built a fulfilling career

sculptures and buildings—all illuminated by texts and debates that are mirrors of their times.”

Richards recalled Professor Emerita of the History of Art Evelyn Staudinger as a “mythic figure” at Wheaton, known for her infectious enthusiasm.

“She was important to me because she never let me slide into complacency or laziness,” he explained. “She really helped me see that mutual respect is based in honesty and directness—qualities I really admire and value.”

Professor of Philosophy John Partridge, a mentor to Richards as he completed his philosophy minor and beyond, remembers meeting him in the fall of 2001 in his “Aesthetics” course.

Partridge describes Richards’s writing style as a blend of “clarity and erudition with wit and charm, all while making accessible complicated theories and interpretations.”

Those qualities, both academic and personal, transformed not only the student, but also the professor.

“Almost always, we grow and transform in relationship with others, rather than alone,” Partridge said. “When Bill looked to me for mentorship, I found the opportunity to take on a new role. It’s as if he saw more in me than was there at the time; he surely inspired me to grow into something different.”

The two remain in touch today.

Richards went on to earn a Ph.D. in art and architectural history from the

Richards ’04

University of Virginia, and, as editor of Inform Magazine, published by the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Virginia chapter, he established himself as a thought leader within the architectural community and quickly went on to direct publishing and digital content for AIA’s national operation for nearly a decade.

As a writer for national magazines since college (publishing two pieces of criticism for Art New England Magazine), he has focused on the business, culture and practice of architecture, as well as cities, communities and design. Over the past 20 years, he has written for Architect Magazine, Architectural Record, Art New England, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Old House Journal, Residential Architect and The Providence Journal, among other publications, including several academic journals. From 2013 to 2016, he also covered economic trends, personal finance and retirement planning for CNBC personality Jim Cramer, and later worked as the communications director for economic studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

By 2017, Richards published his first book: Revolt and Reform in Architecture’s Academy: Urban Renewal, Race, and the Rise of Design in the Public Interest, adapted from his dissertation at the University of Virginia.

The long format of publishing allowed him to explore more deeply the cultural intersections he first encountered in his studies at Wheaton. Revolt and Reform argues that urban renewal and campus expansion at Columbia and Yale in the 1960s recast architectural education at schools whose host cities, New York and New Haven, were critical sites for political, social and urban upheaval in America. This change, he argues, catalyzed what we call “public interest design” today, or architecture that addresses community participation, equity, health and sustainability.

“Those ideas matter when we find ourselves in an increasingly divisive political landscape, a time when we need to remember our humanity most and find mutually supportive solutions for housing insecurity, structural inequities and environmental injustice for society’s disenfranchised,” Richards said. “Wheaton gave me the latitude to explore a lot of these ideas while I also started— inadvertently—to build a foundation for the rest of my life.”

Sustainable choices

Feeling restless and looking for a change, Richards and his wife and business partner, Pascale Vonier—a graphic designer—decided in 2020 to found Team Three, LLC, their consultancy based in Washington, D.C. Their global client list includes private enterprises (including architectural firms), nonprofit organizations, cultural institutions and universities. Team Three helps their clients communicate more effectively, understand their audiences and raise their visibility on issues that matter, Richards said.

In 2022, Princeton Architectural Press published two more of his books, both on architecture and sustainability: Bamboo Contemporary: Green Houses Around the Globe and Together by Design: The Art and Architecture of Communal Living. The field of sustainability is one in which Richards believes architects can play a leadership role in addressing how the built environment can drive positive climate and social change for communities, streets, cities and regions.

“In designing a building and advising on its construction, for example, architects have influence over the details of design and the values that design represents, which can determine a lot about the quality of our lives as individuals within communities,” Richards explained.

If an architect starts with that value of environmental sustainability, he continued, it can lead to hundreds of choices that make new projects both affordable and green.

“Architecture can also be flexible in the messages it conveys, but it is always certain in its significance as something intentional that shapes all of us. For those reasons, climate, equity, politics and race are foundational to architecture’s creation and why it matters to society,” he said.

Richards’s fourth book, currently in production, explores engineered wood known as mass timber and its promise for use in sustainable residential building projects in the future.

Sharing knowledge

When Richards virtually presented the distinguished Heuser lecture in 2021 about cohousing and architects who keep communities at the center of their work, Staudinger encapsulated the lasting impact of his work thus far.

“The great beauty of teaching is the gift of learning from our students,” Staudinger began, as she described a 2004 talk Richards gave about Hans Holbein’s portrait of Sir Thomas More, a noted Renaissance humanist who emphasized the social potential and agency of humans.

“It was a portrait of a humanist considered to have been one of the greatest scholars of his time,” she continued. “I thank you for the opportunity to listen to your humanist ideas tonight.”

Humanist is likely the perfect way to describe the values Richards places on his chosen path.

“Writers should feel a sense of responsibility and privilege in what they do and how they do it,” he said. “Writing doesn’t always have to be a moral act that’s meant to uphold some broad standard of probity. But I do think writing is an ethical act that reveals as much about ideas as it reveals about the agenda of the writer and the values of the reader.”

To read articles by William Richards, visit www.williamrichards.net