Robert Spencer Barnett

My academic degrees and professional practice are in architecture and campus planning. Geographically, I identify with New England, although I was raised in the Hudson Valley, educated in Philadelphia and New York, practiced architecture in Los Angeles, and campus planning at Princeton. Along the way, out of interest and necessity, I developed photographic, public speaking, and writing skills. Since 2008, I've been able to devote my time to writing non-fiction, specializing in––guess what––architecture and campus planning.

I'm a Virgo, an Earth sign. I like getting my hands and boots dirty. I can't write about a place unless I've been there, taken photographs, collected samples, and talked with locals. I enjoy solitary hours in archives, libraries, and on the internet gaining insight into what others have experienced in these places. As a writer, I excel at organizing, analyzing, and synthesizing what I have seen, touched, read, heard, and felt.

There are stories in every building and place, told in a language of materials, spaces, owners, designers, builders, life cycle, and change. I'm the storyteller, and hope that you, by reading my books, will learn the language...and be inspired to see for yourself.