ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY + PHOTO CO. is a special endeavor of RICHARD OLSEN, a Carmel, California-based architectural historian-photographer and, since 2023, the Senior Editor of FORBES Architecture+Design. In his three decades as an editor of architecture books and magazines, Richard's held the positions of Senior Architecture Editor, Architectural Digest; Senior Editor, Architecture & Design, Harry N. Abrams Publishers; Architecture Editor, Rizzoli International Publications; and Director, Architects & Designers Book Service. At Amazon.com, Richard was the editor of the book divisions of Arts & Photography; Home & Garden; and Travel. A photographic contributor to architecture books since 2002, Richard maintains an extensive photo archive, including an ongoing project, an historical building inventory of the residences of Big Sur, California.
Drawing from all facets of this background, ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY + PHOTO CO. takes on research, writing, and photographing for publication; editorial- and historic-preservation consultation; the production of house histories for homeowners; and select special projects.
Recent Work for Forbes
Richard is the author-photographer of the forthcoming Rizzoli book California Green: Environmentalism and the House, 1850–2025. He is the author of 2012's Handmade Houses (Rizzoli), a reexamination of architecture's 1960s–70s back-to-the-earth movement. Inspired by his grandfather and great-grandfather, both Norwegian carpenters, he also authored the 2006 book Log Houses of the World (Harry N. Abrams). To date, field research and photography for the books have taken Richard to 28 countries throughout the world.
Reviews of Richard's books have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, the New York Journal of Books, Huffington Post, Architectural Digest, Architectural Record, Architect's Newspaper, and in the American Institute of Architects' Residential Architect, among other publications, print and digital.
On Cavallo Island, France, with architects Lucia Curotti and Savin Couelle.
Subjects of Ongoing Research & Documentation:
⚛ the evolution of "environmental" theory and practices in the design, technology, and construction of California's custom single-family house, from the late-19th century to present
⚛ "Placefulness In Decline: The Domestic Architecture of Big Sur, 21st-Century Globalism, Social Media, and Big Tech-, Big Capital-Gentrification"
⚛ the residential architecture of the 1960s-70s counterculture
⚛ the Modern architecture of Carmel, California's George Brook-Kothlow (1934–2012)
Selected examples of Richard's work as an author and/or photographer (click on the image and it will expand):
Selected examples of Richard’s work as an editor:
