Lutah Maria Riggs Designs the American Riviera
The Kitchen Sisters Present
The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
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Summary
Stucco arches, red tile floors, exposed beams — the look and feel of the houses in the oceanfront towns of Santa Barbara and Montecito can be attributed to a woman architect known by one name: Lutah.
The Ohio-born and California-bred architect Lutah Maria Riggs was on track to be a teacher, one of few professions to welcome women in the early 20th century, when she won a scholarship to Berkeley by selling newspapers. Like architect Julia Morgan before her, she gained entry to the university's Beaux Arts influenced architecture program – one of only four women in her class. Also like Morgan, she was talented enough to capture the interest and mentorship of the head of the program, John Galen Howard, and a series of other older male architects who helped her launch her career and chaperoned her travel to Mexico, Spain, and other countries whose architecture was highly influential in California in the 1920s.
Riggs's most famous public project, the Lobero Theater in downtown Santa Barbara, was directly influenced by a serendipitous stop in Spain. Traveling on her own, Riggs took advantage of the network of women's hotels and clubs available in those days. She was always up for a dance, and was even friends with Martha Graham when the modern dance pioneer spent time in Santa Barbara.
Her work has helped define the indoor-outdoor, casual, one-story style that is most identified with southern California today. That has made her houses highly prized for their luxurious materials, swoon-worthy views, and easy living. Unlike many architects who focused on public commissions, many of her houses are still extant, and the real estate agents know what they've got. Zoe Saldana lives in a Lutah today, and architecture enthusiast Ellen DeGeneres has in the past. Riggs – who lived until the 1980s – continues to be one of Santa Barbara's most celebrated architects.
Produced by Brandi Howell for the New Angle Voice Podcast presented by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation.
The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell.The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of PRX's Radiotopia podcast network.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Radio Topia. Welcome to the Kitchen Sisters present. |
| 0:04.0 | We're the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson, and Nikki Silva. |
| 0:09.0 | Are you feeling a crisis of an existential and ethical nature? |
| 0:16.0 | So is fellow Radiotopian Caitlin Prest. |
| 0:20.0 | On her podcast The Heart, she has a new series called Suburban Paradise, |
| 0:24.6 | short, quiet, and reflective episodes, written in a strip mall breakfast joint, |
| 0:29.6 | or the cafe inside the furniture store, produced in her dad's garage. |
| 0:35.6 | Caitlin says it's an oxymoronic title for, quote, |
| 0:39.3 | charming and inconsequential creative works |
| 0:42.3 | made during an era of global ethical crisis. |
| 0:46.3 | Caitlin is known for her artistic approach to audio. |
| 0:50.3 | She creates documentary and fiction, serious and playful. |
| 0:55.1 | Her favorite topic is love, big and small, all that is magic, painful and beautiful about being alive. |
| 1:02.9 | Check out Suburban Paradise. |
| 1:05.3 | Fifteen-minute episodes dropped once a month on the heart. |
| 1:17.9 | Today, the Kitchen Sisters present. |
| 1:21.9 | Luta Maria Riggs designs the American Riviera, |
| 1:25.2 | about one of Santa Barbara's most celebrated architects, |
| 1:28.3 | produced by Brandy Howell for New Angle Voice. |
| 1:35.9 | My name's Gretchen Leaf, and I live in Montecito. I'd never really heard of Luda. |
| 1:42.0 | There was a architect, Bob Eason, and he came to a home that my ex-husband and I had just purchased. |
| 1:45.0 | He went into one of the bathrooms, and he said, that's a Luda floor. And I said, Luda Who? And he said Luda Maria Riggs. That was the first |
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