Hello! You can reach Darrel & Judy Rippeteau at 202.306.9188 or by email at darrel.sp@riparchs.com.
Darrel Rippeteau was born and raised in Watertown, New York where he grew up skating, skiing, fishing, hunting… running track and cross-country. He served in the US Army in Viet Nam 1970 to 1971, then graduated from Syracuse University School of Architecture in 1974. He arrived at Arthur Cotton Moore Associates in the summer of 1975 where among other jobs he worked on the Old Post Office competition (we won). In 1977 he began his own architectural practice in the basement at Caroline Street NW, and by 1986 had purchased 1530 14th Street, a former hot-dog cart warehouse, and moved his office there. In 2004 he demolished the old structure and built a new mixed-use project on the site. During those years Darrel’s firm designed shopping centers and offices for major developers, from Washington to New York to Florida to Chicago and Milwaukee.
Darrel is a past Chairman of the Washington Building Congress (WBC) and founder of the Builders Ball which he chaired for years, raising funds for charities through vast parties in the Building Museum, the Convention Center, and the Reagan Building. During his years of service as Chair of CANstruction, he expanded the program and increased the total tonnage of food collected for the Capital Area Food Bank. On the side, Darrel’s brand “ARCHIfetti” manufactured silk neckties and scarves featuring the great buildings of America, for sale at shops in the Capitol, the Supreme Court, and the National Building Museum, as well as in New York and Chicago.
And as the founder of the Craftsmanship Star Awards, Darrel continues to contribute to the Washington Building Congress (WBC) and to show up at events. You can take advantage of this standing offer: for a $400 contribution to the WBC Craftsman Hall of Fame, Darrel will visit your home in the DC area and make an “en plein air” ink sketch suitable for framing.
