Richard Penner, professor at the Hotel School at Cornell University since 1970, teaches hotel planning, development, and interior design. Experienced in both architecture and hotel management, he spent year-long sabbaticals with international designer Hirsch Bedner Associates (Santa Monica, CA) and the architecture group of Starwood Hotels and Resorts (White Plains, NY). A graduate of Cornell University, with bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture, he is the author of four books--two coauthored with the late Walter Rutes, who was the lead author on the first edition of Hotel Design, Development, and Planning. In 1992 Hospitality Design magazine honored Penner with its Platinum Circle Award for contributions to hospitality design as an author and teacher. He has presented seminars on development, hotel planning, and interior design throughout the world. He has served a three-year term as Director of Graduate Studies at the Hotel School, has been conference coordinator for design seminars at the European Meeting on Hotel Interior Design in Rimini, Italy, and has chaired five Hospitality Design Roundtables sponsored by the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell.