Interior Designer of the Year Winner

Dr Carol Bentel FAIA, FIIDA, ASID, LEED AP, CID is Chair of the School of Visual Arts NYC’s BFA Interior Design: Built Environments Department. She is also an Architect, Interior Designer and Partner at Bentel & Bentel Architects/Planners, a Fulbright Scholar, an American Academy Rome Prize Fellow, and a 2008 national Chair of the AIA Committee on Design. Additionally, Bentel is a Fellow of the AIA College of Fellows, Fellow of the International Interior Design Association, Vice-Chair of NYS Preservation League, and current NYS Architecture Board member.

She co-authored the book, Nourishing the Senses: Restaurant Architecture of Bentel & Bentel which includes The Modern Restaurant at MoMA and Le Bernardin. With her firm, she has won four National AIA Honor Awards, numerous SARA awards, “Best Design of the Year 2000,” IIDA and Interior Design Magazine Award, 2007 HD Platinum Circle Honoree, three James Beard Awards for design, Finalist for Renwick Gallery Interior (with Dr. Paul Bentel), and two winning entries (interiors) in Built by Women NYC, 2015.

Carol received her Ph.D. in History-Theory-Criticism in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (after 29 years!), and taught at Harvard University, MIT, Georgia Tech, Webb Institute Naval Architecture, CUNY, and NYIT. At SVA, Carol also teaches design studios: “Eating”- a focus on adaptive reuse/circular food economy; “Sleeping” - a focus on a wellness home for formerly incarcerated inhabitants who are learning a trade in harvesting energy and urban farming. Her students lead in awards: Angelo Donghia Foundation and Hospitality Design Magazine.

Carol has a lecture series called “Inside the Box”, and has previously received the 2021 AIA LI Teaching Award. She mentors AECI-HS in the Bronx and Trenton-HS, NJ, and has been featured in articles/film for her campaign to reuse interior materials (Bentel is adamant about “designing with conscience”). She has been the prime juror for many competitions: 2021 national AIA Interior Architecture Awards, the 2021 International Region AIA Awards, and the 2021 Asian Pacific DC Awards.