Kristen Richards

In Tribute

1952–2021

On July 1, we lost former Oculus editor and ArchNewsNow founder, Kristen Richards. Here, a few colleagues and close friends remember Kristen’s irrepressible spirit, nose for news, and far-reaching generosity. Find more memories from AIANY members here.

In February 2012, Kristen brought up the idea of throwing a 10-year anniversary party for ArchNewsNow.com. “We’re thrilled to be celebrating ArchNewsNow.com’s first decade of delivering daily international news and views as a free service to the design community,” read the invitation, sent to a select list of her 200 faves. AIA New York, of course, agreed to host the party for Kristen at the Center for Architecture—the appropriate venue for it—but she still needed to pay for catering. So I made a date with Kristen to have drinks at the Four Seasons, which, back then, was the only true place for planning world domination, especially by and for ANN. My husband joined us for additional moral support. 

Kristen was excited about the party, but overwhelmed by the cost. “Why don’t you reach out to your followers?” we suggested. “You have been such an advocate for the design community, and everyone loves you.” At our urging, she started to approach architects and consultants when she ran into them at the many industry events she frequently attended; others she contacted by email. The response was strong and immediate. One by one, her “angels” (as she called her supporters) came to her assistance, and the donations started to trickle in. Other people heard about the party and voluntarily reached out to Kristen, pledging support. Within two weeks, Kristen had received almost all the funds she needed. She was so modest about her achievements that the only one who was surprised by the response from the design community was her. “I never realized how many angels I have on my shoulder!” Kristen exclaimed in an email. 

Kristen and I wrote thousands of emails back and forth over the years. Her energy came through in explosive punctuation and cross-pollinations of different thoughts and topics. She might write to me about the best new project she’d seen lately, show me an interesting article from ANN she thought I would like, toss in a funny cat video, and ask if I was going to such-and-such event or when we could get together next. In one email, commenting on a couple of industry luminaries who had recently died, she wrote: “Life goes on and so do good souls—including us and so many more...” And so will you, Kristen. So will you.

—Tami Hausman

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The architecture world has lost a legend: our dear Kristen Richards. Most of us knew Kristen via our inboxes, as we devoured her invaluable ArchNewsNow daily newsletter, informing us of all the architecture news we needed to know from near to far—with the most helpful one-line summaries. 

I first met Kristen when I was working at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, organizing lectures and conferences. I had contacted ArchNewsNow to promote an event, thinking it was part of some design media empire, and got a quick and cheerful response from Kristen! As always, she was willing to help, and we developed a long-term email exchange until finally I met her in person at an event at the Center for Architecture. Meeting the woman behind the daily emails was like meeting a celebrity! Her wonderful wit, extensive knowledge of the design world, infectious laugh, and characteristic style, always accented with red, made her larger than life! Later, when I worked at Harvard Graduate School of Design, I helped organize a trip to Cambridge for her to participate in an event for design media. Always modest, despite her fame to all of us, she called to ask me if I would meet her at the gates of the university. She had never been to Harvard and could not believe she was invited—I could not believe she had not been invited before! As she took my arm, we strolled through campus and later that day met for a requisite glass of red wine.  

 When I became executive director of AIANY | Center for Architecture, Kristen was one of the first people to congratulate me. In my first year, seeing her at events and as editor of Oculus, which she had guided for so many years, was so helpful and reassuring.  

Kristen was a great editor and a fantastic communicator. A huge fan of the Center, she contributed much of her time and energy to producing content for us and our community. And she cared about us—she contacted me equally as often to tell me that there was a missing comma in an AIANY publication, or that she absolutely loved an event or exhibition at the Center. 

—Ben Prosky

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Kristen Richards was one of the brightest stars in a firmament that included the most outstanding architects, landscape architects, designers, artists, and writers in the world. She honored their work when she mentioned it in ArchNewsNow or commissioned an article on it for Oculus. She was modest in the face of the giants of the industry, and I don’t think she ever realized how important her acknowledgment was to them. 

Her recognition of my work was an important stamp of approval. I didn’t know Kristen or her publications before she called me that day in the fall of 2008, but I was beyond flattered when she said she’d been reading my stuff and wondered if I’d be interested in writing for Oculus. I listened to her for only a few moments, and I was on board. Out of those few minutes also came a collaboration and a solid friendship that lasted to the end of her days. 

I loved talking to her, which we did for hours on so many subjects: design, foreign languages, her numerous careers, her colorful and talented mother in Sedona, our respective times abroad, gardening, native species, cats, and her husband, George, whom she doted on. 

Working for her on Oculus was a complete joy. She knew what interested me and gave me those assignments. She could be a ruthless copy editor, but good-naturedly tolerated my writer’s prima donna gene and moved on. We had deadlines, after all.  

Besides her wit and tirelessly cheerful demeanor, I think it is her rigor that I will miss the most. She was old school in a way that writers find reassuring, because it gives us strict parameters to work within and then go on to add just the right flourishes. From now on, every time I write something, I will be channeling that red pen of hers as I look for just the right word, and wonder if she would’ve liked what I’ve written.

—Claire Wilson

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I will never forget how overjoyed Kristen was when she was appointed editor-in-chief of the revamped Oculus magazine. At the time, I was director of marketing and communications at the Municipal Art Society (MAS), but it was time to make a change. Kristen encouraged me to make the transition and become a freelance writer and publicist. And, to give me a head start, she even gave me my first writing assignment. So on my way home from my last day working at the MAS, I stopped by Grand Central Terminal to cover the “Designing the High Line” exhibition of ideas for eOculus, which Kristen also helmed. That began my long association with the Center and the Chapter, one that I am proud of. I have been writing for the “In the News” section of the newsletter (some people still call it eOculus!) and the Design Award Issue of Oculus ever since. Kristen had more faith in me than I had in myself. We were very close, and she was always there for me, personally and professionally. Kristen had a great way with words as a writer and an editor, but she was also my best listener. Many of you have experienced her far-reaching intelligence, quick wit, sense of fairness, love for her friends, compassion for people, and, of course, her joie de vivre, which was infectious. What I am most grateful to Kristen for—besides the opportunities she gave me and her unequivocal friendship—is that she showed me, by example, how to be a better person. 

—Linda Miller

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At first I thought the secret to Kristen’s joie de vivre might be her rose-colored glasses—real ones, which she paired with her signature red ensembles. But as I got to know her better, I realized that Kristen’s irrepressible joy came from gathering and sharing news, and connecting people in the process. 

I wasn’t Kristen’s immediate successor as the editor of Oculus, but the publication I stepped into still carried her stamp. In its format, content, and contributors, many of her innovations remain to this day. What I value most is the wonderful network that Kristen assembled, including pros like our copy editor, Elena Serocki. “Elena will be your secret weapon,” Kristen told me when I started, and how right she was. Kristen lobbied from afar for assignments to crackerjack journalists, like Claire Wilson, whom she knew would knock it out of the ballpark every time (right again). 

When Kristen had to part with her beloved Midtown studio and officially make her home base outside the city, she would often forward Linda Miller (AIANY Newsletter) and me invitations to press events that she couldn’t attend herself. “This should be good!” or “If I could be in town, I would so be there!” she would write at the top of the email, perhaps hoping to have some eyes and ears on the ground, but primarily aiming to ensure that news—or even just some good gossip—did not go unheeded. 

Kristen generously shared ideas and information with me when she could have dropped the mic, riding into a blazing red sunset. But she loved Oculus, the Center, and architects too much to do that. Though she and I had different approaches, I’ve never forgotten that I stand on her shoulders. Kristen was always the reader I wanted to impress the most. To imagine her opening the latest Oculus was the incentive to do one more proofread before shipping the issue to the printer every quarter.

I dropped Kristen a note in late January, just to say hello and let her know that her newsletter ArchNewsNow (ANN) had been a lifeline during the dark days of homeschooling during the pandemic, when my reading time was sucked up by second-grade math. “Sometimes I don't see the forest for the trees and wonder if anyone is paying attention (do I really have to set my alarm?). But I do...and glad to know it's keeping folks connected,” she replied.

Kristen connected us in so many ways. Scanning ANN’s digest of must-reads was invaluable in and of itself, but it was also thrilling to know that thousands of colleagues were looking at the same “cheers” and “eyefuls” from Kristen, her daily reminder of why we fell in love with architecture.

—Molly Heintz

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