Richard Blender

Adjunct Associate Professor

blender@uic.edu

Richard Blender is principal of the firm Wilkinson Blender Architecture. The firm is involved with residential architecture at the scale of single-family homes, interior renovation and larger scale multi-unit mixed-use projects. Additionally the office is involved with fabricational and material research which leads into the design and construction of each project. The firm is interested in the line that separates Architect from Builder, and how that line affects the working relationship. Over the course of several years, WBArch has engaged in design-build projects in which the members of the design team have also fabricated and installed the work.

The firm's work has appeared in many publications and most recently in Chicago Home, Chicago Crains, and Trends Magazine. Some of the firm's competition entries have been exhibited at the Art Institute, the Chicago Architecture Club and the Graham Foundation.

Mr. Blender has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Illinois Institute of Technology, and presently serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. From 2006 thru 2008, Richard Blender and his partner Michael Wilkinson will be serving as co-presidents for the Chicago Architecture Club. This year's mission will concentrate on the intersection between architecture, infrastructure, and landscape in the urban environment.

Richard Blender received his Masters of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and his undergraduate degree from Pratt Institute in New York.