Explore every episode of Unfrozen
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 May 2024 | Cities in the Sky | 00:42:30 | |
Jason Barr is a professor of economics at Rutgers University Newark and one of the world's foremost experts on the economics of skyscrapers. His new book, out May 14, 2024, is Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers. In it, Barr takes a global view of why the quest to build up is as fierce as ever, and why skyscrapers remain so controversial. Join the Unfrozen interview with Barr, in which some record-breaking myths get busted. -- Intro/Outro: “Altitude Blues,” by Ladytron -- Discussed: Mythbusting the Home Insurance Building First Skyscrapers | Skyscraper Firsts Forum LeRoy Buffington’s skyscraper patent Mythbusting The Skyscraper Index Joel Garreau’s Edge City Emaar’s real estate play at Burj Khalifa: Downtown Dubai Legends Tower, Oklahoma City China’s “build it” economy Nashville and Oracle Detroit and Dan Gilbert Newark renaissance Center City District (Philadelphia) study: Downtowns Rebound Karen Seto (Yale)'s studies on tall building height canopies | |||
| 11 Jun 2022 | Episode 30: True Lies | 00:46:39 | |
For a truly philosophical take on the role of the architect in the post-truth era, Unfrozen interviews Richard Francis-Jones, author of Truth and Lies in Architecture. Intro: “Telling Lies,” by David Bowie Discussed: Architecture’s ambiguous relationship to truth. The criteria that make a building worthy of love. How can architecture bring us closer to nature? Architecture is “never neutral nor innocent. There is a mutual interconnection between architecture and the events around it.” “Eternal principles” or a classicist, colonialist trap? Ex Machina and the consciousness of materials Locaton and Vassal Tsien and Williams John Keats Aldo Rossi Louis Kahn The EY Centre, Sydney The negative critique culture. Outro: “True,” by Spandau Ballet | |||
| 25 Jun 2022 | Episode 31: Emergent Tokyo | 00:45:46 | |
Think of Tokyo less as a “chaotic” than as an “emergent” city. This means spontaneous, self-organizing aspects create order from the bottom up. That kind of emergence can be, if not designed, then facilitated. Unfrozen interviews Jorge Almazan, Associate Professor, Department of System Design Engineering, Keio University, and author of “Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City.” Intro: Woman from Tokyo, by Deep Purple Discussed: Yokocho Alleys Zakkyo Buildings Ankyo Streets Complexity Science – Geoffrey West Cellular Automata – Stephen Wolfram The Uses of Disorder – Richard Sennett Rather than a Unified Theory of Emergence applicable to all cities, there are transferable principles:
Bar recommendations: - Bar Usagi, Shibuya - The Greek Bar, Suginami Made in Tokyo, Atelier Bow Wow Outro: Godzilla, by Blue Oyster Cult | |||
| 21 Apr 2024 | Irreplaceable | 00:52:44 | |
Kevin Kelley, a self-described “attention architect,” is a co-founding partner of design firm Shook Kelley and author of Irreplaceable: How to Create Extraordinary Places That Bring People Together. In our digitized world of ghost commerce, he believes there is still a place for real places, and that it is incumbent on architects to stop looking down their noses at retail, the essential lubricant of urban life, and start designing places that matter. -- Intro/Outro: “Friction,” by Television -- Discussed: Bass Pro Shops at the Memphis Pyramid “The Bonfire Effect,” courtesy Loxahatchie, Florida Participation mystique, as per Jung, as per Lucien Levy-Bruhl “TheAnxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt “Harvard Guide to Shopping” by Rem Koolhaas et. al. Prior Unfrozen commentary on the replacement for the Orange County Government Center by Paul Rudolph Yaromir Steiner and Easton Town Center, Columbus Country Club Plaza, Kansas City The Grove, Los Angeles The Farmer’s Market, Los Angeles Larchmont, Los Angeles Hollywood and Highland (now Ovation), Los Angeles Harley-Davidson dealerships’ Parts Bar Mercado Gonzalez, Costa Mesa, CA | |||
| 05 Nov 2022 | Episode 42: 1972: A Spatial Oddity | 00:38:44 | |
The Nakagin Capsule Tower, among the few large structures to emerge from the Japanese Metabolism movement, was barely 50 years old when it was demolished in September 2022, after years of neglect and debate. Unfrozen interviews visual artist Noritaka Minami and curator Iker Gil, who have staged the exhibition 1972/Accumulationsat MAS Context in Chicago, on display through December 8. -- Intro/Outro: “Space Oddity” by David Bowie - Discussed: 1960 Tokyo World Design Conference 1970 World’s Exposition, Osaka 1972 – Nakagin Capsule Tower book Kisho Kurokawa, architect of the Nakagin Capsule Tower Tomio Ohashi photos Tatsuyuki Maeda> Capsule Tower Preservation and Restoration Project > Nakagin Capsule Tower: The Last Record Kisho Kurokawa’s only building in the USA is in Chicago: the Illinois Center Sporting Club Marina City, one of Nakagin Capsule Tower’s inspirations | |||
| 26 Aug 2023 | Skyscrapers and Skullduggery | 00:44:40 | |
Thomas Leslie is a professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois, and a noted skyscraper scholar. He has just published “Chicago Skyscrapers, 1934-1986: How Technology, Politics, Finance, and Race Reshaped the City, the second book in a magisterial series on how the famous Chicago skyline came to be. This period saw the birth of icons like the Sears (Willis) Tower and John Hancock Center, the story of which is inextricable from the skullduggery in the backrooms of Chicago politics and real estate.
-- Intro/Outro: “Skullduggery” by Steppenwolf
Discussed:
- The Richard J. Daley Collection archives at University of Illinois Chicago - The Development Plan for the Central Area of Chicago, 1958 - Chicago as a gameboard, in which skyscrapers were chess pieces - The Field Building, 1934 - 860-880 Lake Shore Drive, 1951 - C.F. Murphy, the Zelig figure of Chicago architecture and real estate - The State of Illinois Building > James R. Thompson Center > Google - The Sears Tower and its land accumulation saga - The John Hancock Center – the “car chase” scene in the book - Modern Architecture: A Critical History - Kenneth Frampton - The Power Broker – Robert Caro | |||
| 15 Jan 2024 | Trying Not to Think About Time: 2023 Recap / 2024 Preview | 00:40:40 | |
On the dawn of our fourth season, your hosts recap their favorite ‘casts of 2023, a live dramatic reading of Unfrozen’s 2023 Spotify Wrapped stats, and get on and off the soapbox as we stare down the barrel of 2024. -- Intro/Outro: “Trying Not to Think About Time,” by The Futureheads -- Discussed: - Unfrozen’s 2023 Spotify Wrapped Stats: o Most Popular Episode: “Show Me the Bodies” with Peter Apps o Most Shared Episode: “Untimely Meditations, Virtual Repatriations,” with Era Merkuri and Martin Gjoleka + Chidi Nwaubani - After School Newsletter by Casey Lewis - Unfrozen’s Favorites of 2023: o Attending the Venice Biennale during previews, including Sir Peter Cook’s assertion that, while at their event and on their payroll, NEOM would be less than half-built and eventually devolve into shantytowns o “Moving the Monolith, Speed-Running the Follies,” with Andreea Ion Cojocaru and Nick Kauffman o “The Atlas of Space Rocket Launch Sites,” with Brian Harvey and Gurbir Singh. Greg was channeling Geoff Manaugh’s BLDGBLOG o “Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World,” with Alan Mallach o “Renewing the Dream” with James Sanders
--- 2024 Doomscroll: o NEOM meets the Metaverse at Aquellum + Zaha Hadid’s Minas Morgul tower, Discovery at Trojena o You won’t have Charlie Munger to kick around anymore o CES is underway, and so is the metaverse rebranding o Want work? You need to kneel before the PIF o Are architects and engineers really building the future for Saudi’s young? Or are they just taking the money and running? --- Half the world’s population will vote in 2024 - No election scheduled in Canada, but in 2025, things are looking topsy-turvy: o Canada is “three NIMBYs in a trenchcoat” right now o Households now owe more in mortgage debt than Canada’s entire GDP o Pierre Poilievre and the Canadian Conservatives seem to be the only ones taking the housing crisis seriously, and the kids are listening o CHMC can’t just straight-up build affordable housing – why? --- But it’s good real estate vibes in the US once rates get cut... - You can build it – but who will insure it? - Will San Francisco exit its doom loop in 2024? What cities will pull ahead? o Gensler doubles down in its hometown + Shvo to the rescue at the Transamerica Pyramid - Greg draws a picture of the work-from-home, AI-driven, obesity-drug-taking hellscape called America - People are competing for walkable urbanism everywhere because we can’t seem to build any new housing - Could consumer branding of residential real estate boost housing construction? o Welcome to the Neighborhood! Wall Street Designed It o Culdesac– build-to-rent walkable urbanism in Tempe, AZ o WeWork’s Adam Neumann starts Flow - Dead mall resurrections - Easton Town Center, Columbus - Retrofitting Suburbia, Ellen Dunham Jones and June Williamson
-- Engagements Preview 2024: “Don’t Believe the Hype: Cities are Alive and Well,” University of Maryland Baltimore, 22 February “Using Augmented Reality to Drive Inclusive City Development,” SXSW, Austin, 10 March Smart City Expo USA, New York, 22-23 May CTBUH International Conference, London and Paris, 23-27 September | |||
| 23 Jul 2022 | Episode 33: Tallest Timber, Boutique Hotels, Pokemon NO! and more… | 00:37:35 | |
Dan’s recent consecration of the world’s tallest timber building; Greg’s new gigs, and hotels to stay at while making them happen; the third space in a post-COVID world; update on the Durbin Renewal scandal in Chicago, and a preview of upcoming guests. Intro/Outro: Super Sex by Morphine Tall Timber: Ascent, Milwaukee Rocket & Tigerli, Winterthur, Switzerland Atlassian Central, Sydney Greg’s gig in NYC this week: Patcraft– Shaw Industries, with: Brad Hargraeves – Common Evan Fain – Industrious Boutique Hotels: The Ace Portland – have a record player! Why not the Nakagin Capsule Hotel? Brooklyn Mirage(Bushwick / Ridgewood) Brimfield Antique Flea Market – feeding ground for Roman & Williams-designed boutique hotels Inside Amy Schumer Pretentious Hotel McKinsey & Co NYC Taskforce to repurpose office space Mary Ludgin, Heitman, Chicago taskforce Durbin Renewal: Century and Consumers buildings Greg’s new gigs - Undisclosed fellowship, a.k.a. Pokemon NO!: Preparing cities for the metaverse, protecting real public space from virtual reality, unregulated disruptors, and more… - Parag Khanna startup: Chief Communications Officer: Tool for modeling climate risk. Invest now in the climate-resilient regions of the world. The call is open for volunteers. Are we living in Ready Player One or Snow Crash? | |||
| 23 Apr 2023 | The Roots of Urban Renaissance | 00:47:13 | |
Unfrozen welcomes Brian Goldstein, the author of “The Roots of Urban Renaissance: Gentrification and the Struggle Over Harlem.” Goldstein is a historian of the American built environment and an associate professor of architectural history in the Department of Art and Art History at Swarthmore College. Previously, he was assistant professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico and an A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for the Humanities and the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 2013. -- Intro/Outro: “Across 110th Street” by Bobby Womack -- Discussed: ARCH – Architects Renewal Committee in Harlem J. Max Bond Jr. > Bond Ryder & Associates > Davis Brody Bond East Harlem Triangle Plan Morningside Park Plan
“Second Harlem Renaissance” of the 1990s > Magic Johnson’s investor group arrival > Harlem USA
Bill Clinton office in Vincent Building, 125th St
Harlem Commonwealth Council (HCC) <> James Dowdy
Harlem State Office Building, a.k.a. Reclamation Site # 1
Robert Moses > Urban Renewal
Gov. Nelson Rockefeller + Edward Loeb, Urban Development Corp. (now Empire State Development)
Harlem Urban Development Corp.
Brownstone de-densification
Pathmark, closure and sale to Extell > Whole Foods > Target and Trader Joe’s
Community Land Trusts (CLTs) – one possible legacy of 1960s planning and architecture activism
Abyssinian Development Corp. – Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III
| |||
| 03 Jun 2024 | Designing the Forest | 00:49:43 | |
“Either you’re growing your materials or not. You’re getting them from a forest or a mine.” Lindsey Wikstrom is the Founding Principal of Mattaforma and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Her debut book, Designing the Forest and Other Mass Timber Futures, argues that to overcome obstacles to wide adoption of mass timber as a building material, we need to think differently about our relationship to trees, buildings, and each other.
Intro/Outro: “I Am a Tree,” by Guided by Voices | |||
| 08 Oct 2023 | A.I., Meet Timber | 00:38:05 | |
At the intersection of A.I. and timber, expect new tessellations and kinetic results. Unfrozen interviews Mykola Murashko, a 23-year-old Cambridge graduate who, with Carlo Ratti, founded Maestro, a software-powered construction company whose initial projects feature precision-cut timber panels, optimized by artificial intelligence.
Intro: The Cutter, by Echo and the Bunnymen
-- Discussed:
Blank: Speculations on CLT: Jennifer Bonner & Hanif Kara ETH Zurich Robotics Aesthetics & Usability Center AGO Modina - adaptive reuse in which an A.I.-designed steel kinetic roof covering the courtyard - using digitally fabricated components. Alpine stone bivouacs What’s the best tessellation? What’s the best kinetic result? -- Outro: The Trees, by Pulp
| |||
| 12 Feb 2022 | Episode 17: From the Blogchives: The Spell of Hot Desk | 00:20:18 | |
Silicon Valley prides itself on "innovation" and "disruption," and its products are meant to drive "sharing" and "collaboration," but the architecture it builds can be stunningly conservative and insular. From the Unfrozen 1.0 post, May 28, 2013 -- Intro: “I Know Where the Summer Goes,” by Belle and Sebastian Too Much, the Magic Bus [“Magic Bus,” by The Who] Casual Collisions [“Strangers When We Meet,” by David Bowie] Will Code for Pizza [“Pizza Butt,” by MC Chris] Let’s Hang Out / Don’t Look at Me Arrested Development [“Arrested Development,” by David Schwartz] I Want The Best – Whatever That Is [“The Best,” by Tina Turner] He’s The Guru of the City / No One Told the Councilor [“I Know Where the Summer Goes,” by Belle and Sebastian] Stand In the Place Where You Are [“Stand,” by R.E.M.] I Liked It So Much, I Bought the City [“Viva Las Vegas,” by Elvis Presley] Outro: “Back in the Box,” by David Byrne | |||
| 28 Dec 2023 | Renewing the Dream | 00:40:10 | |
James Sanders edited Renewing the Dream: The Mobility Revolution and the Future of Los Angeles, out now from Rizzoli. With contributions from Nik Karalis, Frances Anderton, Mark Valliantos and Unfrozen’s own Greg Lindsay, the book explores the forces behind the change in the mobility landscape of the most famously car-centric city on Earth. Through design provocations and disciplined research, Sanders and the authors see the city on the edge of a mobility revolution, already manifesting in the largest rail-transit-building campaign in America since World War II, that could soon see its dozens of square miles of surface parking and 1,500 gas stations converted to “higher and better” uses, including housing and public space around far less-consumptive electric-vehicle charging stations. -- Intro: “Low Rider,” by War -- Discussed: - James Sanders: Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies: 2001, Knopf New York: A Documentary Film with Ric Burns, 1999 - Woods Bagot & Renewing the Dream - John Rossant & CoMOTION - Party time on the Expo Line - The California courtyard apartment complex & bungalow court - Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles, by Stefanos Polyzoides, Roger Sherwood and James Tice. Photos by Julius Shulman - Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - Chinatown - La La Land - California transit-oriented development legislation and funding - LA’s transit-oriented communities program Upcoming readings/bookstore appearances: - Book Soup, West Hollywood, CA: 1/5 - The Skyscraper Museum, New York: 1/23 -- Outro: “L.A. Woman” by the Doors | |||
| 05 Nov 2023 | Parks for Profit | 00:51:59 | |
To some, the postindustrial linear park, exemplified by the High Line in New York City, is one of the prime examples of the resurgence of the city that has taken place in the last few decades. But for Unfrozen guest Kevin Loughran, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Temple University, the postindustrial park is also a vector of gentrification and privatization of cities: a kind of “death show of zombie plants and railroad corpses.” Parks for Profit: Selling Nature in the City (Columbia University Press, 2022), his first book, offers a critique of the High Line, Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston, and the Bloomingdale Trail/606 in Chicago. -- Intro/Outro: “Post-Industrial Necrofolk,” by Vredenstal -- Discussed: Buffalo Bayou Park: Prime donor: Rich Kinder, Kinder Morgan / The Kinder Foundation
Kelly Drive - Philadelphia Millennium Park, a network of corporate-branded spaces Atlanta Belt Line The QueensWay, NYC -- - The “picturesque” as a historical element of 19th-century imperialism.
- Landscape as a colonial tool.
- Parks conceived as safe spaces for white women and children in rapidly industrializing and ethnographically changing.
- Counterpoint: Small parks pioneered by Jane Addams and Hull House.
- Three-point manifesto:
| |||
| 30 Oct 2021 | Episode 1: Deth in Venice | 00:43:12 | |
Greg and Dan successfully make it to the 2020 > 2021 Venice Biennale, on their fourth attempt, only to find it is closed on Mondays. Fortunately, there are other things to talk about and see. Intro/Outro: "Reverence" by Jesus and Mary Chain Links: 2014 Venice Biennale - Elements of Architecture University of Oregon School of Architecture & Environment The Billionaire’s Playlist, Connie Bruck, The New Yorker ReSite interview with Hashim Sarkis Open Collectives: Architecture for an Equitable Digital Economy in Prada Foundation, Milan | |||
| 17 Apr 2023 | Mass Support | 00:52:48 | |
Cassim Shepard is distinguished lecturer in architecture and urban studies at City College, City University of New York. Trained as an urban planner, geographer, and documentary filmmaker, Cassim produces nonfiction media about cities and places, with a particular emphasis on housing and civic life. His film and video work about cities around the world has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Museum of the City of New York, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the United Nations, Pavillon de l’Arsenale in Paris, and the African Centre for Cities in Cape Town. His current exhibition, Mass Support, running at CCNY’s Spitzer School of Architecture through May 7, with a symposium scheduled for April 26, explores the legacy and contemporary relevant of Stichting Architecten Research (SAR). SAR was an architectural think tank active in the Netherlands between 1964 and 1990, which proposed a radical new way of thinking about mass housing. The essential gambit was to fuse industrial production with mass customization, a concept that has strong implications for today’s urban issues. Intro/Outro: “Plug In!” by Porci Scomodi Discussed:
Places article The New York Housing Compact Tim Swanson, Inherent Homes, Chicago Gans & Co.: Build it Back Modular Nakagin Capsule Tower > Unfrozen episode “1972: A Spatial Oddity” Levittown Baugruppen R50, Kreuzburg, Berlin San Riemo, Munich Top Up and PATCH22, both by Lemniskade Projecten (Developer) and Frantzen et al architecten (Architect) Lewis Mumford Lecture: “Pressing Change in the Increasing Inflexible City,” Featuring Emily Badger (April 27, CCNY) | |||
| 17 Nov 2021 | Episode 5: Going Mobile, Productizing Everything | 00:31:36 | |
In which Greg and Dan discuss: CoMotion LA 2021, Conveyor-Belt Sushi, Sidewalk Labs' Mass Timber Factory, Carehaus at the CCA, Cold-Fusion Affordable Housing in the Great White North, the Benediction of St. Jane. Intro: "Going Mobile," by The Who Outro: "I Am a Tree," by Guided by Voices Links: Will Real Estate Ever Be Normal Again? - New York Times Magazine | |||
| 11 Jul 2022 | Future Storage: From Mineral Extraction to Data Forestry | 00:42:15 | |
Marina Otero, head of the Social Design Masters Program at Design Academy Eindhoven, Netherlands, is the winner of the Harvard Graduate School of Design's 2022 Wheelwright Prize. Her study, Future Storage: Architectures to Host the Metaverse, will examine new architecture paradigms for storing data, and how reimagining digital infrastructures could meet the unprecedented demands facing the world today. Intro: Lithium, by Nirvana Discussed: The Stack, Benjamin Bratton Tubes, Andrew Blum DNA as a storage medium Seed banks for data A data garden in Eindhoven Destinations: - Singapore: Had a ban on data centers for a number of years; are seaborne and underwater data centers an option? Floating solar farms? - Darwin, Australia: Data governance – the first indigenous-led data center. Who has access to the data? Who owns it? - Nigeria: Woman-led crypto-tech communities. Positioning themselves against the corporations that are bringing the infrastructure, so they can set up their own. - Chile: Lithium extraction, new Humboldt Cable to New Zealand and Australia. - Iceland and Sweden: Questions connected to industry and energy. Use of new infrastructures. In Sweden, one data center is also a club. - California: Where new storage media are being developed. Outro: A Forest, by The Cure | |||
| 17 Jul 2023 | New Territories | 00:49:56 | |
Justin Hui is an architect, artist and photographer who researches topics of land development, borders, globalization and memory. His recent projects are New Territories, which explores the changing landscape of Hong Kong’s northern frontier, and Urban Africa, Made in China, which tracks the phenomenon of Chinese companies constructing infrastructure and buildings across Africa, modeled after China’s urban development.
—
Intro/Outro: “Territories” by Rush
Discussed:
Hong Kong’s New Territories: Northern Metropolis and Lantau Island China’s Debt-Driven Construction Binge > Skyscraper Ban TAZARA Railway – Dar es Salaam to the Zambian Copper Belt China in Africa - colonialism or globalization? Africa’s Urban Future: “Made in China” Gated cities in Angola and Kenya Exporting Special Economic Zones (SEZs) > Zambia Made in China > Made in Africa, Mexico You get what you pay for Vincent Lo – Shui On Group Ronnie Chan -- Hang Lung Group - 66 Projects The podium + tower model as export commodity, rising in Long Island City, Flushing and Jersey City Hudson Yards is very analogous to a Asian shopping mall Steven Holl - Sliced Porosity - Chengdu
| |||
| 05 Mar 2022 | Episode 20: Hopeful Monsters, Strange Creatures and the Freedom of Choice | 00:57:08 | |
Designers, urbanists, public policy advocates, and any others are who would join the Urban Technology Program at the University of Michigan are “hopeful monsters” & “strange creatures.” Meet their leader. Guest: Bryan Boyer, Director, Urban Technology Program, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan // Co-founder, Dash Marshall Intro: “Hopeful Monsters,” by Charlie Nieland Discussed: · Architecture firms grow a spine (?) over Russia v. Ukraine: Is it a moral stand, or admission they won’t get paid? And yet, many are still working for the Saudis, on NEOM and such projects. · Imagining Future Scenarios for Autonomous Vehicles · People Party- Generating scale figures for renderings that look like their communities · Brute-Force Architecture - “Look at all these things that we didn’t choose” >> Exhaust failure. If architecture labor was more expensive, would that be possible? · George Gilder and the Early Cloud – “Conserve what is expensive, waste what is abundant.” · REEF · WSJ – REEF bought the wrong lots · Renew Newcastle (Australia) · Participatory City (London) · Outro: “Freedom of Choice,” by Devo | |||
| 27 Dec 2021 | Episode 9: Ghost Grocers, Dark Stores, and Street Life | 00:45:00 | |
Unfrozen interviews Lev Kushner, Partner, Department of Here, co-author of “The Dark Side of 15-Minute Grocery Delivery,” Bloomberg CityLab, Dec. 7, 2021, with Greg Lindsay
| |||
| 02 Dec 2023 | Trespass 1: Intimate Stranger | 00:50:30 | |
Zachary Balber is a photo artist who has been a frequent presence in the Miami contemporary art circuit exhibition since he got his BFA in Creative Photography at the University of Florida, New World School of the Arts, in 2009. His work has also been included in several American private and institutional collections. Intimate Stranger is a photographic series produced in Miami by Zachary Balber between 2013 and 2020. Zachary has created 150 photos in which he has taken, very rapidly and without authorization, self-portraits during photo sessions of high-end real estate, in various poses, and in various degrees of undress. -- Intro/Outro: "Balls" by Sparks -- Discussed: “Photography: The Middle Class Medium” Family Propaganda Portraits Photo-Marxism Susan Sontag Cindy Sherman Walker Evans “Avedon Smiles” > Richard Avedon: Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent Alfred Dupont Building, downtown Miami -- “Navigating through the excuses became part of the performance.” “The image is more important than the reality it captures.” “You are poking at people who can squish you.” “Is taking a picture a crime?” “I erase myself into these interiors.” “I left with all the conceptual goodies I could fathom.” “Interior decorating choices like a bad mixtape…With all of the resources at your disposal, this was your choice?” “Buildings will eventually be like a Mr. Potato Head, with interchangeable parts.” “Documenting architecture and fine art, I can map the gentrification that has happened in the last few years.” | |||
| 24 Sep 2022 | Episode 38: Towards a Non-Combustible Practice, Away from Mundane Endeavors of Indifference | 00:45:31 | |
Hanif Kara is a civil and structural engineer and professor in practice at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and the co-founder of AKT II, a 350-person engineering practice based in London. The firm won the Stirling Award for Peckham Library in 2000 (with (Will Alsop), the Sainsbury Laboratory in 2012 (with Stanton Williams), and the Bloomberg European Headquarters in 2018 (with Foster + Partners). He is co-author of Blank: Speculations on CLT with Jennifer Bonner, and the recipient of the 2022 Fazlar Khan Lifetime Award from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Intro/Outro: Great Things, by Echobelly Discussed: One Park Drive (with Herzog & De Meuron) Castilla (with Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners) 240 Blackfriars (with AHMM) The Tower and the Bridge by David P. Billington Joint studio with Farshid Moussavi, using reclaimed steel Google HQ London (with BIG & Heatherwick Studio) The Francis Crick Institute (with HOK & PLP Architecture) Culture flaps at SCI-Arc and The Bartlett | |||
| 23 Oct 2023 | A House Deconstructed | 00:51:47 | |
“We were like ants trying to describe a mountain.” We would like to think that we “know” what goes into making a modern building. But the truth is that no one, not even architects, knows. The O(U)R, Office of (UN)certainty Research, spent three years studying a single, relatively modest modern house located in Seattle by Allied8. The result is “A House Deconstructed,” featuring graphics by Angie Door. Mark Jarzombek is a professor of history and theory of architecture at MIT. Vikramaditya Prakash is a professor of architecture at the University of Washington. Founded in February 2020, O(U)R is a design research practice dedicated to rethinking architecture in terms of the emergent scientific, social and political parameters of the 21st century. O(U)R collaboration started in February 2020. The “House Deconstructed” project grew from the 2021 Venice Biennale exhibition “Many Houses, Many Worlds.” -- Intro / Outro: “The Deconstruction,” by Eels -- Discussed: - Permission granted to examine house by its architect, Allied8. - The research focused on four vectors: o Atomic Consciousness that dates back to the Big Bang and the earliest supernovas o Production Consciousness that involves a vast array of ingredients that are combined to make architectural products o Labor Consciousness that spans a wide spectrum of temporal and economic conditions o Source Consciousness that is multilayered and global in its reach.
- “Consciousness” as opposed to “research” or “history” - Deliberate obfuscation of sources of environmentally damaging materials - Normalization of the “chemicalization” of supply chains in the building industry - The entire industrial complex is based on exploitation of the planet – which we need to fundamentally rethink - Design for deconstruction – labeling all materials, using machine learning in some cases, in order to consider how a building can be taken apart and reassembled into a project in the future - Interview took place on the day the day the NASA Psyche mission was launched, sent in search of metallic bodies - Attempting to quantify the inputs and normalize them for comparison proved next to impossible – and beside the point, somewhat, which is simply to establish awareness of the complexity. - The objective is to create a generation of future designers who have the “rearview mirrors” that prior generations didn’t, when it came to understanding material sourcing.
| |||
| 19 Jan 2022 | Episode 13: What Fresh McMansion Hell is This? | 00:45:33 | |
Unfrozen interviews Kate Wagner, creator and curator of McMansion Hell. Intro: "Suburbia," by Pet Shop Boys Discussed: - The special McMansion Hell that is Barrington, IL - Why surprise-visiting teachers in their suburban homes is a bad idea - The best the Metaverse can do is take us shopping at Wal-Mart and just browsing at H&M? - Best places to see a McMansion in the Wild - What it's like to be a critic during the media meltdown of the early 2020s - I'd rather be biking Outro: "Bicycle Race," by Queen | |||
| 03 Apr 2023 | EV Equity | 00:40:07 | |
Adam Lubinsky, AICP, PhD, is a principal at WXY Studio. Adam leads a range of planning studies, strategic visions and master plans, and he has created new practice areas that address mobility, education and economic development using data analysis, design and new forms of community engagement. Lubinsky has just authored a detailed, 5,000-word report for the American Planning Association on equity and EV charging infrastructure, reaching their 40,000 members. Drawing on his work in this field in 11 states and for clients ranging from BMW to local departments of transportation, Lubinsky focuses on equitable access to charging, and the push to have more EVs — and cleaner air — in all areas, including those where environmental justice is a legacy concern. Intro: "Vehicle" by The Ides of March Outro: "Electricity" by Suede | |||
| 24 Aug 2024 | The Architecture of Urbanity | 00:46:38 | |
Vishaan Chakrabarti is the founder and creative director of the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), and the author of "The Architecture of Urbanity." He has worn many hats - in development, architecture, government and academia, and brings this experience to bear in his public advocacy work. -- Intro: "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie Show Notes: - The "Joy" Thing with Tim Walz - Obama > Biden Infrastructure Bill - Is it really Rural vs Urban, or Suburban vs Everyone Else? Is it Rurbanity? - UC Berkeley analysis of carbon footprints of cities vs rural vs suburban - The mortgage interest tax deduction - The Federal gas tax - Out-migration from expensive to affordable cities - not the suburbs - Railroad suburbs: Montclair and Maplewood NJ - Carbon pricing - Jane Jacobs' idea that cities formed around trade - James C. Scott - The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber & David Wengrow - Alternate civilizational origin stories at the Venice Biennale - The places we go on vacation all have lousy parking - The energy source powering cars is not really the issue - it's the degree to which we design our cities around cars - or not - Copenhagen - the urban planning Mecca - but where are the immigrants? - InterOculus, PAU, Columbus, Indiana - "Because they've been told their definition of excellence is to design spaceships to be built by slaves in the sand, that's what architects are off doing. And so of course they're not at the adult table influencing policy. We can't relegate ourselves to the kiddie table by talking about irrelevant things and then complain about the chicken nuggets." - "We don't help everyday people visualize the power of policy change as well as we could." - "I think we are at a moment where it is really, important for people who understand the physical world to sit down and be able to speak the language of government." - "Designing policy is a form of design." - New York Times collaboration with PAU = NYC = Not Your Car - Gov. Kathy Hochul's cancellation of congestion pricing - Robert Caro, The Power Broker - "The city's permanent government" - the "deep state" might actually be OK - "New York, New York, New York," by Tom Dyja - Accepting imperfection as a necessary democratic outcome - instead of going Roark on imperfection and blowing it up - Uber's hiring of Bradley Tusk, Bloomberg's third mayoral campaign manager - Alejandro Aravena - an architect literally being the architect of the new Chilean constitution - Norman Foster - adviser to the United Nations on rebuilding Ukraine - Book design by Michael Beirut and Britt Cobb at Pentagram Outro: "Don't Worry About the Government," by Talking Heads | |||
| 23 Apr 2022 | Episode 26: A Tale of Two Toy Cities | 00:12:30 | |
Two toy visions of Los Angeles describe two very different future visions: One vision wants you to play with its toys – and would be offended if you didn’t – the other most assuredly does not. It is strictly off-limits, and is meant to be admired from a distance. One says “don’t touch;” the other practically grabs your hand and pulls you into the grid. Intro/Outro: "Metropolis," by Kraftwerk Originally posted Jan. 31, 2012 in Unfrozen 1.0. | |||
| 23 Jan 2022 | Episode 14: From the Blogchives: Notes from Underground | 00:09:21 | |
A tour of the abandoned Pacific Electric Subway Terminal in downtown Los Angeles. From Unfrozen 1.0, originally posted May 11, 2012. Intro/Outro: "Do Not Feed the Oyster," by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks Midsection: "Judge Doom," by Alan Silvestri and the London Symphony Orchestra | |||
| 03 May 2022 | Episode 27: A Skyscraper Superfan Aims High | 00:27:48 | |
Meet Changsub Lee, a 14-year-old in South Korea who has been designing skyscrapers since he was eight. He's already a celebrity in the tall building world. Ivy League schools of architecture, prepare yourselves now. The recording is a bit soft, but if you crank him up, he's got a lot to say. Intro/Outro: "Skyscrapers," by OKGO Discussed: | |||
| 11 Mar 2023 | Moving the Monolith, Speed-Running the Follies: Numena and SpectraCities | 00:50:30 | |
Kicking off the “Metaverse Metropolis” series, Unfrozen spends a fascinating hour with Andreea Ion Cojocaru, CEO of Numena, and Nick Kauffman, Director of Communities for Spectra Cities. The companies are collaborating to build open-source city-building tools and in augmented and virtual reality, and working to translate the resulting deeper understanding of 3D space to build better communities in the physical world. Catch Andreea live at South by Southwest (SXSW): From Words to Worlds, March 14, and at “Placemaking Across Realities,” with Spectra Cities founder Ryan Rzepecki at Cornell Tech, New York City, March 21, along with Unfrozen’s own Greg Lindsay. Intro: “Numena” by Cosmosquad Outro: “Spectra” by Pink Skies | |||
| 13 Apr 2024 | From Railyards to High-Rises | 00:41:23 | |
Craig Hutson has worked in research and development in academia and industry and is fascinated with the history of Chicago’s lakefront. When seeking a definitive book about the history of Illinois Center and Lakeshore East, the air-rights developments above former docklands and railyards east of the Loop, he realized there wasn’t one, and he decided to write it himself. -- -- Intro/Outro: “Nighttime in the Switching Yard,” by Warren Zevon -- Discussed: Outer Drive East (400 East Randolph) The Park at Lakeshore East Boulevard East | |||
| 11 Nov 2023 | Through the Portal: What We Can Learn from the Ferry Building | 00:43:30 | |
Through multiple earthquakes, misguided urban renewal schemes and changing economic conditions, the Ferry Building has stood at the foot of San Francisco’s Market Street since 1898. In his book, “Portal: San Francisco’s Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities,” John King, the urban design critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, tells Unfrozen what we can learn from the indefatigable icon, and what that might mean for the future of downtowns in this uncertain era.
-- Intro/Outro: “Ride Captain Ride,” by Blues Image
-- Discussed:
California Building at the 1893 Columbian Exposition San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Ballot measure 1986 – tear down the Embarcadero Freeway? Loma Prieta Earthquake, 1989 | |||
| 03 Jan 2022 | Episode 10: From the Blogchives: Can the Dome Home Finally Find a Mass Audience? | 00:14:37 | |
A certain subset of architects and futurists have long obsessed with mass-marketing domes, foam houses, spheres, and combinations thereof. Could their time be nigh? From a story originally posted on Unfrozen 1.0, Sept. 3, 2012. -- Intro: "Xanadu," by Rush 1. All Yesterday's Tomorrows 2. An Architect to the Stars Dreams of Domed Domesticity 3. Sprung From the Foam [Musical interlude: "Xanadu," by ELO and Olivia Newton-John] 4. Domes as Doom Defense Outro: "Ridin' the Storm Out," by REO Speedwagon | |||
| 15 Jan 2022 | Episode 12: From the Blogchives: For Sale: Kindling $10.9 million (OBO) | 00:05:03 | |
The sordid tale of a totally avoidable fire in the Hollywood Hills: a McMansion used as a set for a reality TV show goes up in smoke. Intro/Outro: "On Fire," by Van Halen | |||
| 29 May 2023 | Biennale Breakdown 1: The Boys are Back in Town | 00:47:19 | |
The 18th Venice Architecture Biennale was one with “no architecture,” some critics have alleged, but there was no shortage of consequential exhibition. Shaking off jetlag and whiplash from the contrasts on hand, Greg and Dan attempt to unpack their initial impressions of “The Laboratory of the Future.”
Intro/Outro: “The Boys are Back in Town,” by Thin Lizzy
-- Discussed:
Olalekon Jeyifous – winner of the Silver Lion for “The African Conservation Effort” Killing Architects + Buzzfeed + local Chinese journalists: “Investigating Xinjiang’s Network of Detention Camps” Wilson, Yoon, Howeler, Begley, Han – Unknown Unknown: A Space of Memory Albanian Pavilion: Untimely Meditations Liam Young – The Great Endeavour Big Shovel – Daniel Yergin Robots of Brixton – Kibwe Tavares Forensic Architecture – The Nebelivka Hypothesis The Dawn of Everything – David Graeber & David Wengrow Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari The Economy of Cities – Jane Jacobs Sweet Water Foundation – “chaord” DAAR – winner of the Golden Lion for “Ente di Decolonizzazione — Borgo Rizza” Black City Astrolabe – J. Yolande Daniels
– Opening talk with Sir Peter Cook – Archigram - What the Biennale criticizes is what NEOM is built on… - Parallel: Brasilia – 50 years of progress in 5 - Contrast: V & A’s exhibition on Tropical Modernism - Edifice Complex / The Myth of Tabula Rasa: You can’t build your way out of a lack of institutions – it leads to disastrous consequences. - Contrast with Canada Pavilion’s “Not for Sale!”
Rating the Tote Bag Designs:
No. 5 – Saudi Arabia No. 4 -- Hungary No. 3 – UAE No. 2 – Switzerland (“Neighbors” with Venezuela) No. 1 – Canada – AAHA!
Oliver Wainwright’s review for the Guardian
| |||
| 02 Oct 2022 | Episode 39: Seeking the Superfruit of Urbanism | 00:38:01 | |
Michael Eliason is an architect and founder of Larch Lab, a studio focused on prefabricated, decarbonized, climate-adaptive, low-energy buildings and livable ecodistricts. Eliason, based in Seattle, had a transformative experience while living in Germany – the American residential model could be greatly improved by adopting some of the principles of Baugruppen – self-developed co-housing, without the granola trappings. Hear the Unfrozen interview – and then listen to his podcast, Livable Low-Carbon City. Intro/Outro: “Spacelab” by Kraftwerk Discussed:
| |||
| 10 Jun 2024 | The City in the City | 00:49:12 | |
In The City in the City, Amy Thomas offers the first in-depth architectural and urban history of London's financial district, the City of London, from the period of rebuilding after World War II to the explosive climax of financial deregulation in the 1980s and its long aftermath. From the Big Tie to the Big Bang, it’s a heavy-hitting episode of Unfrozen. -- Intro/Outro: “Money,” by Pink Floyd -- Discussed: o This is London: Rees Remembrances o The City is Here for You to Use - The BigTie, by Brian Griffin - Top hatters - Lloyds and the Lloyds Building - Eva Jiricna: Kenzo > Interiors at Lloyds - Spitting Image Richard Rogers episode - “Where Ideas Come From,” by Steven Johnson - Paul Romer’s “spillover effect” - The Big Bang, 1986 - If it’s bad in the City, it’s worse at Canary Wharf and Stamford - Bishopsgate bombing, 1993 & the Ring of Steel - Paternoster Square & Prince Charles - London County Council vs. the City of London Corporation - No. 1 Poultry, by James Stirling - “Edge of Empire,” by Jane Margaret Jacobs - The British financial archipelago, e.g., Bermuda and the Cayman Islands | |||
| 15 May 2022 | Episode 28: Florida in Houston, "Durbin Renewal" in Chicago, Metabolism Demo'ed in Tokyo | 00:34:40 | |
Greg reports from Houston, where he and Richard Florida had some stage-sharing to do. Dan recounts a jaunt to the Canadian Riviera and Pacific Northwest, where mass timber is on the rise. Then on to demolitions, what’s on the bookshelf, future guests, future guesses…. -- -- Intro: “Livin’ on the Edge (of Houston),” by Reverend Horton Heat Discussed: Richard Florida's slightly altered new jam: Live Work Play Connect. Build multifamily, family-oriented apartments of appropriate size, while you’re at it. Mass Timber Conference: Jeanne Gang can hack it – literally Explore ‘22 – Expedia Conference at Aria, Las Vegas Band recs (or wrecks) “Durbin Renewal” – The US Government’s landlord, GSA, wants to demolish two buildings from the 1910s because they present a “security risk” to the Dirksen Federal Building, which has been there since 1964. An Illinois senator just found $52 million to make it happen. Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo, finally bites the dust. The stolen bicycle is in the basement of the Ford Foundation, with the built-in brass ashtrays in the auditorium… This kerfuffle in Northwest Arkansas Green Obsession – Stefano Boeri Architetti Celebrating Public Architecture – Success of open architecture competitions in Flanders, Belgium Supertall – Sfefan Al Truth and Lies in Architecture – Richard Francis-Jones Crypto-Schadenfreude and the Electric Bull - Outro: “Song for America,” by Destroyer | |||
| 09 Apr 2022 | Episode 24: Growing Moss, Gathering Pace | 00:59:26 | |
Dan and Greg interview Matt Nardella, founder of Moss Design, a Chicago design-build firm with an array of residential and commercial projects, and a bent for nudging clients and neighbors toward sustainability in small, but meaningful increments. Interviewee: Matt Nardella Intro / Outro: “Highway Chile”, by the Jimi Hendrix Experience Discussed: - NewSchool of Architecture San Diego - Architects as developers, contractors and multi-disciplinary designers - In praise of not designing projects on a spreadsheet (and finding the gray zones of zoning) - Credit due to: o Ted Smith > The Red Office - Architect, Know (and Sell) Thyself! - Ending brute-force office culture > how to not “punch down” - “We (architects) should be interviewing them (developers)” - Monocultures of design making people sick and unhappy? - Nightingale Housing, Melbourne - Jeremy McLeod and Maria Yanez - You don’t need to spend more money to achieve sustainability – you just need to seriously undertake site analysis and translate that into a building, while thinking like a builder and the client – or being both, potentially. - Want to build? Blog first! - “Granny flats” are back in Chicago and the city is building 9,000 new units in the West Looop – will that help the housing crisis? - On being a “bike warrior” - Are people in happy countries just driving less? - The best way to make an argument for bike commuting is to just do it | |||
| 04 Jun 2022 | Episode 29: "Al" in on Supertalls | 00:38:35 | |
Unfrozen interviews Stefan Al, author, Supertall, founder, Stefan Al Architects, designer of Canton Tower, Guangzhou with Information Based Architecture (IBA). Intro/Outro: “History Rhymes,” by Empty City Squares Discussed: Technology: The role of technologies: concrete, elevators, air conditioning and dampers Society: Culture, social preferences, zoning, aesthetics The succession of events that led to today’s skyscrapers New York – zoning London – view corridors Hong Kong – transit-oriented development Singapore – vertical greenery “History rhymes” “Progress traps” Easter Island, Prometheus, and Pandora’s Box Irregular paths to inventions Carrier inventing air conditioning when trying to solve printing issues Using an Oregon optometrist’s office to test potential swaying of the World Trade Center, New York City, in 1965 Rafael Vinoly – 432 Park and the boat-pilot sway / chandelier test Icebergs, Zombies and the Ultra-Thin by Matthew Soules Digital Monuments by Simone Brott Reflexive practitioners | |||
| 30 Oct 2021 | Episode 2: Biennale Breakdown | 00:43:44 | |
Greg and Dan visit the Venice Biennale and share their thoughts on "How Will We Live Together?" Intro/Outro: "Isolation" by Joy Division Links: | |||
| 07 May 2023 | Megablocks: Go Big and Go Home | 00:57:53 | |
Jeffrey Johnson is Director of the School of Architecture at the University of Kentucky College of Design. He previously taught for 10 years at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, where he was the founding director of Asia Megacities Lab. Unfrozen interviews Johnson about his work at the Asia Megacities Lab, including the “China Lab Guide to Megablock Urbanism,” exploring the most persistent typology of China’s urban expansion, domestically and internationally. -- Intro/Outro: “Blockbuster,” by Sweet -- Discussed: - Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid, Beijing - SOHO Jianwai, Beijing - Hutongs, lilongs, and other older “gated communities” - Design and Solidarity > Megablocks functioning under zero-Covid lockdowns - Neighborhoods > Defined by walls KPF: - Lincoln Center Pacific Park / Barclays Center Flushing, Queens as an export investment market for Chinese developers | |||
| 22 Jan 2024 | On Balance: Architecture and Vertigo | 00:39:41 | |
Mankind’s quest for verticality has an underexplored dimension: the queasy feeling of vertigo many experience when close to the edge of a sheer drop. Davide Deriu, Reader in Architectural History and Theory at the University of Westminster, London, has taken on the relative lack of research into the subject with an interdisciplinary approach, captured in his book On Balance: Architecture and Vertigo. Come, stand on the edge with us. -- Intro/Outro: “Vertigo” by U2 -- Discussed: Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, 1958 Vertical: The City from Satellites to Bunkers, Stephen Graham, 2016 Vertigo in the City program at University of Westminster, 2015 The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies, Roland Barthes, 1979 Funambulism Jean François "Blondin" Gravelet – Niagara Falls wire walk, 1859 Philippe Petit, World Trade Center wire walk, 1974 Jan Gehl on humans’ “natural” habitat in horizontal planes Singapore’s HDB social high-rises Mies’ insertion of ventilation grilles in front of the glass curtain wall at the Seagram Building, 1958 Prosper Meniere, father of the vestibular sciences | |||
| 26 Feb 2022 | Episode 19: Around the World | 00:34:59 | |
The German publishing house DOM has released more than 130 Architectural Guides to regions, cities and countries around the world, as well as one guide to the Moon. Unified by a spare, colorful, graphic convention, inside each guide is a devoted curator’s unique take on the 20th- and 21st-century architecture of the locality. Unfrozen interviews Bjorn Rosen, Publishing Director, for insights on the history and philosophy of the DOM Guides. Intro: “Around the World,” by Daft Punk Outro: “She’s a Rainbow,” by the Rolling Stones | |||
| 05 Feb 2022 | Episode 16: Games With New Frontiers, Alien Rococo, and Paper Money | 00:41:35 | |
Greg and Dan, back at it again, talking about Olympics architecture and urbanism, the Housing Crisis 2.0, and the greatest hits from the 60s, 70s and 80s, come back to life as Zombie Capitalism. -- Intro: "Games Without Frontiers," by Peter Gabriel Outro: "Paper Money," by Montrose Discussed: · Beijing Olympics
· Other Olympic Riffs
· Safe as Houses?
· Greg’s book reccs:
| |||
| 15 Jul 2024 | Getting Unstuck from the Rut: Introducing IDC | 00:41:56 | |
Today’s uncanny AI renderings are just the tip of the iceberg. Architects are banding together to clean up their digital houses, master data literacy, collectively bargain for their needs with software monopolies, and ultimately, prevent technology rendering them irrelevant. Enter the Innovation Design Consortium, an elite corps of leaders and technologists of America’s 40 largest architecture firms, who have banded together to battle the bots. Unfrozen interviews its Chair, Peter Devereaux, Founding Principal of HED. Among many other things, he says, “We have to get out of the business of selling our time by the hour for the production of two-dimensional construction documents.” -- Intro/Outro: “Stuck in a Rut,” by The Darkness -- Discussed: The Road to IDC: Writing guidelines for the use of generative AI via the AIA Large Firm Roundtable (LFRT) See also: “The Future of Generative AI in Architecture, Design and Engineering,” Cornell Tech Key players: - Carole Wedge, Shepley Bulfinch - Bob Packard, ZGF - Brad Lukanic, Cannon Design Other leading lights in the AI 4 AEC community: Phillip Bernstein, Yale Chris Minerva, Thornton Tomasetti Greg Schluesner, Volker Buscher, - IP Law, terms and conditions, “give to get” Is this the “anti-Autodesk”? What does “after Autodesk” look like?
| |||
| 04 Feb 2023 | Episode 46: More, More, More | 00:38:19 | |
Sean Mo and Heagi Kang are living the dream as Andmore Partners, a one-stop development and architecture shop in Los Angeles, working mostly in multifamily residential. Because they are investors as well as architects, the SCI-ARC grads take a hands-on approach to residential design that considers tenant longevity, maintenance, and management - meat-and-potatoes concerns that architects don't always have the privilege or obligation of considering. This informs and improves their future designs. Intro/Outro: "More, More, More," by The Andrea True Connection | |||
| 09 Jul 2023 | Concrete, the Cheech, and Principles of Preservation | 00:37:32 | |
John Lesak is a Principal at Page & Turnbull in Los Angeles, where he specializes in in the preservation, rehabilitation, repair, and reuse of historic structures. His work includes the adaption of historic modern office buildings, 1970s concrete structures, and a 1960s library into The Cheech, a museum for Chicano art in Riverside, California that opened last year to house the collection of actor Cheech Marin. Unfrozen and Lesak chat concrete, the broad meaning of historic preservation, and of course, the Cheech – the man and the museum.
-- Intro: “Born in East L.A.,” by Cheech & Chong
Discussed:
The Mercury (Union Bank, Getty Realty Building) – Claud Beelman, converted to residential in 2007 Local Law 97 – New York City Empire State Building retrofit by Johnson Controls Ranking of NYC buildings for energy performance Shift of LEED from incentive-based program to code Concrete cage match: Walter Netsch vs William Pereira Consider also Max Abramowitz Early recognition of embodied energy impact, 1976-1980: Energy Use for Building Construction, Richard G. Stein & Associates + Center for Advanced Computation at the University of Illinois New Energy from Old Buildings, National Trust, 1981 -- Outro: “Concrete,” by the Darkness | |||
| 03 Jun 2023 | Old Wine, New Bottles: Urban Block Cities | 00:39:00 | |
Copenhagen has long been a paragon in urban planning circles. Karsten Palsson, CEO of Palsson Urbanism, says it's under threat from commercial development interests and weakened government, and now is the time to rearticulate and potentially export the principles that made it a paragon in the first place. Unfrozen sits with the author of "How to Design Humane Cities - Public Spaces and Urbanity," and the new "Urban Block Cities - 10 principles for Contemporary Planning." Intro/Outro: "Old Wine, New Bottles," by Silver Convention | |||
| 01 Feb 2022 | Episode 15: Can You Say Velaslavasay? | 00:53:04 | |
An interview with Sara Velas, founder, Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles. Intro / Outro: “Heartaches,” Al Bowlly, Sid Phillips & His Melodians Discussed: Magical Urbanism Unrestored Restoration The Union Square Florist Shop: A Case of Spectral Immersion Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon, Oakland, CA | |||
| 22 Dec 2023 | Trespass 2: Private Views | 00:46:28 | |
Andi Schmied is an artist and architect based in Budapest. On a fellowship with the Triangle Arts Association, she traveled to New York, impersonating a “Hungarian billionaire’s wife” and prospective apartment buyer to gain access to some of the highest and most expensive real-estate in the world. The result is “Private Views,” a book documenting through photography and research the rarified atmosphere of the so-called “pencil towers” now dotting the Manhattan skyline. -- Intro/Outro: “Something for the Girl with Everything” by Sparks -- Discussed: Calacatta Tucci marble Miele appliances New York State LLC purchase transparency law Lawsuits over construction defects at 432 Park Avenue, by Rafael Vinoly One57 Trump Tower Lantern House by Thomas Heatherwick 53w53 (MoMA Tower) by Jean Nouvel 56 Leonard, by Herzog & de Meuron, with sculpture by Anish Kapoor 85% of ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals are men 90% of billionaires are men A Dubai-style free zone in Hungary Editor Irena Lehkoživová and VI PER gallery Next project 1: World Islands, Dubai The Palm, Dubai Next project 2: London’s “Iceberg Homes” Oliver Bullough’s Kleptocracy Tours From Russia with Cash | |||
| 25 Oct 2022 | Episode 40: Typological Drift | 00:50:54 | |
Cities that produce only underwear, blue jeans and extras in domestic films are among the fascinating objects of study in Typological Drift: Emerging Cities in China by Shiqiao Li and Esther Lorenz. Journey with Unfrozen and Shiqiao Li to reveal the surprising urban realities of China that escape normative urban theories, with several stops along the way in philosophy and linguistics. Typological Drift: Emerging Cities in China by Shiqiao Li and Esther Lorenz Interviewee: Shiqiao Li is Weedon Professor in Asian Architecture, School of Architecture, University of Virginia, where he teaches history, theory, and design of architecture, and directs PhD in the Constructed Environment Program. He is author of Understanding the Chinese City (2014), Architecture and Modernization (2009, in Chinese) and Power and Virtue, Architecture and Intellectual Change in England 1650-1730 (2006). He recently contributed an essay to the Routledge Handbook of Chinese Architecture (2022). Inro/Outro: “Drifted” by Groove Armada Discussed: Drift Triggers Ten Thousand Things Borges: “The map of the empire is the size of the empire itself.” Figuration | |||
| 10 Mar 2023 | Still Alive in the Utopia / Dystopia | 00:33:27 | |
Dan and Greg return from podcast sabbatical to bring you tasty riffs and preview Unfrozen’s spring docket. You didn’t think you could get rid of us that easily, did you? Intro/Outro: “I’m Alive,” by Electric Light Orchestra -- Discussed: IIT MTBVU goes to Malaysia and Singapore CTBUH 2023 Conference Crescent City CA - site of a future megacity, and maybe tsunamis. A job for Climate Alpha Vanity Fair - Horseshoe Theorists - network states, crypto communities Economists believe architecture doesn’t matter Trads vs mods Human scale vs megaprojects - there are no natural norms of architecture Singapore - the ultimate tabula rasa city: Koolhaas, S, M, L, XL The 7 peaks <> Devils Pool and Marina Bay Sands pool -- great, but you’ve got to see the employee dry cleaning operation at Marina Bay Sands SIM City for Real How do we disrupt Autodesk? Who is the Carlos the Jackal behind Trump’s first policy proposal for 2024 campaign: Freedom Cities! With EVTOLS! = Bioshock Infinite University of Notre Dame vs. a supertrad grad Threatcasting and Micro-targeting with the Secret Service Next up: Nick Kaufmann, Spectra Cities and Andreea Ion Cojacaru, Numena …and Venice Architecture Biennale - countdown to May …tying it back to the Chicago Architecture Biennial | |||
| 15 Aug 2022 | Episode 35: Architecture of Normal | 00:52:34 | |
Daniel Kaven is the author of Architecture of Normal: The Colonization of the American Landscape, a book that views the built environment through the lens of successive developments in transportation. An architect and visual artist hailing from Albuquerque, now calling Portland home, Kaven takes on suburbanization, flying cars, and why “Generation Z needs to get out in the streets and be really pissed off about work-from-home.” Intro/Outro: The Big Country, by The Talking Heads Discussed: Ed Ruscha Cibola – one of the Seven Cities of Gold COVID as accelerant of moving from an experiential lifestyle to a destination-based lifestyle Instagram feeds are the new main streets of America United Airlines buys Archer – an air-taxi company Henry Ford’s flying personal cars department Prediction: First place to adopt flying cars – Saudi Arabia The Main Street and Mall Retail Apocalypse Future infrastructure and traffic planning will be about stratification of means of transport, literally Just because we have the technology to do something, doesn’t mean we should Do we want to live in places where we just order online and it gets delivered to a drone pad? The Big Tech companies are nation-states, or partners thereof Urbanism had a good run from 1990s to just before COVID. The post-COVID boom is in places like suburban Boise – Boomtown ZoomTown, and it’s already fizzling. “Generation Z needs to get out in the streets and be really pissed off about work-from-home.” Architecture firms have really phoned in their responsibility to make places where people want to be – as a counterpoint to work-from-home, the tone of which is being set by Facebook and their brethren. “There is no future with goggles on.” “We don’t need to rip America apart and build the Metaverse.” “How can people live a more spacious life in an urban environment?” “We’re going to regret having made all these 5-over-1 wood-frame buildings with cheap materials.” | |||
| 17 Sep 2022 | Episode 37: The City is Here for You to Use | 00:53:38 | |
Unfrozen interviews Peter Wynne Rees, Professor of Places and City Planning, The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, who was previously City Planning Officer for the City of London, from 1985 to 2014. He is a founding member and director (1990-2022) of the British Council for Offices and received their President’s Award in 2003 for “presiding over one of the most extensive periods of redevelopment in the City’s long history”. This is his first appearance on the program, but he has been the subject of two prior episodes, #21, This is London: Rees Remembrances and #22, The Engine Room, the City, and Color Commentary. Intro/Outro: "The City Is Here for You to Use," by The Futureheads Discussed: CTBUH Lynn Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award The cult of home ownership, enforced by government Lifespan of buildings vs building products What architecture and planning students should be learning | |||
| 30 Oct 2021 | Episode 3: Turin-a-bout is Fair Play, Tracing Roots, Chasing Utopias | 00:24:49 | |
Greg, Dan and special guest Alexandra Siebenthal, host of the Design in the City Podcast by RESITE, convene in Turin, Italy, to discuss their "redpill" moments that got them hooked on architecture and urbanism, and what they're looking forward to seeing at Utopian Hours, the urban design festival held 8-10 October, 2021. Intro/Outro: "Euro-Trash Girl" by Cracker | |||
| 19 Dec 2021 | Episode 7: From the Blogchives: Architect, Designer, Lover, Spy: The Eero You Never Knew | 00:16:16 | |
The complex (abridged) history of Eero Saarinen. From the Unfrozen 1.0 blog, an audio version of an article that originally ran on October 20, 2012 in The Faster Times, and on November 22, 2012 on Unfrozen. Music: "Jet," by Wings | |||
| 26 Jun 2023 | Biennale Breakdown 3: Not for Sale, or: Lost in the Supermarket | 00:49:45 | |
The third and final installment of the Biennale Breakdown is at hand: We speed-ran the national pavilions so you don’t have to. Here’s the rundown on our 16 most notable national showings, complete with two interviews of the curators of Latvia and Canada pavilions, all in less than 50 minutes.
Intro/Outro: “Natural’s Not in It,” by Gang of Four
Discussed:
Austria: Partecipazione / Beteiligung Switzerland: Neighbors South Korea: 2086: Together How? The Netherlands: Plumbing the System USA: Everlasting Plastics Bahrain: Sweating Assets UAE: Aridly Abundant Applied Arts Pavilion: Victoria & Albert Museum – Tropical Modernism Australia: Unsettling Queenstown Germany: Open for Maintenance Uzbekistan: Unbuild Together Czech Republic: The Office for a Non-Precarious Future Latvia: T/C LATVIJA (TCL): Interview with curator Ernests Cerbulis Intro/Outro:“Lost in the Supermarket,” by The Clash Estonia: Home Stage Canada: Not for Sale!!: Interview with curators Matthew Soules and Adrian Blackwell Intro/Outro: “New Home” by Toro y Moi | |||
| 18 Mar 2023 | Show Me the Bodies | 00:45:28 | |
At Grenfell Tower, London, on 14 June 2017 a small kitchen fire quickly enveloped the entire 24-story building, aided by combustible cladding material affixed to its exterior. This and many other factors contributed to the deaths of 72 people. Grenfell Tower became an international symbol of systemic failure within the building industry and the government to protect the lives of high-rise residents. More than five years on, the public inquiry is nearly complete, having taken more than 1,600 witness statements and held more than 300 public hearings. Now, the book "Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen" meticulously examines the root causes of the tragedy. Unfrozen interviews its author, Peter Apps. -- Intro: "That's Entertainment" by The Jam Outro: "You Don't Care About Us," by Placebo | |||
| 21 Aug 2023 | Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World | 00:53:29 | |
Drawing on his decades of experience working in and writing about shrinking cities, renowned urban policy expert and Center for Community Progress senior fellow Alan Mallach delivers a powerful wake-up call in his new book Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World: The era of booming global population and economic growth is over, and cities everywhere will shrink as a result. -- Intro/Outro: "Smaller and Smaller," by Faith No More Discussed: - Germany and Japan's demographics - The immigration factor - The political time bomb of shrinking cities and left-behinders - Networked Localism - Remote Surgery - Dan Gilbert saves(?) Detroit - Migration to the Sun Belt - what will reverse that course? - HGTV for Shrinking Cities - | |||
| 23 Dec 2021 | Episode 8: In Praise of Words and Letters, Union Shops, and the New Sincerity | 00:53:46 | |
Greg and Dan host Eva Hagberg, author of “Dark Nostalgia,” “How to be Loved,” and the upcoming “When Eero Met His Match”. Intro: “The Letter,” by The Box Tops Topics: · Eero and Aline: “They met and immediately started banging”… and launched the modern world of Architecture PR · “Publicists make their jobs look a lot harder than they are” · Don’t piss off OTTO and ESTO · “I blew my entire advance on seven Iwaan Baan photos” · A Union SHoP? o Tyler Goss cut the cord · Architecture Twitter vs Instagram o “They were all talking about Henri Lefebvre, which makes me feel like a Boomer” o Zoolander’s Center for Ants · The New Sincerity goes mainstream: Lesley Lokko curates Venice 2023 · Casting the “When Eero Met His Match” movie · “Letters are sexting through the centuries.” · Undoing the primacy of the image Outro: “We Used to Wait,” by The Arcade Fire | |||
| 19 Aug 2024 | Glass Houses | 00:45:01 | |
Madeline Ashby is a freelance futurist and author of Glass Houses, a near-future sci-fi thriller about creepy tech, creepier tech bros, and the woman who dares challenge both. The first Unfrozen interview with a novelist takes us on a journey to desert islands, bland design-hotel furniture, evil architecture tropes, and much more. -- Intro/Outro: "I am not a woman, I am a god," by Halsey -- Show Notes: - Previous work:
- Strategic Foresight and Innovation Program - OCAD University - The Old Dark House, 1932 - Institute for the Future - Age of Networked Matter - Haunted Objects, Greg and Dana Newkirk - Major inspo: Michael Mann movies - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - David Cronenberg's Brutalist Toronto - Toshiya Ueno and "Cultural Odorlessness" - Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross collaboration on Halsey's 2021 album "If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power." - The tendency of AI to generate from the baseline average of all things on the internet - usually porn, maybe hentai - "Domestic Violence," Madeline Ashby, Slate, 2018 - Samantha Bee - "Excuse Me, Do You Have a Moment to Talk About Canada?" - Augmented Cities, Cornell Tech - The decline of dating apps and replacement by AI bot boyfriends and girlfriends / The fracking of human consciousness - DARVO - Movie version would almost certainly star Kristen Bell or Kristen Stewart | |||
| 16 Apr 2022 | Episode 25: Metal Machine Musings | 00:11:41 | |
Original story: Unfrozen 1.0, Sept. 3, 2012 A profile of two metallic sculptures by two design firms in Los Angeles: "A Loose Horizon," by LAYER, at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and "Bloom," by DO|SU, at Materials & Applications. Intro / Outro: "Metal Machine Music," by Lou Reed | |||
| 18 Dec 2022 | Episode 44: "Olive the Seal" - Unfrozen in 2022 | 00:36:26 | |
Dan and Greg recap the highs and lows of the first full year of Unfrozen – 33 episodes – and look ahead to 2023. Did you know? You don’t have to catch the stars as they fall. You can listen to any episode from our web site, or on your favorite podcast platform, at any time! Intro/Outro: “Our Lips are Sealed,” by The Go-Go’s Discussed: - A high number of episodes devoted to Peter Rees, the former chief planner of the City of London o Episode 37: The City is Here for You to Use o Episode 22: The Engine Room, the City, and Color Commentary o Episode 21: This is London: Rees Reminiscences - Stats and demographics - Fan fave episodes: tied for 125 plays each: o Episode 32: Future Storage: From Mineral Extraction to Data Forestry (Marina Otero) o Episode 31: Emergent Tokyo (Jorge Almazan) - Greg’s favorites: o Episode 13: What Fresh McMansion Hell is This? (Kate Wagner) o Episode 26: Big Time (Patrick MacLeamy) o Episode 27: A Skyscraper Superfan Aims High (Changsub Lee) o Episode 34: Chicago: Two Guides, One Cast (Laurie Petersen, Vladimir Belogolovsky o Episode 41: Imagine a City (Mark Vanhoenacker) o Episode 43: Who is the City For? (Blair Kamin) - Dan’s favorites: o Episode 42: 1972: A Spatial Oddity (Noritaka Minami, Iker Gil) - Guest & adventure pipeline for 2023 o Juan Miro, Miro Rivera Architects on windowless dormitories o Andrew Shanken – author, The Everyday Life of Memorials o Andmore Partners – Architects as Developers o Dan in Hradec Kralove, Czechia o Greg: The Metaverse Metropolis @ Cornell Tech Urban Hub o What is the Figma of Autodesk? o Zach Katz – Transform Your City | |||
| 23 Mar 2024 | Horror in Architecture | 00:45:17 | |
Blobs. Doppelgangers. Giants. Puppets. Incontinent objects. Mullets. Army of Darkness. All and much more are covered in Horror in Architecture: The Reanimated Edition by Joshua Comaroff and Ong Ker-Shing. The book examines how horror genre tropes familiar from books and cinema also appear in architecture, and in so doing, how we can find another way to understand and criticize our built environment, using the language of mass culture in place of “weaponized jargon.” Comaroff is the guest of honor on episode 76 of Unfrozen. -- -- Intro/Outro: “Scare Me,” by Deadbolt -- Discussed:
Harvard Graduate School of Design under Rem Koolhaas Bigness, or the Problem of Large, by Rem Koolhaas Centre Pompidou = Terry Gilliam’s Brazil Xintiandi, Shanghai The Architectural Uncanny, by Anthony Vidler Built Beautiful, with narration by … Martha Stewart Mullets Ordos 100, Inner Mongolia - House House, by Johnston Marklee H.R. Giger -> Zaha Hadid -> Thomas Heatherwick-> Santiago Calatrava Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town Hannover Pavilion at Expo 2000 by MVRDV = Arby’s Breakfast Sandwich Caltrans Building, Los Angeles, Morphosis League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, by Alan Moore House of Leaves, by Mark Danielewski The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov Saddam Hussein’s Frank Frazetta-esque fantasy interior paintings Idi Amin’s Chinese Garden Great Basilica, Yamoussukro, Ivory Coast (110% the size of St. Peters) Anti-Oedipus, by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari The Day of the Beast and Philip Johnson’s Gate of Europe, Madrid | |||
| 10 Apr 2023 | The Atlas of Space Rocket Launch Sites | 00:50:28 | |
"The Atlas of Space Rocket Launch Sites" shows all major sites where space rockets have been launched since Sputnik in 1957. Brian Harvey and his co-author Gurbir Singh showcase the steps of space travel as they have never been presented before. We were lucky enough to catch them on Unfrozen. Have a listen and enjoy this unique exploration of the final frontier with us. Intro/Outro: "Rocketship XL-3" by Man or Astro-Man? | |||
| 16 Sep 2023 | "V" is for "Value": Verse Design | 01:00:26 | |
Verse Design LA is headed by Paul Tang and Courtenay Bauer. The architecture firm has taken considerable risks, sometimes playing the role of ambassador and accountant while pursuing value for clients – including telling prospective clients they shouldn’t pursue the project. From high-speed rail stations in China to sprawling eco-resorts in Northern California, Verse Design has been around the Ring of Fire a few times, literally and figuratively. They share their wisdom with Unfrozen.
-- Intro/Outro: “Value,” by Foliage
Discussed:
- Verse Design Shanghai – with Leon Dai
- USC American Academy in China
- Projects: o High-Speed Rail Station, Bengbu,China, 2010 o Thirty75 Tech, Santa Clara, CA, 2022 o Guenoc Valley, Lake County, CA (16,000 acres) – Ongoing
- Manhattan = 14,478 acres California Forever, Solano County, CA: 55,000 acres - Pro forma as a design tool | |||
| 27 May 2024 | Houser + Hytha = Highrises | 00:42:56 | |
Chris Hytha and Mark Houser are collaborators on Highrises: Art Deco, a multimedia series chronicling the great skyscraper edifices of the roaring ‘20s. Photographed by drones and meticulously measured and researched, the series – a book, prints, website, mobile phone wallpaper and exhibition -- reveals fascinating details and stories of these distinctly American icons. Catch the in-person book talk on July 18 and the exhibition from May 31 to August 26 at the Chicago Architecture Center. -- -- Intro/Outro: “High Rise” by Ladytron -- Discussed: MultiStories: 55 Antique Skyscrapers and the Business Tycoons Who Built Them The DJI Air 2S Drone Highrises Art Deco: 100 Spectacular Skyscrapers from the Roaring ‘20s to the Great Depression Henry W. Oliver Building, Pittsburgh, D.H. Burnham, 1910 Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln, Bertram Goodhue, 1932 Public Market > Modern Spirits Liquor Store, Tulsa, Gaylord Noftsger, 1930 Monadnock Building, Chicago, Burnham & Root, Holabird & Roche, 1891-1893 Eastern Columbia Building, Los Angeles, Claud Beelman, 1930 Mather Tower > Club Quarters Hotel, Chicago, Herbert Riddle, 1928 Union & Peoples National Bank > Jackson County Tower, Jackson, MI, Albert Kahn, 1929 Frick Building, Pittsburgh, D.H. Burnham, 1902 The Woolworth Building, New York, Cass Gilbert, 1913 Price Tower, Bartlesville, OK, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1956 Sterick Building, Memphis, Wyatt C Hendrick & Co, 1930 Industrial Trust Building, Providence, George Frederick Hall, Walker & Gillette, 1927 Guardian Building, Detroit, Donaldson & Meier; Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, 1929 Fisher Building, Detroit, Albert Kahn Associates; Graven & Mayger, 1928 Carbide & Carbon Building, Chicago, Burnham Brothers, 1929 Foshay Tower, Minneapolis, Hooper & Janusch; Magney & Tusler, 1929 Rand Tower, Minneapolis, Holabird & Root, 1929 Kansas City Power & Light Building, Kansas City, Hoit, Price & Barnes, 1931 | |||
| 31 Oct 2022 | Episode 41: Imagine a City | 00:38:17 | |
Unfrozen interviews Mark Vanhoenacker, a commercial airline pilot and author of Imagine a City and Skyfaring. A regular contributor to the New York Times and the Financial Times, he was trained as a historian and started in business before beginning flight training in 2001. He now flies the Boeing 787 Dreamliner from London to cities around the world. Intro/Outro: “Flying,” by The Beatles Discussed: Calvino’s Invisible Cities Holiday Inn and Suites, Pittsfield, Mass. John Hancock Tower, 200 Clarendon, Boston James C Scott – Seeing Like a State Aerotropolises, and/or airport terminals and fringes we like: - The Squaire, Frankfurt - The Jewel, Changi, Singapore - Harmondsworth Moor, Hillingdon, London – home of a barn built in 1426, which has a view of the Heathrow control tower - AeroCity, Delhi - Virgin Clubhouse, Heathrow - Schiphol, Amsterdam - Kastrup, Copenhagen - Arlanda, Stockholm Ways to make aviation fuel green, The Economist, 17 August 2022 | |||
| 10 Mar 2024 | We're Back, Miss Us? | 00:30:16 | |
Never mind the weather, don’t you feel it has been a cold and eerily quiet winter? Could it be because Unfrozen was offline due to unanticipated legal issues with our podcasting platform? Never fear, we are back in black / in the saddle again, we missed you, and we are ready to infiltrate your ears with our musings once again. Intro/Outro: “Miss You,” by the Rolling Stones -- Discussed: - Spotify throws a sprocket in our jam-bulance wheels - Ubik-like terms of service, as written by Philip K. Dick. - Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Dubai: Mistakes were made - 15-minute cities are in the Dubai 2040 plan - Qiddiya - North Pole Riyadh, 2-kilometer tower by Foster + Partners - The Ministry of McKinsey - The US Senate Inquiry into the PIF Consultants - Dubai Creek Harbour and the delayed Dubai Creek Tower maybe restarting? - Jeddah Tower also maybe restarting? - Pritzker Prize goes to Riken Yamamoto o Work includes The Circle, Zurich Airport - Bjarke Ingels had a big, postmodern, postironic week o Museum/Casino of Freedom and Democracy, New York - Bears and Sox lobbying Chicago and Illinois for stadium subsidies - Saudi 2034 World Cup Stadium by Populous - Greg’s SXSW calendar o Conference of Mayors Civic I/O Mayor’s Summit o Using Augmented Reality to Drive Inclusive City Development - Also at SXSW: Imagine Harder: Prototyping Impossible Futures - Don’t drive or walk outside using Apple Vision Pro goggles - Upcoming guests: o Joshua Comaroff & Ong Ker-Shing, authors of Horror in Architecture o Kevin Kelley, Shook Kelley, author of Irreplaceable (not Kevin Kelly) | |||
| 20 May 2024 | To the Ends of the Earth | 00:42:04 | |
In To the Ends of the Earth: A Grand Tour for the 21st Century, Richard Weller, Professor Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism & Ecology at the University of Pennsylvania, has condensed a sprawling subject into a compact field guide to 120 of the most significant 21st century objects, from bulldozers to Biosphere II. Call it dystopian, call it optimistic. Just don’t call it “anthroporn.” -- Intro/Outro: “Until the End of the World,” by U2 -- Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World, by Timothy Morton Utopias (and Utopia’s Evil Twins) Walmart Supercenter Machines: Bulldozers + polymetric nodules Fish farms Solar arrays Sand motor + littoral drift Tree-planting drones Monsters: Geo-engineering The World Park Project / UN Convention on Biological Diversity | |||
| 26 Aug 2022 | Episode 36: Big Time: Patrick MacLeamy | 00:52:32 | |
Patrick MacLeamy was the CEO of HOK from 2003 to 2017, capping off a 50-year career at the venerable firm responsible for the National Air and Space Museum, Moscone Center, and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, and is credited with creating "The MacLeamy Curve," a touchstone of business guidance for the built environment. In his semi-retirement, he is a founder and chairman of buildingSMART International, which encourages the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and more open collaboration between the design and construction industries. He recently authored "Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm: The People, Stories and Strategies Behind HOK." Hear some of his lifetime's worth of colorful anecdotes and sage advice on this special episode of Unfrozen. Intro/Outro: "Elevation" by U2 Nuggets: “We need to think about contractors as our valued colleagues and friends, and change the way we think about our industry. It needs to be more collaborative – design-bid-build is going into the dustbin of history. Collaborative design-build is the way forward.” “Managing risk and complexity is much easier to do collaboratively. We have to wake up and smell the coffee. The old way of designing and building is changing. If architects want to rejoin society in a special place, they have to adapt. The world needs us, but we need to get the rules of the game changed so we can be successful again.” | |||
| 18 Jun 2023 | Untimely Meditations, Virtual Repatriations | 01:00:55 | |
Despite its looming omnipresence, the Venice Architecture Biennale had very little material on virtual/augmented reality and the metaverse. Unfrozen interviews two of the exceptions. First, Era Merkuri and Martin Gjoleka, principals of the Karlsruhe, Germany-based Heramarte, are the curators of the 2023 Albanian Pavilion, titled "Untimely Meditations: How We Learn to Live in Synthesized Realities." The project takes two real but highly adulterated 1950s public works projects in Tirana - the Dinamo Stadium and the Artificial Lake - and situates reimagined augmented-reality objects within them, projecting the results throughout the space at the Arsenale, and online.
Second, Chidi Nwaubani is the founder of Looty, a “virtual restitution project” in which a team of artists stages a “heist,” in masks and dark clothing, to (perfectly legally) scan detailed 3D images of looted artifacts from Africa now sitting in places such as the British Museum. The 3D images of such works as the Benin Bronzes and the Rosetta Stone are then converted into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with 20 percent of the proceeds going to grants for young African artists.
Intro / Outro: “Untimely Meditations” by Shortwave Research Group Intermezzo: “Heist” by Noisestorm | |||
| 04 Apr 2022 | Episode 23: Of Montreal, Hype-r-Mediocrity and All That | 00:40:21 | |
Dan and Greg reunite again in person, in Greg’s adopted home city of Montreal. Witness Greg’s Unified Theory of Montreal Modernism. Featuring music by artists of, from, by, with Montreal, or Canada, or topically adjacent planes of existence. -- Intro: “Don't Let Me Die in America,” by Of Montreal - Canadian Centre for Architecture’s “A Section of Now” [“Safety Dance,” by Men Without Hats] - St. Joseph’s Oratory, the Space-Rockiest Basilica in the World [“2112: The Temples of Syrinx,” by Rush] [“Montreal Lumiere” by Expo 67] - The Unified Theory of Montreal Modernism [“Emerge,” by Fischerspooner] - Hype and Drop Culture, or “Hey Buddy, Want to buy a Moonwatch?” - Greg and Dan play “What’s in my Bag?” at the CCA - Greg mistakes Dan’s reference to the nearest Target being in Plattsburgh, New York, and assumes he is talking about military targets, which leads to a discussion on nuclear war. [“War Games,” by Gary Numan] - Dan prefaces a journey to the world’s largest log cabin Outro: “All That,” by Sparks | |||
| 12 Mar 2022 | Episode 21: This is London: Rees Reminiscences | 00:34:06 | |
Greg, fresh from a trip to London, shares with Dan updates and reminiscences of the hale old town in the throes of ever-later capitalism, doffing hats to its raconteur-in-chief, Peter Wynne Rees. -- Intro: “Hairdresser on Fire,” by Morrissey Discussed: The Square Mile (City of London) Skygarden shitshow at the Walkie Talkie – 20 Fenchurch Cities as information (gossip) machines Bank of England – John Soane The Royal Exchange – William Tite The Cheesegrater (The Leadenhall Building) – Rogers, Stirk Harbour & Partners The Lloyd’s Building – Richard Rogers NewCities Podcast interview with Peter Rees Heron (now Salesforce) Tower - KPF Selhurst Park – Crystal Palace Club 22 Bishopsgate (“The Wedge”) – PLP Architecture; née the Pinnacle (“The Helter Skelter”) - KPF Everything’s Iconic! The Google “Landscraper” – Thomas Heatherwick and Bjarke Ingels Group When is the Urban Redevelopment Vibe Shift coming? Everyone wants a High Line The Compression to Now vs Decades of Urban Accretion Travel Challenge: the Stratford Olympic Site Assemble – acupuncture revitalization – Granby Four Streets, Liverpool Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics - Outro: “In the City,” by the Jam | |||
| 20 Feb 2022 | Episode 18: From the Blogchives: Too-Late Modernism? | 00:21:55 | |
Brutalism has had a rough time over the past decade. Can it be redeemed before it’s too late? Originally published in The Faster Times on October 8, 2012 and on Unfrozen 1.0 on November 22, 2012. - Intro: “Creep,” by Radiohead - A Teardown? o [“Alma Matters,” by Morrissey] - Truthiness be Told - Brutalism is the Prog-Rock of Architecture o [“2112 – Overture,” by Rush] o [“The Wives of Henry VIII,” by o [“Aqualung,” Jethro Tull] o [“Sailing,” by Christopher Cross] - NU-Wave o [“Atomic,” by Blondie] - Dedicated Followers of Fashion o [“Dedicated Followers of Fashion,” by The Kinks] o [“Government Center,” by The Modern Lovers] - …And When You Smile for the Camera… o [“Peg,” by Steely Dan] - Outro: “Aqualung,” by Jethro Tull | |||
| 31 Jul 2022 | Episode 34: Chicago: Two Guides, One Cast | 00:51:45 | |
Chicago is a famed architecture town, but the road has not always been smooth. Hear from the editor and author, respectively, of two recently released guides – Laurie Petersen for the AIA Guide to Chicago and Vladimir Belogolovskyfor the DOM Architectural Guide Chicago, discourse on Postmodernist icons like the Thompson (future Google?) Center and Harold Washington Library, and muse on what came next, where we are now, and why Chicago is still important to architecture everywhere. | |||
| 10 Sep 2023 | Larry Booth: Modern Beyond Style | 00:33:24 | |
Our guest is Larry Booth, founder of Booth Hansen Architects and a member of the original "Chicago Seven" group of architects who broke away from the Miesian acolytes dominating the discourse in Chicago at the end of the 1970s. He has a new monograph by Jay Pridmore called "Modern Beyond Style." We chat about postmodernism, pluralism, and the sensibilities that have made his work timeless, even as he has transitioned from the "young Turk" to "the establishment." -- Intro/Outro: "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens -- Discussed:
| |||
| 29 Jan 2024 | Domo Arigatou, "Mike 2.0" | 00:43:24 | |
In every office, there is someone with so much accumulated knowledge the boss wants to “clone” them. At structural engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti (TT), they’ve basically done that. The firm has taken the concept of a “digital twin” to a newly literal level – engineers can now quiz a synthetic clone of the firm’s in-house welding and metallurgy expert, constructed from 30 years of his files and emails. Chief Technology Officer Robert Otani tells Unfrozen where TT is taking generative artificial intelligence (GAI) next. -- Intro/Outro: “Mr. Roboto,” by Styx -- Discussed: · ZHA’s Patrik Schumacher keynote at the AIA Center for Architecture’s AI+A Symposium, 16 December 2023 · Dall-E, ChatGPT, Midjourney, OpenAI · HOU 3000: Serpentine Galleries’ virtual chief curator, Hans Ulrich Obrist · TT’s Spark Intranet · Cornell Tech Jacobs Institute: The Future of Generative AI in Architecture, Design and Engineering · TT made a digital twin of welding and metallurgy expert Mike DeLashmit. The real Mike gives "Mike 2.0" a “4.7 out of 5” in terms of the accuracy of its answers. · Converting scanned PDF drawings with annotations into vectors + tabular data · A “hallucination throttle” for generative AI iterations on existing documents · Using AI to optimize material quantities, operational energy, and eventually, embodied carbon | |||
| 02 Dec 2021 | Episode 6: Get Back to the Tunnel of Love: Marriage Dynamics in Design Firms, Why We Can't Have Nice Things and a Lot of Other Things | 00:43:03 | |
It's a rambler, folks, but full of nuggets: Intro: "Tunnel of Love" by Dire Straits - Can BIG Transcend Bjarke? Outro: "Walking in LA" by Missing Persons | |||
| 08 Jan 2023 | Episode 45: The Everyday Life of Memorials | 00:50:00 | |
Andrew Shanken is currently the Director of American Studies, Faculty Curator of the Environmental Design Archives, on the Faculty Advisory Committee at the Townsend Center for the Humanities and the Global Urban Humanities at the University of California Berkeley. He has a joint appointment in American Studies. His most recent book is The Everyday Life of Memorials, which explores memorials’ relationship to the pulses of daily life, their meaning within this quotidian context, and their place within the development of modern cities. Intro: “The Statue Got Me High,” by They Might Be Giants Discussed: “There is nothing in this world as invisible as a monument.” – Robert Musil The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington DC, Maya Lin Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, Washington DC, Frank Gehry National World War II Memorial, Washington DC, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin, Peter Eisenman Monument vs monumental vs memorial The Bastille, Paris Mariana Griswold van Rensselaer National September 11 Memorial & Museum, New York City, Michael Arad New Yorker cover, “Memorial Plaza,” 7-14 July 2014, Adrian Tomine Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn “Death, Grief and Mourning in Contemporary Britain,” – Geoffrey Gorer, 1965 Sedlec Ossuary, Kutna Hora, Czech Republic “The Hour of Our Death” – Philippe Ariès, 1977 Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris Brooklyn Strand, repurposing the Brooklyn War Memorial as a conduit to New York City’s park system Hyde Park Corner, London Monuments that “switch on” only when they’re blown up or taken down Marian Columns Georgia Guidestones Robert E. Lee Monument, Richmond White contractors wouldn’t remove Confederate statues. So a Black man did it. “Kickstarter urbanism” and the crowd-funded monument Denkmalkritik “The Great War and Modern Memory” – Paul Fussell The Grove, Los Angeles Texas State Capital Grounds, Austin Outro: “Monuments for a Dead Century,” by The Boo Radleys | |||
| 11 Jan 2022 | Episode 11: Are You Experienced? Join Team Insurgent! | 00:46:57 | |
Interview with Daniel Meyers and Traci Sym of +&> (Plus and Greater Than), an exhibition design firm in Portland, Oregon. Intro / Outro: "Are You Experienced?" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience Cover Art: "Tubes" by +&> (Plus and Greater Than) Discussed: - Cambridge Seven - High Museology versus Themed Entertainment - Exhibition design is really “schmoopy” - Encountering conflict is part of the training of performing artists, so it's good to have a theater person on your design team - Starting with a narrative rather than a site - Experiencing things that are not algorithmically selected for you - ABOTI - Always Be on Team Insurgent - The Real Dick Nixon, the Decemberists and Malkmus are all getting together on a Revolutionary War Memorial in South Carolina | |||
| 26 Nov 2022 | Episode 43: Who is the City For? | 00:46:20 | |
Pulitzer Prize–winning architecture critic Blair Kamin has long informed and delighted readers with his illuminating commentary. Kamin’s newest collection, Who Is the City For?, does more than gather fifty-five of his most notable Chicago Tribune columns from the past decade: it pairs his words with striking new images by photographer and architecture critic Lee Bey, Kamin’s former rival at the Chicago Sun-Times. Listen to the Unfrozen interview with Kamin, and understand why “city planning is not a game of 2D checkers but of 3D chess.” Intro/Outro: “Chicago” by Benny Goodman Discussed: Maurice Cox, Chicago Planning Commissioner The pandemic’s effect on rapid urbanization Spread of crime from poor to rich neighborhoods The city’s not “out of control,” but it is in need of reinvention Lower Manhattan’s adaptive reuse of older skyscrapers does present a template Decentralization of the central business district, ex: McDonald’s HQ in the Fulton Market Prospects for Lincoln Yards and The 78 – shades of Cityfront Center? The Chicago Spire pit / 400 N Lake Shore Drive replacement project DuSable Park and the Riverwalk “We have to think of the city not as a 2D checkers game but a 3D chess game.” Buffalo Bayou Park extension project, Houston AIA design competition for the next bungalow “Plop” architecture 1611 W Division – look ma, no parking! “There are those who say ‘who gets what’ is a tired trope of architectural criticism – let me vehemently disagree.” Chicago as a participant in global economic and architectural design exchange The City that Works > The City that Plays Investment of Chinese capital in St. Regis Tower | |||
| 19 Mar 2022 | Episode 22: The Engine Room, the City, and Color Commentary | 00:25:51 | |
Building on the momentum of Episode 21, this special episode is a back-to-back Rees attack, with Greg and Dan both relaying their respective reports from the City of London’s raconteur-in-chief, from 2017 and 2013, respectively. Intro: "In the Engine Room," by Mike Watt Intermission: "Talk Talk," by Talk Talk Outro: "My Favourite Buildings," by Robyn Hitchcock | |||
| 06 Nov 2021 | Episode 4: It's Mark's Mungerverse, We're Just Living in It | 00:42:40 | |
Considering: the Munger Nightmare Dorm at UCSB, the Metaverse, Pokemon Go, how BIM, CAD and CATIA can play the god game too, Planetary Computation, Really Feeling the Room, Snow and Stars as Fungible Tokens, Climbing Up the Walls. Intro/Outro: "Climbing Up the Walls" by Radiohead Show notes/Links: Maybe the Munger Nightmare Dorm is the best we can do Zuckerberg’s endgame is monetizing everything The Intersection by Superflux | |||
| 29 Jul 2024 | Salty Urbanism | 00:50:11 | |
Salty Urbanism is a design manual to address sea level rise and climate change for urban areas in coastal zones. It is a concept that refers to the ways in which cities and urban areas will respond and adapt to rising sea levels and the accompanying increase in salinity of coastal and near-coastal land. This phenomenon is caused by a combination of factors, including global warming, sea-level rise, and human development along coastlines. Unfrozen interviews Jeffrey Huber, Principal, Brooks + Scarpa and Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Florida Atlantic University, about how the concept is applied in South Florida. -- Intro/Outro: "Waiting for the Flood," by Love and Rockets -- | |||
| 17 Jun 2024 | Movement | 00:51:16 | |
“Every line on the road is a political choice.” Marco te Brömmelstroet, a.k.a. “The Cycling Professor,” is the chair of Urban Mobility Futures at the University of Amsterdam. His book Movement, with Thalia Verkade, takes a stance against myths and received wisdoms that surround popular thinking about the rights and place of cyclists and pedestrians, urban design, and traffic engineering. Parallel to the critique, he presents new ways of thinking about how, and why we move through the world, and at what speed. -- Intro/Outro: “My White Bicycle,” by Tomorrow -- Discussed: - Woonerf - Chicane - Cauliflower neighborhood, a.k.a. Bloemkoolwijk - Fighting Traffic, by Peter Norton - Rollback of congestion pricing in New York City - The bicycle at the bed-in, Amsterdam 1969 - The Royal Dutch Touring Club, AWNB vs the EWNB - Provo – Dutch nonviolent protest group + The White Bicycle Plan - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig - Anne Hidalgo + Carlos Moreno = 170,000 trees - Groningen car ban, 1980 - Nieuwmarkt riots, Amsterdam, 1975 - Janette Sadiq-Khan and the Times Square pedestrianization - Bike Bus – Sam Balto - NYC Municipal Vehicle Active Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) / Speed Geofencing - Valerie Plante, Mayor of Montreal, BIXI bikes (non-profit bike-sharing program) - Swapfliets (Swap Bike) | |||