Richard Renner attended Williams College expecting to go to law school. After graduating in 1969, he taught high school and then worked as a welder for sculptors in Vermont. Increasingly attracted to design, he enrolled in architecture school at MIT, graduating in 1976. He worked in a Boston architecture office before moving to Maine, where he worked for several architecture firms before establishing Richard Renner Architects in 2004. His first foray into environmentally responsible design was in 1993 with the phased renovation of an existing historic department store into the core campus for Maine College of Art.

Specializing in environmentally responsible architecture, Richard Renner Architects designed residential, institutional, commercial, and exhibit projects. Projects included residences throughout New England, comprehensive renovations for Maine College of Art (an early EPA Energy Star building), and the adaptive reuse of an historic building in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Residential projects, in Freeport and Portland, Maine, received two of the earliest LEED-Home Platinum ratings. Largely because of his work in sustainable design, Rick was elevated to the College of Fellows of The American Institute of Architects in 2019.

Rick was a founding member of Maine’s USGBC’s Chapter and Green Campus Consortium. He attended his first NESEA conference in the mid-1990’s and quickly became committed to NESEA’s work and community. While a member of the NESEA Board from 2013 to 2018, he served on the Executive Committee and chaired the Governance Committee.

Recently retired, Rick lives in Sherborn, Massachusetts with his wife, Janet Friskey, a graphic designer. He is an avid cyclist and photographer.