Architect and historian Alan Hess is author of twenty-one books on Modern architecture and urbanism in the twentieth century; his subjects include architects John Lautner, Oscar Niemeyer, Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as the Ranch House, Las Vegas, and Palm Springs. He is a Commissioner on the California State Historical Resources Commission, and serves on the boards of Preserve Orange County, Palm Springs Modernism Week, and DesignOnScreen.

He has been the architecture critic of the San Jose Mercury News, a contributor to The Architects Newspaper, grant recipient from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Clarence Stein Foundation, and a National Arts Journalism Fellow.

He has helped to conserve or landmark buildings from the Modern era, including CBS Television City (Pereira & Luckman, architect), Bullock’s Pasadena (Wurdeman & Becket, architect), Norm’s La Cienega Coffee Shop (Armét and Davis, architect), and the oldest remaining McDonald’s stand (Stanley Meston, architect.) Awards for his work conserving Modern architecture include the Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Docomomo/US’s Award of Excellence, and the President’s Award from the Los Angeles Conservancy. His latest book, “Googie Modern:Architectural Drawings of Armet Davis Newlove” was published in March 2022. He is currently writing a history of Modern Architecture in California.