Frederic (Rick) Bell FAIA is an architect and editor. He served as Executive Director (2015-2018) of Design and Construction Excellence at the New York City Department of Design and Construction, where was previously Director of In-House Design and Assistant Commissioner of Architecture and Engineering. 

He co-edited Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space (New Village Press, 2012) with Ronald Shiffman, Lance Jay Brown, and Lynne Elizabeth. From 2011-2015, he was the Executive Director of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and was instrumental to the New Visions design and planning coalition. He is a graduate of Yale College (B.A., 1973) and Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (M.Arch., 1976). 

Bell lives in New York City and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University’s Center for Buildings, Infrastructure and Public Space (CBIPS).