Episode 55 | The Architecture of Meaning | June 23, 2026
Ray Booth
Show Notes: Ray Booth grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, studied architecture at Auburn, and today divides his time between Nashville, New York City, and Provincetown, Massachusetts — a life as layered as the interiors he creates.
Ray's path to becoming a partner at McAlpine, the celebrated architecture and interiors firm founded by Bobby McAlpine, wasn't a straight line. After interning with the firm in college, he headed to New York to work in the studio of legendary designer John Saladino. He also spent time as a model with Click Model Management — a chapter that funded extended travel through Europe and deepened his eye for history, craft, and beauty.
McAlpine eventually drew him back with an offer to build out the firm's interiors practice, and Ray has been shaping some of America's most thoughtful homes ever since. He's published two books: Evocative Interiors (2018) and The Expressive Home (2025).
In this conversation, Ray shares a design philosophy rooted not in aesthetics but in emotion — he sees homes as emotional vessels, containers for the full breadth of human experience. Beauty, he'll tell you, is the byproduct of creating a soulful home.
Host Melañio Gomez has known Ray since the early '90s, when both were just beginning their careers and adult lives.
Links from the Episode:
Ray’s Books: Evocative Interiors and The Expressive Home
Ray’s Furniture Collaboration (available to the trade)
