Dr. Carol Bentel FAIA is the Chair of the Interior Design Department at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. She is a partner in the firm of Bentel & Bentel Architects/Planners, whose projects include award-winning designs for higher education, luxury hotels, and some of New York’s most heralded restaurants such as The Modern restaurant at the Museum of Modern Art. She has co-authored the recent book, Nourishing the Senses: Restaurant Architecture of Bentel & Bentel, edited by John Morris Dixon. Dr. Bentel received her Ph.D. in History, Theory and Criticism in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Bentel is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Istituto d’Architettura, Universitario di Venezia. She was the national Chair of the American Institute of Architects Committee on Design.