Hildebrand earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Michigan in 1957 and subsequently worked for the offices of Albert Kahn and Minoru Yamasaki. After completing his Master of Architecture at the University of Michigan in 1964, he joined the faculty of the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington, where he taught until the year 2000.
At Washington, Hildebrand taught architectural design, architectural history, and a variety of other classes. In 1978 he became interested in the work of the English geographer Jay Appleton, who developed a theory about the innate appeal of certain landscapes. Hildebrand applied these ideas to architectural space, teaching a course on this topic beginning in 1988.
Hildebrand"s early research and writing drew on his time with the firm of Albert Kahn, leading to Designing for Industry: The Architecture of Albert Kahn (1974).
He received the University"s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1975. Hildebrand"s interest in the work of Jay Appleton is reflected in two books, The Wright Space: Pattern and Meaning in Frank Lloyd Wright"s Houses (1991) and Origins of Architectural Pleasure (1999) which received the Washington Governor"s Writers" Award.
