14th Annual Alumni and FRIENDS Reception

As president, Bob McConnell oversees EwingCole’s business and operational activities while developing its next generation of leaders. He establishes and implements national growth, culture, and innovation strategies that have transformed EwingCole into a leading national architecture, engineering, and interior design firm with nine offices and 450 employees. In the first six years of McConnell’s tenure as president, EwingCole has nearly doubled its revenue.

Before being elected president, McConnell was EwingCole’s director of architecture, focusing on project quality, design excellence, and staff development. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, he continues to work on many of the firm’s large-scale projects. McConnell directs early phases of design work, shaping and guiding projects through critical design decisions  based on program, site and owner input. He also enjoys collaborating with clients and other design professionals to find inventive solutions that address the complex needs of a project.

In his 31 years at EwingCole, McConnell has worked in all of EwingCole’s practices, but has an extensive portfolio within the sports market, for both professional and collegiate clients. His most notable projects include The Singapore Racetrack, Citizens Bank Park for the Philadelphia Phillies, The Quest Diagnostics Training Facility for the New York Giants, PNC Field for the AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees, the expansion at Clover Park in Port St Lucie for the New York Mets, and the Finneran Pavilion for Villanova University, among many others.  His most recent non- sports project is a new 1 million-square-foot hospital for Essentia Health in Duluth, Minn.  For project work, McConnell is primarily a designer and planner and also project manager and principal lead.

In addition to his B.Arch. from New York Institute of Technology, McConnell earned a Master of Architecture and a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He has been married to Charlotte Thomas for 35 years, and together they have three adult children and one granddaughter.

About Bentel & Bentel: The late Dr. Frederick R. Bentel, FAIA, and Maria A. Bentel, FAIA, were founding partners of Bentel & Bentel, Architects/Planners AIA and faculty members at New York Tech. They each left a profound impact on the School of Architecture & Design, and the professional lives of its graduates from the late 1970s to the early 2000s. Since its founding in 1957, the firm has acquired a reputation for superior contemporary design, with work that is consistently bold, modern, creative, and beautifully resolved. It spans a wide range of building types and scales, from urban environments to refined interiors and furnishings, and demonstrates a belief that great design manifests its virtues in both its practical and aesthetic qualities. Bentel & Bentel draws inspiration from the locale—local history, regional styles, prevailing building methods, environmental conditions, and the nearby landscape or urban context. In the end, what the firm seeks is unprecedented design that redefines rather than reproduces prevailing conventions. Its projects have garnered numerous international, national, and regional awards for design excellence. Its current three principal members are Paul Bentel, Ph.D., FAIA; Peter Bentel, AIA; and Carol Rusche Bentel, Ph.D., FAIA. The firm's studio is located in Locust Valley, N.Y., where it has practiced since its inception.

Accepting the award (from left to right): Carol R. Bentel, Ph.D., FAIA, FIIDA, ASID, Partner; Peter Bentel, AIA, Partner; and Paul Bentel, Ph.D. FAIA, Partner

Paul Bentel, Ph.D. FAIA
Partner

Paul Bentel was born in New York City in 1957. He received his undergraduate degree in the visual arts at Harvard University. Prior to receiving his graduate degree in architecture at Harvard University, where he was co-editor of The Harvard Architecture Review IV, he was a sculptor in Pietrasanta, Italy. He received his Ph.D. in the history and theory of architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has taught at Harvard and MIT, and is a professor of Architecture and History at Columbia University. He has delivered lectures at Harvard, MIT, Yale, Rhode Island School of Design, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Federal Polytechnic University (Zurich, Switzerland). He is a partner in the studio of Bentel & Bentel, Architects/Planners AIA, and a licensed architect.

Peter Bentel, AIA
Partner

Peter Bentel was born in New York in 1960. Prior to receiving his undergraduate degree in the visual arts at Princeton University, he was a sculptor in Pietrasanta, Italy. He received his graduate degree in architecture at Harvard University, where he was co-editor of The Harvard Architecture Review VII, and his postgraduate education in the history and theory of modern architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has taught at Harvard and MIT, and has delivered lectures at the Rhode Island School of Design, National University (Mexico), Milan Polytechnic (Italy), Tokyo University (Japan), and Shanghai and Beijing Universities (China). He is a partner in the studio of Bentel & Bentel, Architects/Planners AIA, and is a licensed architect.

Carol R. Bentel, Ph.D., FAIA, FIIDA, ASID
Partner

Carol R. Bentel was born in St. Louis, Mo. She received her undergraduate degree in architecture at Washington University of St. Louis and her graduate degree in architecture at North Carolina State University. Prior to receiving her Ph.D. in the history and theory of modern architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Venice (Italy). She is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, FAAR '94. She has taught at Harvard, MIT, Georgia Tech, and the Architectural Association in London, and is currently chair of the Interior Design Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Bentel has delivered lectures at Harvard, MIT, Yale, the Architectural Association in London, and the Centro Palladio in Vicenza (Italy). She has published numerous articles on Italian Modernism. She was the national chair of the AIA Committee on Design, which has more than 10,000 members. Bentel is a partner in the studio of Bentel & Bentel, Architects/Planners AIA, and is NCARB, NCIDQ and LEED AP certified.