Richard Longstreth

Who is Richard Longstreth?

Dr. Richard W. Longstreth is an architectural historian and a professor at George Washington University where he directs the program in historic preservation.

Longstreth received an A.B. in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968, and a Ph.D. in architectural history from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. He taught at Kansas State University before joining the George Washington University faculty in 1983.

Longstreth's career has focused in two areas: architectural history and historic preservation. His early scholarly work focused on the late nineteenth century architects of the San Francisco Bay Area and led to his book On the Edge of the World: Four Architects in San Francisco at the Turn of the Century, but more recently he has focused on architecture in relationship to the decentralization of American cities. His book, City Center to Regional Mall: Architecture, the Automobile, and Retailing in Los Angeles, 1920-1950, won the 1997 "Abbott Lowell Cummings Award" from the Vernacular Architecture Forum, the 1997 "Lewis Mumford Prize" of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History, and the 1999 "Spiro Kostof Award" of the Society of Architectural Historians.