Architect and historian Alan Hess has written nineteen books on Modern architecture and urbanism in the mid-twentieth century. They include The Architecture of John Lautner, Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture, Julius Shulman: Palm Springs, Viva Las Vegas, The Ranch House, and Oscar Niemeyer: Houses.

Hess has been active in the preservation of post-World War II architecture, including the oldest McDonald’s drive-in restaurant (1953, Downey, CA), Edward Durell Stone’s Stuart Pharmaceutical factory (1958, Pasadena, CA), and Wurdeman and Becket’s Bullock’s Pasadena.

Hess has been a National Arts Journalism Program Fellow at Columbia University's School of Journalism, and received a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts to research the work of Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. He has a M.Arch degree from the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, UCLA.

He is currently researching the architecture of Irvine, California, one of the United States’ largest master-planned communities of the 1960s and 1970s.

For more information, visit alanhess.net.