Richard Bloch

A winner of the James Beard Award for, “Unique Dining Experience,” Richard Bloch, RA, AIA, NCARB, has established himself as a well-known restaurant architect and interior designer in a career spanning more than three decades.

In addition, he has a diverse background in areas such as town planning, contract interiors, cultural centers and residential work in the United States and internationally.

Richard was a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey, a city planner in Iran, and a design consultant for U.S. Government cultural centers in Japan, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Belgium and Mexico. After receiving an architecture degree from Pratt Institute in New York, Bloch served as a Peace Corp volunteer working as a city planner in a number of small towns near Tehran.

While spending time in Japan, Bloch designed six cultural centers, during which time he invented a structural knuckle, a geometry system, earning him a 10-year, “Original Invention” patent in Japan.

Following Japan, he opened his first office in Washington, DC, in 1972 doing work for USIS/USIA and the Voice of America. He spent time in Japan, Europe and the Middle East again before permanently moving back to New York where he joined the firm Harper and George, later known as the George Studio.

Since establishing RBA in 1986, the firm has completed hundreds of commissions and his work has been featured in numerous newspapers and magazines from around the world.