Bill received degrees in geography and visual arts from the University of Victoria, in 1979 and 1981 respectively. In 1982, after spending a year in Japan, he entered the School of Architecture at the University of British Columbia. In his second year, Bill attended a studies abroad program for architecture in Hong Kong and then spent a year living in Manila and Tokyo, working for Rengo Keikakusha on urban design projects for those cities.

Bill graduated from Architecture school in 1987 with a thesis project called "The Museum of Sand", a theoretical zone of touristic and therapeutic spaces set in the dense heart of Tokyo. This project spawned a series of small play gardens and domestic objects called "Souvenirs from the Museum of Sand" which he continues to produce today. Some of these objects have become manifest into larger scales in his designs for urban spaces, cemeteries and public art.

After graduation, Bill spent several years working in the offices of Henriquez and Partners, Situ Design, Patkau Architects, and Bing Thom Architects.

Along with his design partner and friend, Stephanie Robb, Bill has developed an oeuvre of interests which synthesizes his love of geography, art and, of course, architecture. Their collective portfolio of projects vary in scale from small domestic objects and furniture, to set design, public art, gardens, retail environments, residences, plazas, cemeteries and urban design.

As well as designing, Bill teaches architecture at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the University of British Columbia (SALA). His classes reflect the scope of his interests, working with students on such varied subjects as concrete construction, the architecture of cemeteries, and the creative application of sustainable building practices into contemporary architecture and urbanism.