Interview w/ Barton Myers, FAIA of Barton Myers Architects

October 13, 2026

Interview w/ Barton Myers, FAIA of Barton Myers Architects

My interview with Architect Barton Myers, FAIA at the
AIA Santa Barbara Design Awards

This podcast episode and blog are sponsored by AIA Santa Barbara

www.bartonmyers.com

Barton Myers, FAIA / President
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Barton Myers received his Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently worked with Louis I. Kahn. He established his practice in Toronto in 1968. In 1984, he opened an office in Los Angeles that is now the firm’s base.

In 1986, Barton was the recipient of the first Toronto Arts Award for Architecture in recognition of his contribution to that city, and in 1994, he received a Gold Medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC). In 2002, Barton received the Gold Medal from the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA/LA).

Barton Myers has taught architecture and planning at both the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of Pennsylvania and also served as Thomas Jefferson Professor at the University of Virginia. Barton has held a continuing appointment as Professor of Architecture at the UCLA School of Art and Architecture since 1980 and lectures extensively throughout North America and abroad.

Fellow, American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles Chapter (FAIA)
Past Fellow, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (FRAIC)
Registered Architect in the States of Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey and Virginia
N.C.A.R.B. Certificate
Society of Architectural Historians
Tau Sigma Delta, Honorary Architectural Society
Retired Board Member and Lifetime Patron of the Society of Architectural Historians
President's Circle, United States Naval Academy

So, last December I had some friends who wanted me to come up to Santa Barbara to see them

and they told me, "Well maybe you could come to the AIA Santa Barbara Design Awards

because you know two of the architects on the jury and I said, "Well, I am trying to get them

to be on a podcast with me" and so I sent them a message and neither of them were going

to be there (Santa Barbara has their Design Awards fairly late in the year.... when most architects

are trying to get work done so that they can get paid before the end of the year and at a time

when architecture schools are doing final crits for the semester or quarter so again, not a very

convenient time BUT a great time to visit Santa Barbara with the beautiful Winter Holiday

Season and sooooo.... I took the train up which brought up a lot of memories of trains and and Los Angeles and trips driving up the Central Coast and maybe not what I really wanted to be

thinking about. Anyways... I did it because AIA Santa Barbara and my good friend Jolie Wah

who I worked with so many years ago at Appleton, Mechur and Associates, now Appleton, LLC

Partners, LLP in Santa Monica and Santa Barbara suggested that I interview architect Barton Myers,

FAIA. And so I did and this interview is in the link above, and it was videotaped and I think

it turned out very well and was a nice farewell to this great architect who passed last summer.

Side Note: Jolie gave me a great "Architect Baby Shower" complete with mini-blueprint invitations, etc etc. I showed a photo of my very pregnant self at the Baby Shower to one of my friends now who said,

"I don't know who any of those people are" (They didn't even recognize a very famous tv actress

who happened to be married to my old boss, so maybe I should feel better)

I might have met Barton in my younger days in architecture in Los Angeles and I was familiar

with his residential work but I did not know of any of his Performing Arts Centers which he spoke

of in the interview until I started looking them up and realized that I have seen at least three

of these projects and they are the following:

Tempe Center for the Arts