caribbean Diaspora and Russia’s pre-war avant-garde to astronomy and logic—following personal interests as often as his art history requirements. He embraced the liberal arts curriculum as an opportunity to set his own academic agenda to succeed or fail on his own terms.

“Exploring history through the lenses of art and architecture fueled my curiosity about lots of things, including different styles of writing,” he explained. “Those fields are as much about physical evidence as they are about ideas—paintings,