A partner in the Locust Valley, New York studio of Bentel & Bentel, Architects/Planners AIA, Bentel received his undergraduate degree in the visual arts at Harvard University. Prior to his graduate degree in architecture at Harvard University, where he was co-editor of the Harvard Review IV, he was a sculptor in Pietrasanta, Italy.  He received his Ph.D. in the history and theory of architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He has taught at Harvard and MIT, and was an assistant professor at Columbia University for ten years.