USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love (George Smart)

Architects Albert Frey and Lawrence Kocher designed the Aluminaire House in 1931 for New York’s Allied Arts and Industries Exhibition. Tens of thousands of people went through this experimental house design. Now, over 90 years later, Aluminaire has been sitting in a tractor trailer, boxed up, at the Palm Springs Museum of Art. Joining George is Leo Marmol of the legendary LA firm Marmol Radziner. He's a Board member for the Palm Springs Art Museum and is coordinating the design team responsible for Aluminaire’s restoration. Next, Frank Lloyd Wright founded the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in the mid-twentieth century. We talk with Wright Foundation CEO Stuart Graff and Jennifer Gray, director of the new Taliesin Institute established by the Wright Foundation. Later on, jazz with musical guest Elaine Lucia.

Watergate has come to mean scandal, usually but not always, political. The gate part is used as a suffix for other scandals in everything from sports to entertainment to media.  Along with co-host Erin Sterling Lewis, winner of the 2018 AIA Young Architects Awards, host George Smart welcomes Joe Rodota, author of THE WATERGATE, a history of the iconic Washington DC building and some of its most famous residents. Rodota served as a writer and communications manager in the Reagan White House and as an aide to California Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  He has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post and other publications.  

USModernist Radio goes to Palm Springs each February for the incredibly popular Modernism Week.  It’s a fascinating array of sunshine, architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and you can even order martinis for breakfast. Yes, you can do that anywhere but you'll feel glamorous in Palm Springs. USModernist Radio's George Smart was there with keynote speakers and other special guests who make Modernism Week a blast.

You may not think of Modernism and Denver in the same sentence, but Adrian Kinney is about to change that.  Kinney was born and raised in Lakewood CO.  After college, he stayed in Colorado and became a fulltime realtor specializing in Modern, starting with his own house designed by architect Cliff May. Now he's the force behind Denver's Modernism Week this August.  

You also might not think of Indiana and Modern, but that state has a lot going on.  George welcomes back Marsh Davis of Indiana Landmarks to catch up on Modernist preservation in the Hoosier state.

The bluest skies you've ever seen?  The hills the greenest green?  It’s Seattle, Washington, backdrop for TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Frasier, and if you go back far enough, Here Come The Brides, the breakout series for 70’s pop icons David Soul and Bobby Sherman.  In addition to having the most tech jobs in North America (sorry, San Jose) the Emerald city is also home to Starbucks and incredible Modernist houses from the early days of Paul Hayden Kirk to today’s guest, architect Jim Olson of Olson Kundig.  Later on, jazz with singer Erin Boheme, then a few minutes with Frank Harmon.

Host George Smart reports from February's Modernism Week in Palm Springs, the center for all things Mid-Century Modernist!  He spoke poolside from the Hotel Skylark with keynote speakers from the amazing week of design, art, food, lectures, movies - a delightful week.

George talks with Penelope Seidler, her daughter Polly Seidler, and documentary producer Daryl Dellora who created a compelling documentary about Australian architect Harry Seidler, Polly’s dad and Penelope’s husband.

Harry Seidler, who died in 2006, was Australian architect considered to be one of the country's leading Modernists.  He designed more than 180 buildings and won many architectural awards throughout his 58-year career.

Daryl Dellora is also the producer behind The Edge of the Possible, the story of Jorn Utzon and the Sydney Opera House.

Sean Knorsandi of the Paul Rudolph Foundation

Every year, Sarasota Mod in Sarasota FL throws a great conference on mid-century modern and this year was focused on Paul Rudolph, an architect who made his name in exciting coastal architecture before moving on to become Dean of Architecture at Yale.  Rudolph's work is recognized around the world for bold, progressive masses.  People are polarized around his work.  Modernists praise his visionary designs of concrete and steel, others see them as cold and impractical. 

Sean Khorsandi is on the board of the Paul Rudolph Foundation, dedicated to continuing and preserving Rudolph's work.  George Smart spoke with him about architecture and about Rudolph during the Sarasota Mod conference last November.

Before Bjarke Ingels, before Tom Kundig, before Charlie Gwathmey, even before Richard Neutra, two brothers rocked the architecture scene in southern California in the early 1900’s. Funded by the family behind Ivory Soap, Proctor and Gamble’s first product, Charles and Henry Greene perfected the modern bungalow in Pasadena and influenced a giant in Modernist architecture, Harwell Hamilton Harris.  Joining us is Ted Bosley, Executive Director of the Gamble House plus Raleigh architect Frank Harmon, who was close friends with Harwell Hamilton Harris and executor of his estate.  Later on, one of the top jazz vocalists in the world, Eliane Elias. 

Born in Boston, architect Eliot Noyes graduated Harvard University. After working for Boston's Coolidge Shepley Bulfinch & Abbott, he left to work for Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. Awarded a Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship, he toured the US visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and Taliesin; Eliel Saarinen's Cranbrook Academy of Art; and Richard Neutra houses.  After returning briefly to Gropius and Breuer, he became the first director of the Industrial Design Department at the Museum of Modern Art in 1940, launching the careers of Charles and Ray Eames.  Noyes redefined how design was perceived inside major corporations such as IBM and Mobil.  He is recognized for designing World's Fair pavilions in Brussels, Belgium, San Antonio, Montreal, and New York. He was one of the noted Harvard Five architects, which included Marcel Breuer, Philip Johnson, John Johansen, and Landis Gores.

Our guest Fred Noyes is the son of Eliot Noyes. Fred Noyes worked for Graham Gund and Cambridge Seven and for over thirty years has run his own firm designing everything from hospitals to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s summer White House on Martha’s Vineyard. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Education from the Boston Architectural College in 2007 and lectures on architecture, biology, visual studies, and biochemistry. He owns the Noyes House II where he grew up, a house that he put under a preservation easement -- which protects it forever.

For your audible dining pleasure, today is a sumptuous Modernist buffet featuring Ralph Rapson, Elizabeth Schue Close, Frank Lloyd Wright, John Howe, and save room for dessert, a hazelnut Bjarke Ingels topped with marscapone. Yum! Jane King Hession is a Minneapolis-based architectural writer and historian specializing in midcentury modernism. With degrees in English and Art History and architecture, she is past president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and the Minneapolis Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. Her latest book is Elizabeth Scheu Close: A Life in Modern Architecture, and she’s also written Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years; John H. Howe, Architect: From Taliesin Apprentice to Master of Organic Design; and wait, there’s more.  Minnesotans loved her book Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design which won the David Gebhard Award, named for the well-known author of LA Modernism books.

Architect Paul McClean grew up Ireland, thinking of houses and getting in trouble for drawing them in high school.  He graduated from the Dublin Institute of Technology in 1994 and by 2000, he was on his own in Los Angeles. His clients include Irish real estate investor Paddy McKillen, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of Facebook fame, and developer Niles Niami, a spec Modernist house clocking in at 104,000 square feet, with an asking price of half a billion. It is the largest and most expensive Modernist house in the world.

Dropping by the studio, longtime North Carolina swing band Rebecca and the Hi-Tones play "Straighten Up and Fly Right" by Nat King Cole.  We visit with Rebecca and Keith as they share the story of the band.

Nowhere in the world celebrates Modernism better than Palm Springs, California.  Every February, they have a huge architecture and design festival called Modernism Week, which actually lasts 11 days. This was the fifth year USModernist has been at Modernism Week, talking poolside at the USModernist Compound, aka the hip Hotel Skylark, with nearly all the keynote speakers, authors, and special guests. When modern-day Dorothy's kick their red ruby slippers together, they don’t go to Kansas, they land next to in Frank Sinatra’s pool in Palm Springs. Modernism Week is a dazzling spectacle of mid-century architecture, martinis, lectures, art galleries, shopping, nonprofit benefit events, architecture documentary premieres, amazing parties at incredible houses, brilliantly curated house tours, detailed art and architecture exhibits, and much more.  

Today we kick off 2020 Modernism Week coverage with architect Daniel Libeskind, known for the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, the master plan for the World Trade Center reconstruction and memorial, and the Danish Jewish Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark. He’s one of the world’s most highly regarded architects and someone people can trust to work with projects of great meaning and significance, especially where loss in involved.  

Next, host George Smart visits with the Queen of Palm Springs, the woman everyone wants to talk to by the pool, Nelda Linsk.  Later a delightful chat with Alison Martino, producer, writer, reporter, preservationist, and a master chronicler of old Hollywood, in which she grew up as the daughter of singer Al Martino.

Palm Springs has a huge architecture event called Modernism Week every February.  It’s a fascinating array of architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and the occasional plastic surgery gone awry.  Host George Smart was there earlier this year talking with nearly all the speakers, authors, and special guests who make the week (actually 11 days) a blast!

The photographers documenting the mid-century movement provide us a wealth of information, perspective, and enjoyment, capturing not only amazing houses but the lives and careers of their owners and architects. From poolside at the swanky Hotel Skylark, you’ll meet authors Emily Bills and Pierluigi Serraino talking about one largely undiscovered Modernist photographer,  Marvin Rand.  Their new book along with Sam Lubell, California Captured, puts Rand front and center in the same world class as Julius Shulman and Ezra Stoller.  Later we join photographer Andrew Pielage about his quest to shoot every Frank Lloyd Wright building in the world. 

Vishaan Chakrabarti is the Founder and Creative Director of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism where he leads the firm’s growing global portfolio of cultural, institutional, and public projects. His latest book is A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America; his major argument is that well-designed cities have the capacity to address some of our gravest social ills, including environmental degradation and decreased social mobility.  Missy Wood is the founder and CEO of FORMUS, a virtual reality platform for the design and building community. She’s leading FORMUS to cut costs in the construction process through the power of extended virtual reality. Returning podcast guest Sharon Prince is the CEO and founder of Grace Farms Foundation, whose interdisciplinary humanitarian mission is to pursue peace through nature, the arts, justice, community, and faith. Sharon has shepherded Grace Farms through ten-plus years of growth--including their world class building designed by SANAA in New Canaan CT that serves as the heart of the foundation. In 2020, Grace Farms launched the Design for Freedom program--devoted to eliminating forced labor in supply chains. Wrapping up, architect Jody Brown recalls his internship.

There are lots of famous people named Gordon, people like chef Gordon Ramsay, actress Ruth Gordon, musician Gordon Lightfoot, and even Sting, whose real name is Gordon Sumner.  Joining us are today are two Modernist Gordons, author Alistair Gordon and Chicago preservationist Barbara Gordon. Later, jazz with North Carolina’s own Kate McGarry. 

Today on USModernist Radio it's a full slate of great guests:  art collector, model collector, race car driver, softball player, and architect Ronnette Riley, project lead for the Lipstick Building in New York designed by Philip Johnson.

Later on, Virginia Faust talks about the venerable Lustron, the house of the future that didn't make it, plus special musical guest Leonardo with the world's only Lustron song, and a new feature - architect Frank Harmon reading from his new book of sketches and essays, Native Places. 

Since the 1950’s, the US Government has hired Modernist architects like Edward Durell Stone, John Johansen, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Richard Neutra, and more recently Kieran Timberlake to design US Embassies all over the world.  Modernism most clearly expresses the idea of freedom and these buildings are a showcase for America.  But as Dr. Phil might say, “how’s that working for us?” Joining us are Angel Dizon, who supervised $2B worth of construction projects for the US State Department and is now with the GSA - and returning podcast guest Mina Chow, architecture professor at USC and producer of the documentary Face of a Nation: What Happened to the World’s Fair?  Later on, musical guest Oleta Adams. 

Today, our world is New York City, where you’ll hear conversations between George and former editor-in-chief of Architectural Record Cathleen McGuigan, architecture photographer and documentary filmmaker Bilyana Dimitrova, architect Adam Beaulieu of COOKFOX, and Common Edge editor Martin Pedersen.

Todd Kosmerick is University Archivist for NC State University's Archives.  He and his staff collect, preserve, and make accessible vast physical and online resources that document the growth and development of the university and its continued service to the people of North Carolina.  It provides a resource for study and scholarship while ensuring that future generations will have resources available to understand and interpret the history and achievements of North Carolinians.

Designed by Terry Waugh, Harrelson Hall was the first round classroom structure ever built on a university campus.  With a huge 206 foot diameter and a long winding ramp to the top floor, staff and faculty offices were located on the rim, while lecture rooms are along the inner part of the building.  While folks generally admired the design concept, the building was generally hated as an academic building.  The weird-shaped, windowless classrooms, the wacky and rarely working HVAC, the too-easy temptation of skateboarders, bicyclists, and remote controlled cars careening down the pedestrian ramp four floors, and for a while the complete lack of an elevator - all contributed. After a long period of service, abandonment, and use as temporary offices as newer buildings were built, it is scheduled for deconstruction/demolition.  It was a really brilliant design idea that just didn't function. 

What could be more fun than Modernist dogs, tiki culture, and mid-century modern motels?  George and Tom talk with the author of Palm Springs Modern Dogs at Home, Nancy Baron, motels with Heather David, author of Motel California, and dive into Tiki culture with Sven Kirsten, author of the Book of Tiki.  Later on, reading from his latest novel, Death by Design at Alcatraz, Anthony Poon.

Michelangelo Sabatino is a professor in the IIT College of Architecture. He has trained as an architect, preservationist, and architecture-art-design historian and has served on a number of not-for-profit organization boards ranging from the Society of Architectural Historians to Docomomo International. His books include Making Houston Modern: The Life and Architecture of Howard Barnstone and his latest, co-authored with Susan Benjamin, Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses, 1929-1975. Later on, our oldest guest yet at 100, architect Helen Staley. And he's still got it after all these years, formerly Ralph Malph on Happy Days, singer Don Most.

With so many good architecture books coming out, we can barely keep up.  Today we’ll explore Architectural Pottery with Dan Chavkin, Jeffrey Head, and Jo Lauria;  sustainable houses with Penny Craswell, and the Queen of architecture interviews, journalist and historian Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, who has a new book out on New York.

Despite enormous success, architect Minoru Yamasaki’s reputation declined in the 1970's with the negative public reception of the World Trade Center in New York and the spectacular failure of St. Louis’s Pruitt-Igoe public housing project.

Author Dale Gyure is associate chair and professor of Architecture at Lawrence Technological University. His most recent book, Minoru Yamasaki: Humanist Architecture for a Modernist World, is the first to closely examine Yamasaki's work and life.

Modernism Week in Palm Springs is no weekend tabletop show at the Elks lodge. It takes a huge village, a rather attractive Modernist village with perfect weather, to create an event that sells over 120,000 tickets across 11 days in February. There are hundreds of volunteers, and the week after it closes down, they start planning for the next year.  George Smart talks some of the people who make it happen – Modernism Week board members Maureen Erbe, Anne Rowe, and Alan Hess, plus Janice Lyle, the director of the Sunnylands complex, one of Modernism week’s partners and most popular tours.

Every year, Sarasota Mod in Sarasota FL throws a great conference on mid-century modern and this year was focused on Paul Rudolph, an architect who made his name in exciting coastal architecture before moving on to become Dean of Architecture at Yale.  Rudolph's work is recognized around the world for bold, progressive masses.  People are polarized around his work.  Modernists praise his visionary designs of concrete and steel, others see them as cold and impractical. 

Carl Abbott is one of the most important architects of the Sarasota style of Modernist design.  He studied at the University of Florida under Buckminster Fuller then received his Master’s from Yale with studies under Paul Rudolph and Louis Kahn. He has worked in Hawaii, in New York with I.M. Pei, and in London with classmates Lord Richard Rogers and Lord Norman Foster.  George Smart spoke with him about architecture and about Rudolph during the Sarasota Mod conference last November.

We're checking out other design podcasts around the country and this week it's the host of the design podcast Convo By Design, Josh Cooperman.  Josh is a speaker, writer, publisher, host, brand manager and product designer with over 25 years in the broadcast industry including CBS Radio Motorsports and Playboy Radio. His masterful podcast Convo by Design tells powerful and inspiring stories of how architects, artists, designers, tastemakers and influencers make a difference in our lives, build their brands, and delight their clients. 

Like the Supremes, or Destiny’s Child, today’s guests have been rocking with the greatest hits of Modernist design for decades as the daughters or granddaughters of its most iconic architects and designers, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, and Harry Bertoia.  Carla Hartman, Susan Saarinen, and Celia Bertoia are the best of friends and speak around the country as the Daughters of Design. 

One Weekend - Two John Lautner Houses!

The Kelly Lynch and Mitch Glazer Cocktail Party at the Harvey House, Saturday, April 22, 5-8pm. Explore one of the most envied houses in America! You'll share a beautiful evening overlooking downtown Los Angeles, the Griffith Observatory, and the Hollywood sign through astonishing views. You'll enjoy delicious appetizers plus signature cocktails provided by Vermont Spirits, and in the famous living room...vivacious entertainment by LA jazz vocalist Staci Griesbach and her band.

The Silvertop Tour, Sunday, April 23, 12-5pm.  Silvertop is the crown jewel of Silver Lake! The 1964 Reiner-Burchill Residence was designed by John Lautner and built by Wally Niewiadomski. Reiner's business got in trouble and the house sat for a decade, unfinished. In 1974, new owners Jacklyn and Phillip Burchill engaged Lautner to complete it. In 2014, the iconic house was renovated by architect and "Mayor" of Silver Lake, Barbara Bestor. 

All events benefit USModernist, a 501C3 nonprofit educational archive. Tickets and Details: www.usmodernist.org/la

Paul Rudolph's buildings, built and unbuilt, continue to inspire clients, annoy critics, and gain fame, even though he died in the mid-90’s.  These days, though, it’s almost all smiles and admiration, and there’s an important exhibition of Rudolph’s work at the Metropolitan Museum in New York through March.  Year round on certain days, however, you can visit Rudolph’s former office in New York, the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture, or PRIMA.  And while you’re there, you can also see the late architect Myron Goldfinger’s traveling exhibition, Circle Square Triangle.  Today we’ll talk with the curator of that Met exhibition, Abraham thomas, the Executive Director of PRIMA, Kelvin Dickinson, and the curator of Goldfinger’s exhibition, his partner and wife June Goldfinger.  Later on, come out swinging with musical guests Chelsee Hicks and the Wholly Cats.

Architect Jim Evans moved to the Modernist mecca of New Canaan CT in 1957. By then the town had many Modernist houses, not only by the Harvard Five of Breuer, Noyes, Johnson, Johansen, and Gores but others like Frank Lloyd Wright and Edward Durell Stone. USModernist special correspondent Rafe Schlanger talked with Evans in what would be Evans' last interview. Later, enchanting jazz from Manhattan Transfer's Janis Siegel.

Host George Smart met today's guests at a LA party USModernist Radio threw last year at Neutra's Lovell House.  Lyra Kilston is a writer and editor focused on architecture, design, art, urbanism, with publication in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Los Angeles Times, Next City, Artforum, Wired, TIME, Art in America, and ICON. She is an editor for the Getty Museum, a consulting editor for Hyperallergic, and her first book is Sun Seekers: The Cure of California. Josh Gorrell is a preservationist who worked to save Rudolph Schindler’s Van Dekker house, declared a historic landmark in 2010.  He’s either, um, housesitting or holding the occupants hostage at the Lovell Health house, Richard Neutra’s iconic Los Angeles creation that ushered in the California health craze. 

Stopping by the studio, the enchanting jazz vocalist Valerie Wood.

Wildwood used to be the Palm Springs of the Jersey Shore. No, not where Snooki and The Situation spent their misspent youth, that’s Seaside Heights, way to the north.  Wildwood is three towns along a six-mile barrier island near the southern tip of New Jersey: Wildwood Crest, Wildwood, and Wildwood North, famous for a colorful array of over 300 wildly themed mid-century motels providing families wonderful vacation memories for decades.  Staying in Wildwood was the first exposure to Modernism for millions of Americans. Over drinks at the Philadelphia Marriott, where they spoke at the DOCOMOMO Conference, you’ll hear George talk with Daniel Vieyra, Professor Emeritus in the Kent State University School of Architecture; Stephanie Hoagland, Principal and Architectural Conservator of Jablonski Building Conservation; and Ian Smith, Principal of IS-DG Architects. 

New York City architects Abby Suckle and William Singer are the authors of Cocktails and Conversations: Dialogues in Architectural Design.  AIA New York’s Center for Architecture has a great Friday night format:  invite people to to hear a famous architect paired with a master bartender who creates a custom cocktail to share with a thirsty audience.  Architects have included David Adjaye, Jeanne Gang, Peter Gluck, Frank Harmon, Tom Kundig, Daniel Libeskind, Eric Owen Moss, Billie Tsien, and Tod Williams, among many others. Host George Smart spoke with Abby and William at the Long Island Bar, 110 Atlantic Avenue, in Brooklyn. Joining them were David Moo and Toby Cecchini (inventor of the Cosmopolitan!), master bartenders behind all the cocktail creations.  

About a month later, George and co-host Tom Guild met Australian Phillip Jones, the Martini Whisperer, poolside at the swanky Hotel Skylark in Palm Springs. For over a dozen years Jones worked as a fine dining manager and ran restaurants and events companies around the world.  Then he created a website for lovers of Martinis, craft spirits and cocktail culture with an Australian point of view.  In 2015 he gave the first ever TED talk on the Martini. And as he was leaving the Eau du Vie bar in Melbourne one fateful night, a lovely gang of actresses approached ....

Any fan of Modernism has DWELL Magazine somewhere in their house.  It’s a venerable but relatively recent publication, started in 2000 by Lara Hedberg Deam in San Francisco.  She’s still the owner, and like a winning NFL coach, she’s been stocking the team over nearly 20 years with winning players like Karrie Jacobs, Michela O'Connor Abrams, Amanda Dameron, and former podcast guest Alison Arieff. 

With a motto of “at home in the Modern World,” DWELL helped re-energize a terrazzo (that’s our new collective noun) of Modern movements:  small houses, modern houses, green houses, sustainable house, micro houses, and prefab houses.  Today we go remote with host George Smart in New York, where he sits down with Bill Hanley, Editor and Chief of DWELL since February 2019.

Hanley is a New York City-based writer, editor, and media producer, focusing on design, art, and urbanism. He was previously the digital director at Surface magazine, senior digital editor at Architectural Record, news editor at ARTnews, staff writer at Rhizome, and editor at ArtInfo.

Host George Smart talks with two architects in New York the day before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.  Born in Russia, raised in Canada, and now living in the US, architect Julia Gamolina has been a runaway success as the founder of Madame Architect, publishing over 100 interviews with women who advance the practice of architecture and affiliated fields, celebrating women from different generations, countries, and corners of the industry. Then it’s a subway ride to meet Gene Kaufman, the most successful hotel architect in New York and the head of legendary design firm Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman.

Welcome to 2020!  In our ongoing quest to seek out other architecture podcasts, we’ve talked with hosts such as Frances Anderton, Donna Sink, Steve Chung, Josh Cooperman, David+Marina, and Debbie Millman.  Today we talk with Bob Borson, creator of the most visited privately-maintained architectural blog in the world, Life of an Architect, which as of two years ago is also a podcast. We first encountered Bob’s blog in 2012 when he put out a wonderful series of hilarious architecture Christmas cards!

If your Mom or Dad is an architect, architecture gets into your DNA whether you like it or not, and one day, it’s gonna come out.  For one amazing renaissance woman, an artist, writer, investment banker, film producer, tattoo artist agent, and economic development consultant, she had to go all the way to Iowa to buy her dream house - by Frank Lloyd Wright - and now she owns it, at least legally.  As all Wright owners eventually discover, pretty soon the house owns you. Joining us is the new buyer of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Alsop House in Oskaloosa Iowa, Mia Reed, daughter of famed Florida/North Carolina architect Chuck Reed.

Joe Kwon is the cellist for the internationally acclaimed band The Avett Brothers.  He's the client of Robby Johnston and Craig Kerins, principals in the design/build firm Raleigh Architecture & Raleigh Construction.  Block by block, they are developing a stretch of Raleigh's downtown into small, sustainable, walkable Modernist houses.  Joe's recently built house is the third in what will be about a dozen completed within a three year timeframe.

Robby and Craig drink their way through Belgium!  What's Joe's favorite room of the house? 

The 2024 Architecture and Design Film Festival, or ADFF, starts up next week in New York.  This long-running series is led by returning podcast guest Kyle Bergman, who founded the ADFF in New York in 2008 and hosts versions all over the world.  ADFF seeks out films with impassioned, human stories that appeal to both architects and the general design-loving public.  Today we’ll talk with filmmakers who’ve shown at ADFF including Sabine Gisger, Beatrice Minger, Katerina Kliwadenko and Mario Novas. Plus, we’ll talk with Kyle about the highlights for 2024.  Then, it's a great conversation with actor and singer Lucie Arnaz about architecture and jazz - and Spock's half-brother.

Nowhere in the world celebrates Modernism better than Modernism Week in Palm Springs, California. Every February, they have a weeklong architecture and design festival, which actually lasts 11 days,  and USModernist Radio was there interviewing keynote speakers plus special guests at the USModernist compound, aka poolside at the hip Hotel Skylark.

Our 2023 coverage kicks off with architecture critic, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Blair Kamin. Now retired from the Tribune, his latest book project, Who Is the City For?, pairs a selection of his essays about the inequities in Chicago’s built environment with photographs by past podcast guest Lee Bey.  Later on, from a Bill Krisel house in Palm Springs, musical guest Cheryl Bentyne of the Manhattan Transfer, famous for songs like Operator and Boy From New York City.  They’ve won 10 Grammys, and this year, they’re on their 50th anniversary and final world tour.

In 1966 the first episode of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek launched a franchise still going strong over fifty years later.  Sequels, movies, toys, fan films - there’s just no end to Star Trek’s bright, progressive, optimistic future where Earth has transcended national and international politics. Something architecture fans may have missed, and we certainly did, is that Star Trek adapted midcentury Modern furniture for the set design, from the Bridge to the Conference Room, to the alien buildings on the planets they landed on. Today we meet authors Dan Chavkin and Brian McGuire about their new book:  Star Trek - Designing the Final Frontier - The Untold Story of How Midcentury Modern Decor Shaped Our View of the Future.  Later on, legendary singer Jennifer Warnes, who you’ve loved for I’ve Had the Time of my Life, Right Time of the Night, Up Where We Belong, and a vast treasure of songs with and by Leonard Cohen. 

Host George Smart reports from the USModernist trip to London last May.  He visits architect Alison Brooks who has won the triple crown of the UK's most prestigious awards for architecture: the RIBA Stirling Prize, the Manser Medal and the Stephen Lawrence Prize. Do you know you've arrived as an architect when your building gets a nickname?  And, for the first time, you'll hear the guys all sing! 

Back in the 1980’s, architect Richard Meier got a commission for a series of buildings in Los Angeles.  The Getty Foundation, sourced from the prestigious family of oil fame, wanted a huge new complex on land they owned off the 405.  This would turn out to be one of the largest private commissions in the world at the time, costing about 1.3 billion by the time it opened in the 1990’s.  Of course, the neighbors fought it, as neighbors do with just about anything Modernist, and now it’s a source of pride for all of Los Angeles.  If you’re into architecture, art, history, or research, the Getty is a must-see Modernist complex, all-white, of course, that’s a Richard Meier thing.  Admission is free, and it’s an astonishing accomplishment and gift to the world, especially the gardens.  On the show, we’ve got Chandler McCoy, the Getty's Senior Project Specialist with Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative.  Later we’ll talk AI with Michael Gilbride and how it’s affecting architecture and design.

Oh, how times have changed for the newspaper world. From 2008-2020, about two-thirds of newsroom jobs went away. Then the pandemic hit and more than 90 local papers shut down or were slashed in headcount. Even big papers like the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and the New York Times are smaller and more focused, with digital and video media adding to but more often replacing coverage of cultural topics like architecture and design.  While the big papers still cover stories like glamourous supertall buildings - and lawsuits when the pipes break - one newspaper burrowed away in the heart of New York City continues to put out some of the best, most detailed, most comprehensive architecture coverage.  Joining us is Diana Darling, founder and publisher of The Architect’s Newspaper, and its new-ish editor-in-chief, Aaron Seward. Later on, architecture commentary from our special Gen Z correspondent, Louisa Whitmore, and music with Kate Earl.

Michael Hammond is co-founder and Editor in Chief of World Architecture News (WAN). He chairs the WAN AWARDS jury panel and produces the topical series of podcasts, Shop Talk which has featured many of the world’s leading architects over its 100+ programmes to date.  Prior to WAN, Michael spent 25 years in construction project management before taking up writing; he authored Performing Architecture published by Merrell in 2006. He has also contributed many other architectural features to media including the Architects’ Journal, Architect, British Airways magazine Highlife, CNN, CBC, the BBC, The London Evening Standard and the Radio Southern Florida Architects’ Radio show.

Before the Beatles, before the Rolling Stones, architect, photographer, artist, and Jaguar-driving Brian Shawcroft was Raleigh North Carolina’s British invasion.  He is now the state's oldest practicing architect. 

Born in England, he followed a masters in architecture at MIT with jobs with Page & Steele in Toronto; Tomei and Maxwell in London; Slater Uren and Pike; back to Page and Steele; then Eduardo Catalano in 1960 where he worked on the Julliard School of Music in New York City.  Henry Kamphoefner brought him to North Carolina to teach at the NCSU School of Design through 1968.   In 1991, he was awarded the Kamphoefner Prize for achievement in the Modern Movement in Architecture.  And each year, NC State gives a Brian Shawcroft Prize for hand drawing, now a lost art.  He is the author of the book 50 Houses. 

Today we’re talking about Modernist havens San Diego and La Jolla with midcentury author and historian Keith York; plus Joan Gand and Lauren Lockhart of the La Jolla Historical Society on their upcoming Modernist tour, of which USModernist is a sponsor.  Later on, jazz with Lisa Veronica Wood and the Sidecar Social Club.

Like the Holy Grail or Colonel Sanders special 11 herbs and spices, people have been searching for the secret to successful prefabricated houses for nearly 100 years.  What could possibly be better than reasonably-priced, mostly factory built house parts assembled on your land in a matter of days or weeks, not months?  The promise of well-designed houses fast and cheap turns out, not so easy – or popular with a public that still prefers developer tract houses. Joining us is Professor Avi Friedman, author of the new book Prefab Living, and Allison Arieff, founding editor at DWELL and author of the 2002 book Prefab. Later on, special musical guest Maria Muldaur, putting that camel to bed.

Elevators are essential to any large Modernist building and these days even in massive Modernist houses being built in LA.  Joining us to discuss the ups and down of elevators is the Sultan of Schindler, the Oracle of Otis, the Titan of Thyssenkrupp – UNC Charlotte Professor Lee Gray, an expert on vertical transportation and the only fulltime elevator historian in the world!

Ah, Cape Cod, the arm-shaped stretch of Massachusetts where Boston goes in the summer.  The sun.  The ocean.  The traffic.  The clam chowder.  The summer theatre productions.  And best of all, except for perhaps the clam chowder, the modern architecture by Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, and others. There are more than 100 modernist houses representing a little-known treasure map of residential architecture.  Our guest Peter McMahon is Principal of PM Design.  Peter curated an exhibition on Cape Cod Modernist architecture for the Provincetown Art Museum.  This led to the creation of the unique and highly effective Cape Cod Modern House Trust, which documents and preserves these houses and makes them available for the public to stay in.  His own summer house in Wellfleet MA was published in House Beautiful and Outside and he is co-author with Christine Cipriani of Cape Cod Modern: Mid-Century Architecture and Community on the Outer Cape. 

Palm Springs has a huge architecture event called Modernism Week every February.  It’s a fascinating array of architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and the occasional plastic surgery gone awry.  Host George Smart was there earlier this year talking with nearly all the speakers, authors, and special guests who make the week (actually 11 days) a blast!

Music is an important part of Modernism Week.  Host George Smart talks with singer-songwriter AJ Lambert, who just released a debut album and performed to rave reviews at Modernism Week; see if you can guess the Secret Word before George says it.  Plus Joan and Gary Gand of the Gand Band, owners of one of the sweetest mid-century houses in Palm Springs and known across the Coachella valley for their swinging Chicago-inspired blues.

Ron Hinklin is the most famous voice you’ve never heard of. A successful singer since his junior high school days, Ron led the group responsible for some of the most iconic sounds of the 1970s, including vocals on the Partridge Family hit “I Think I Love You,” for which Ron and his group nabbed a Grammy nomination. He also sang some of TV’s most memorable theme songs like MASH, That Girl, Batman, Happy days, Laverne and Shirley, and the famous Mickey D jingle You Deserve a Break Today. Popular music, from Big Band to Swing to Rock, had album covers and liner notes that inspired Americans yearning to be more modern. All this helped generate today’s huge consumer culture, and it’s the subject of a new book. Author Janet Borgerson is the senior Wicklander fellow at the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul. Author Jonathan Schroeder is Professor of Communications at Rochester Institute of Technology. Together, they wrote Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America.

From poolside at the swanky USModernist compound in Palm Springs, three stars of the Modernist movement, Alan Hess + Janice Lyle + Sidney Williams, discussing what’s become known as the Palm Springs School of Modernism and an accompanying new book.  From the studio, Russell Brown and Tom Lazarus on their recent stage play called LISTING, plus returning musical guest Colleen Duffy of Devil Doll. 

Today we wrap up coverage of Modernism Week 2019 by honoring architect Paul Rudolph. 2018 was the 100th anniversary of architect Paul Rudolph's birth and his work lives on to even high acclaim than when he was alive.  Rudolph got on the national radar through innovative Modernist houses in Sarasota, Florida.  Later he created masterworks in concrete and steel in New York, New England, and late in his career Singapore and Hong Kong. Host George Smart talks to two big Rudolph fans, returning guest Sarasota Architecture Foundation President Christopher Wilson and the lead moderator of the Modernism Week Paul Rudolph tribute, Dick Burkett.

Way before there was an internet, the way people learned about buildings outside of their city was in architecture magazines. Initially in black and white, which still has a certain allure, and later in color, magazines such as Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Art and Architecture, Architecture Forum, House and Home, and Architecture Plus chronicled new construction.  All of these publications, sadly, are gone – except for one.  At 130 years old and still wild and frisky, Architectural Record continues to bring readers stories of amazing buildings and architects around the world – and we do love their annual Record Houses issue.  We’ll talk today with Architectural Record publisher Alex Bachrach, host Aaron Prinz of the magazine’s podcast Design:ED, and all the way from the Netherlands, Phoebus Panigyrakis who did his PhD on Record's midcentury Modernist heyday. Later on, double trouble jazz with singer and trumpeter Bria Skonberg.  

From the great postwar transatlantic liners to the sleek Scandinavian cruise ships of the 1970s, to Captain Stuebing and the Love Boat, ships and private yachts are also design showcases that featured edgy, trendsetting architecture. Maritime historian and art dealer Peter Knego and yacht owner Brian Biggott joins George poolside at Modernism Week to talk about nautical Modernism. Later on, from the studio, music from the next generation of the Dave Brubeck dynasty, his son Chris Brubeck, who grew up in a Modernist house. 

Talking architecture can be a little dense, wordy, and imponderable, especially for people who aren’t architects but just love talking about, visiting, and being inspired by cool buildings.  Today we talk with two noted populists who make architecture understandable, architect and professor Christopher Wilson, and journalist and architourist Ken MacIntyre of modtraveler.com.  Later on, musical guest Emilie-Claire Barlow. 

In a world before the internet, World’s Fairs were the killer app of the 19^th and most of the 20^th centuries.  Countries would assemble at a central place for about 6 months and build pavilions, each sharing their nation’s technology, culture, and national sources of pride, symbols, heroes, and achievements.  If you’ve ever been to Epcot at Disney World, you get the idea.  There were two World's Fairs in New York about 25 years apart.  Much of the World’s fair architecture was forward-thinking and Modernist, but only a few buildings on the New York fairgrounds survive today, some of them barely.  We welcome two superfans who’ve been working over ten years to restore what’s left, Mitch Silverstein and Stephanie Bohn, both featured in the documentary Modern Ruin, produced by past podcast guest Matt Silva, detailing the site’s post-fair use, deterioration, and growing advocacy efforts.

After WWII, states looked at their aging capitol buildings and considered sweeping new plans to bring technology, commerce, government, and even the performing arts into the full 20th century.  One of the few state capitols to actually achieve this was Albany NY.  The Empire State Plaza is series of Modernist office and cultural buildings that started in the late 1950’s, and it’s gorgeous.  It’s a stunning achievement spearheaded by NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller and designed primarily by architect Wallace Harrison.

Albany’s master plan was so successful, other states wanted to do the same thing.  One of those was North Carolina.  In 1965, the State Capital planning Commission issues a report and a design they had been working on for several administrations.  The goal was, like Albany, to transform the epicenter of downtown Raleigh, the state capitol, into a city of the future.  The blue ribbon panel of architects, consultants, and government members presented a beautiful plan.

One of those consultants from 1965 is a young man with a lot of potential who just turned 90.  Lewis Clarke is one of North Carolina’s most celebrated and prolific landscape architects.  Clarke came to Harvard on a Fulbright Scholarship taught at the the NCSU School of Design from 1952 to 1968. His teaching influenced generations of architects and his 1300 projects, papers, photographs, and slides are now at the NC State University Special Collections Research Center, their third largest collection. And he’s received awards from Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, and Nancy Reagan.  

Erin Sterling Lewis is a partner in situ studio in Raleigh.  Her firm  won multiple design awards, including our own Matsumoto Prize, and she teaches at NC State University. She was President of AIA North Carolina representing the thousands of architects in the state.  She also works with NCModernist on our high school outreach program, Project BauHow, and has served on countless AIA committees plus the Raleigh Historic Development Commission and the Raleigh Planning Commission. 

Like the Dos Equis commercials, we don’t always feature Classicists, but when we do, we go for the best.  Today we welcome one of America’s foremost classical architecture advocates, the Dr. Downtown of Providence Rhode Island, journalist David Brussat. Such a cool nickname. David runs the blog Architecture Here and There and wrote for 30 years for the Providence Journal. He has received the Oscar of Classicism, the Arthur Ross Award from the Institute for Classical Architecture. That’s a big deal. Prince Charles won that award. David is a tireless advocate for the return of classical design to public architecture and apparently loves taking Mrs. Downtown to something called Waterfire, which we’ll find out about.  Later on, a return visit from musical guests Peter Lamb and the Wolves.

Joining us today is Los Angeles architect Steven Ehrlich of Ehrlich Yahai Rhee Chaney.  Just like we preserve Wright and Neutra and Schindler and Lautner now, in the future we’ll be working to save Modernist houses by this 40-person firm, honored with over 150 awards including the AIA National Firm Award and 9 national AIA design awards. Later on in the show, music with Dutch jazz vocalist Laura Fygi!

Today we travel to three sunny destinations featured at this year’s Modernism Week lectures: Florida, Cuba, and San Diego.

The New York Times calls Charles Phoenix “the King of Retro” for his spirited and hilarious slide shows celebrating the midcentury American lifestyle. He started collecting vintage Kodachrome slides in the 1990s and has been giving talks and creating colorful coffee table books, a YouTube video series of classic car joyrides, and fun double decker bus tours during Modernism Week. 90 miles south of Florida, there’s Cuba. The US can’t quite decide whether we’re still mad at Cuba, but the architecture lives on and architect Monty Freeman knows all about it. An award-winning New York architect who has repurposed timeless, modern spaces around the world, Monty is an expert on Cuban architecture and leads architectural tours when the US allows it. Keith York buys and sells architect-designed homes in San Diego. He created the Modern San Diego website to help the community understand the area’s rich architectural heritage and recently curated the exhibit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Legacy in San Diego. He is working on a book about architect Sim Bruce Richards.

Today in our second Modernism Week show on architecture movies, George Smart talks with three film industry professionals with connections to architecture.  Valentina Geneva is working on a new documentary about LA architect Rudolph Schindler, and later he sits down with art director Jeannine Oppewall, the genius behind staging the sets of such films as L.A. Confidential (filmed in Richard Neutra’s Lovell House).  Wrapping up, a chat with Paula Benson, expert on the close connection between film and furniture.

For decades, we’ve been reading about Lindal Cedar Homes in design magazines.  Now, under the leadership of third-generation President Christina Lindal they’ve branched out into compelling designs inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.  And inside great houses like this, you’re probably going to need good decorating advice, so we go to Montauk New York to talk with author and interior designer Lauren Rottet.  Wrapping up, musical guests Marco Palos and American Idol’s Blake Lewis of Phat Cat Swinger.   

Researching Modernist architecture hasn't always been easy, particularly before the internet, if anyone remembers back that far. Before our phones were full of Cardi B, Tik Tok, and $32 million inheritance offers, pending a $1200 processing fee, of course, researching Modernism meant spending time in real life deep in a major library. Fortunately, the web brings incredible research resources and tools without leaving the comfort of your cool ranch Dorito-covered couch. Those are delicious, aren't they? Today we visit with two giants of Modernism research, Bill Storrer, creator of the Storrer system for Frank Lloyd Wright projects, and one of our favorite podcast guests, the Maestro of Modernism, the jolly green giant of Googie, the Samuel L. Jackson of architecture documentaries; the Ryan Seacrest of Modernism Week hosting dozens of events, author and speaker Alan Hess. Later on, a few minutes with architect Frank Harmon, reading from his book Native Places.

Charles Moore, the architect of California’s famous Sea Ranch, was one of the chief proponents of postmodernism. His work brought a return to more ornamental detail, steep roofs, and shingles, among other classical features, and we’ll learn more from Kevin Keim, Director of the Charles Moore Foundation.  Next, you’ve heard for a year about the destruction of Craig Ellwood’s Zimmerman house in Los Angeles, now you’ll hear attorney Evan Dyer’s plans to bring it back.  Then we talk with Lou Grotta on preserving a Richard Meier-designed house for the future.

When we hear about a Modernist house by an important architect being bought and destroyed, there’s widespread outrage from preservationists. Why didn’t these people try to save them?  Why didn’t the buyers consult architectural historians?  The owners should be forced to do whatever it takes, and whatever it costs, to keep the houses intact, right?  It’s a classic struggle between property rights and preservation ideals.  Turns out, though, that some of those dastardly owners actually followed the rules, got the approvals, met with the committees, consulted the historians, and still got criticized by the preservation community. Today we talk with Ross Johnston, owner of the Largent House in San Francisco, designed by Richard Neutra, and Mike and Nina Marco, owners of the Biggs House in Delray Beach Florida, designed by Paul Rudolph.  Later on, music with Susannah Clifford Blachly.

Palm Springs has seen its share of glamour, from the Hollywood celebrities who made the place their playground last century to the musicians and entertainers who kept the party going. Today we’ll hear from Will Friedwald on the jazz trio The Poll Winners; Courtney Newman on the classic entertainers who flocked to Palm springs; and Susan Claassen, who has brought legendary Hollywood costume designer Edith Head to life.  If you don’t know who Edith Head is, think Edna Mode from the Incredibles movies, a character that was based on Edith Head.

Over the last few year, we’ve been checking out design and architecture podcasts from around America.  We've had Frances Anderton of DnA, Debbie Millman of Design Matters, Josh Cooperman of Convo by Design, and David and Marina of Midnight Charrette.  Today we welcome two new friends who keep the public's design fire going with their interesting and popular podcasts. 

Architect Steve Chung is based in Boston, where the good clam chowder lives, focused on residential and hospitality projects. Steve graduated in architecture from Harvard and interned with Richard Meier in New York, worked for Machado Silvetti in Boston and collaborated with designer Philippe Starck. He was the host and creator of the PBS series Cool Spaceswhich ran in 2014 and is currently co-host with Doug Patt on the Design Your Dream Home podcast. 

Architect Donna Sink is the host of the Archinect podcast with guests we know and love such as Sekou Cooke and David and Marina from Midnight Charette, plus our buddy Rusty Long from right here in North Carolina.  A graduate of the University of Arizona and also Cranbrook, which is like a Jedi school for architecture, her career began at Atkin Olshin Shade in Philadelphia in historic preservation. She joined Rowland Design in 2017 and was President of the Indianapolis AIA. 

The American Institute of Architects, or AIA, is the leading professional association in the US, and USModernist Radio was there for their national conference last June in Chicago, where George talked with Katie Swenson of MASS Design Group, known for emotionally powerful buildings like the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. After that, George visits with Kira Gould, a communications strategist, author, and cohost of the podcast Design the Future who was awarded honorary AIA status. Later on, musical guest Michael Sinatra singing from the songbook many Modernists know and love. 

Today we kick off Modernism Week coverage with internationally known architect Moshe (mo-shay) Safdie. He’s been famous for over 50 years for many brilliant buildings; first as architect for Habitat 67 in Montreal, in the 2000’s as architect for the Marina Bay Sands, that crazy rich Singapore hotel featured in the movie Crazy rich Asians; and for a special small chapel you might not know about. Safdie won the 2019 Wolf Prize in Architecture and his other honors include the AIA Gold Medal, Canada’s Royal Architectural Institute Gold Medal, and The Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement.  Host George Smart talked with Safdie from the somewhat noisy atrium lobby of the Hyatt Palm Springs.

Few architects have been as exciting or controversial as Paul Rudolph, whose early successes designing Modernist vacation homes in Sarasota FL led to a later career as Chair of the Architecture Department at Yale, then nearly 30 years designing buildings with intense use of concrete and steel. While the public was largely inspired by his work, Rudolph fell out of favor in the US and shifted to Singapore and Hong Kong, where he was much heralded and sought after.  Like most Modernist architecture, over the years Rudolph’s houses and buildings around the world became highly prized and at the same time, endangered.  Joining us is preservationist, archivist, and President of the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture, Kelvin Dickinson. Later on, music by the charming Tierney Sutton.   

What modernist architect doesn’t want a museum commission? Along with airports and hotels, or huge corporate campuses for  tech bros, museums are the most lucrative and high-profile projects an architect can get.  Budgets are big, backers are rich, publicity is guaranteed, and most of the time clients want the architect to fully self-express their wildest plans. It’s a good deal for the museum, too, as they get to brag about their remarkable new building.  A graduate of the PhD program in sociology at Columbia, museum consultant Andras Szanto he has written for New York Times, ArtForum, and Art Newspaper, and has overseen the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia and the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His latest books are The Future of Museums which interviews 28 of the world’s leading museum directors – and Imagining the Future Museum, 21 conversations with prominent museum architects.

Stephanie Grosskreutz of Visit Sarasota

Every year, Sarasota Mod in Sarasota FL throws a great conference on mid-century modern and this year was focused on Paul Rudolph, an architect who made his name in exciting coastal architecture before moving on to become Dean of Architecture at Yale.  Rudolph's work is recognized around the world for bold, progressive masses.  People are polarized around his work.  Modernists praise his visionary designs of concrete and steel, others see them as cold and impractical. 

Stephanie Grosskreutz works with Visit Sarasota, the folks who want you to travel down there and stay, dine, tour, and take in the scenery.  We talk about how Modernist architecture has impacted Sarasota and has become one of the big draws for people to visit.  George Smart spoke with her during the Sarasota Mod conference last November.

If you’re considering buying a midcentury Modern house, you’re surely going to need some repairs, maybe as much as a full renovation.  Mostly likely you’re not in construction or architecture, so you’re gonna need help and you really don’t want to screw it up.  The good news is that there are expert builders around the country who specialize in Modernist houses, old and new, and today we’ve got the Sultan of Schindler, Jeff Fink of LA and Santa Barbara. Later on, Drew Lang, principal of Lang Architecture, talks about Brick and Wonder, a premier networking group of design, construction, and real estate professionals based in New York.  

Seattle has coffee, and rain, and Amazon, and amazing Tom Kundig houses.  It also has our guest today, Eugenia Woo, one of Seattle’s top advocates for Modernist historic preservation. She is the director of preservation services at Historic Seattle and is a co-founder and board member of Docomomo WEWA. Founded in 1974, Historic Seattle preserves Seattle’s architectural legacy. Eugenia has a BA in political science from the University of California at Berkeley and a Masters of Urban Planning and Preservation Planning from the University of Washington. We talk about key Modernist buildings in Seattle and Woo's work to save them.

Lord Peter Palumbo is a developer, art collector, car collector, wine collector, architecture collector and Conservative life peer based in the UK. He was educated at Eton and Worcester College, Oxford, a star athlete who played polo with Prince Charles. He first met Mies van her Rohe in the 1960’s and spent much of the next 30 years trying to get one of his buildings built. In 1972, he purchased the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe in Plano, Illinois and in 1986 he bought Frank Lloyd Wright’s Kentuck Knob near Fallingwater in Pennsylvania. 

Modernism isn't just architecture; it also highlights the artists and artisans whose textiles, ceramics, furniture, and other objects bring modern spaces to life. Recorded at Modernism Week 2023, we’ll hear from a gaggle of interesting guests:  Susan Brown, Alexa Griffith Winton, Leigh Wishner and Charlotte Von Hardenburgh on textile artist Dorothy Liebes; Annalisa Capurro and Paul Ortega on the Swedish Modern design of Svenskt Tenn; ceramics historian Margaret Carney on midcentury dinnerware; and Jim Rawitch on the arts and crafts of Sam Maloof.

Born in Zurich, Switzerland, architect Albert Frey was the first American to work for Le Corbusier, working on the famous Villa Savoye project among others. Le Corbusier helped Frey get a job with American architect A. Lawrence Kocher, also the managing editor of Architectural Record. After WWII, Frey moved to the resort community of Palm Springs and Frey become synonymous with desert modernism. His projects include the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Valley Station, Palm Springs City Hall, Tramway Gas Station, and many houses. Joining George Smart and co-host Jake Gorst, director of two films on Frey, is Craig Hartzman, executive vice chair of the Palm Springs Art Museum, which is putting on a major 2022 Albert Frey Exhibition; Brad Dunning, curator of that exhibition, and Marc Koller, Albert Frey's godson. Later on, jazz with musical guest Rebecca Kilgore, accompanied by the legendary Dave Frishberg.

We love visiting great architecture and Modernist architecture does get visited – a lot – but nothing compares to the number of people who enjoy it through photography.  Especially this last year, when we’ve all been hunkered down awaiting vaccinations, we’re reading and streaming visions of amazing homes, offices, and urban planning.  Join us today is Wayne Thom, a photographer famous for capturing Late Modern architecture in the western US, and returning podcast guest Emily Bills, an educator and writer who just published a new book on Wayne’s work.

One of the most well-known New York design educators, Daniella Ohad of Daniella on Design was former sergeant in the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate. She graduated from Tel Aviv University and moved to New York for a Masters from FIT and a PhD from Bard. Now she's an influencer, historian, writer, talk show host, curator, and keynote speaker. She’s committed to design education and has taught at the School of Visual Arts, Pratt, Parsons, Cooper Union, and the New York School of Interior Design. She curated and hosted events at AIA New York, the venerable 92nd Street Y; the talk show Spring/Harvest Dialogues; the video series The Collector; and the Italian network Skyarte. Her blog Daniella on Design attracts hundreds of thousands of readers weekly.

Today we are excited to introduce four really interesting design professionals who got on our radar over the last few months, including architectural historian Catherine Zipf on Frank Lloyd Wright, architect and author Bryan Toepfer on dealing with builders, preservation professional Tim Cannan on his new funding site, and the architect of one of the coolest concept houses in the world, the Darth Vader House in Houston TX, Lynn Spears. 

Ron Friedman graduated in architecture from Carnegie Mellon University. After working for a few years as an architect, he came to his senses and started writing and performing stand-up comedy.  He was spotted by Dean Martin and Danny Kaye which launched a career writing for countless TV and variety shows, over 700 hours of beloved prime-time TV that you know and probably love, including The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Vegas, and Fantasy Island.  If you’re younger than 45, you’ll know the G.I. Joe series and of course, the epic animated show Transformers for which Ron wrote 64 shows. He worked with the legendary Stan Lee to create The Marvel Action Hour.  He drafted the episode of Happy Days that introduced The Fonz, and he wrote the episode of Bewitched that introduced Uncle Arthur played by Paul Lynde. His new memoir is called I Killed Optimus Prime.

Although actress Kelly Lynch appeared in Drugstore Cowboy, Roadhouse, Charlie's Angels, and the swanky Miami TV series Magic City, we love her movies about Modernist preservation.  She's also got two killer Modernist houses in Los Angeles.

Myrick Howard has been President since 1978 of Preservation North Carolina, the state's premier preservation organization, and knows how to keep these works of art alive.

On this episode, learn how to win a best-dressed award for just $15! Choose the right chair for a Basic Instinct re-make!  Protect your favorite Modernist house from the bulldozer!

Hi folks, here's a few minutes of fun, our "best of" clips from 2015.  Happy New Year!  George, Frank, and Tom

Being a Black architect in the white-male-dominated 20th century was tough.  You were paid less, worked harder, and rarely got any credit.  That is, if you could get hired at all. For example, by 1950 there were only two Black architects registered in North Carolina, both male. By 1980 the number was only 65 out of 1909. Even by 1993, Black architects made up only 7.5% nationally.  Today we’ll hear from Charles McAfee, considered by many to be the greatest living African-American architect. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, supported by the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles, is working to share and elevate the achievements of African-American architects, both men and women.  We’ll talk with the director that program, Brent Leggs.  Later on, great jazz with Jaimee Paul.

Stewart Hicks makes architecture understandable and accessible through his wildly popular YouTube channel.  An assistant professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-founder of Design With Company, he covers everything from architecture superfans Brad and Kanye to why architects like flat roofs!

Imagine buying a lot, designing a house, getting all the neighborhood and city approvals, starting construction, then - boom - your neighbor sues to stop construction.  Here's the background.  You'll hear one couple's incredible story - and how it attracted worldwide coverage.

Louis Cherry has been an architect since 1983 and is principal of a design/build practice focusing on modern residential, commercial and institutional design.  He is the husband of Marsha Gordon, associate professor of film studies at North Carolina State University.

Their contested house, aka Oakwood House, is at 516 Euclid, Raleigh.  The house also has its own Twitter feed, independent of the owners. They honestly don't know who's behind the often-hilarious comments: @ModernOakwood.

Paul Goldberger is an architecture critic and winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.  He is the author of several books, including Why Architecture Matters, and wrote about the Cherry Gordon house for Vanity Fair.

Contact the guests @MarshaGGordon, @LCherry, and @paulgoldberger.

USModernist Radio's parent organization, North Carolina Modernist Houses, provided financial support to the Cherry's cause through its Legal Defense Fund.

The architects of midcentury houses in the 1950’s and 1960’s are all retired now, some for many years.  It’s a true privilege as fans from a later generation to sit down with these men and women and hear their stories.  Joining us today is celebrated architect Barbara Neski of New York City, now in her 90’s, famed for award-winning Modernist houses in the Hamptons.  Later, music with the charming Staci Griesbach, who headlined at one of USModernist's Moon Over Modernism events.  And she's got a new album out!

Today we’re talking about an architecture TV series spanning the globe and a new design documentary.  Joining us is ByDesign’s Mike Chapman and IBM archivist Jamie Martin, who is featured in the new documentary Modernism Inc.  Later, musical guest Paget Moren.

USModernist Radio started in 2015, one dark and stormy afternoon, and we celebrate episode 300 with a special guest architect. Devoted listeners know exactly who we’re talking about, because in past shows, every time we say his name you hear a sound.  Today we welcome one of the most successful architects in the world, Bjarke Ingels of BIG. Later, we swoon over jazz vocalist Halie Loren.

Architect Maria Ludwig Michael Mies changed his name.  He added his mother's maiden name Rohe and the Dutch “van der” to become, drum roll please, Mies van der Rohe. Most of his fans just refer to him as Mies – like Cher or Moby or Beyonce, he’s still one of the most famous architects in the world some 50 years after his death.  Today we talk about his greatest house – the Farnsworth House – with Alex Beam, author of the new book Broken Glass: Mies Van Der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight Over a Modernist Masterpiece - and Scott Mehaffey, Executive Director of the Farnsworth house in Plano IL, which you can visit.  Later on, a few minutes with Frank Harmon, reading from his book Native Places. 

Earlier this year, our friends the Classicists gathered to discuss traditional and classical architecture. As the day unfolded, Modernism was predictably and continually pounded as the cause of all kinds of awful consequences on humanity. In football the referee would blow the whistle at this point for piling on. Then one lone voice of reason stood up. Today we welcome Melissa Delvecchio of Robert A. M. Stern Architects, or RAMSA, and later musical guest Paul Marinaro.

Architectural historian Owen Hopkins has written or edited 16 books on architecture and his stories have appeared in Architectural Design, Dezeen, the Independent, and Blueprint, among many others. A graduate of the Courtauld Institute in London, Owen has served as architectural program curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, senior curator at Sir John Soane’s Museum, and now the director of Newcastle University’s new Farrell Centre. His latest book is about brutalism, those large concrete buildings many people love and King Charles and critics Roger Scruton and Dr. J. S. Curl and Justin Shubow hate hate hate hate hate.  Did we mention hate?

As the book points out, Brutalist architecture inspires a passionate response, be it adulation or contempt. There’s lots of both to go around.  Later on, music from some great architects, and their IT buddy, in a group called Poinsettia.

There’s a new edition out of the popular book Midcentury Houses Today, and we’ll have on co-author and architectural photographer Michael Biondo.  Next up, someone we admire for keeping Modernist houses on the radar in Los Angeles, filmmaker Russell Brown,  founder of FORT LA, aka Friends of Residential Treasures. Later on, music from Durham’s Sharp 9 Jazz club with pianist Lenore Raphael and guitarist Howard Alden. 

You can have the best architect design your new Modernist house, but if your builder doesn’t know how to handle Modernist construction, materials, and details, you are in deep bleep.  Joining us are two masters of the Modernist domain:  Jake Goldberg, founder and president of Goldberg General Contracting in Chicago; and Kevin Murphy, founder and president of Newphire Building in Chapel Hill NC. Later on, jazz with James Torme, son of Mel.

Host George Smart reports from February's Modernism Week in Palm Springs, the Mecca for all things Modernist!  He spoke poolside from the Hotel Skylark with keynote speakers from the week.

Alan Hess is a journalist, historian, architect, and author with 19 books specifically addressing mid-century modernism and countless appearances in architecture documentaries.  He's the Samuel L. Jackson of architecture movies!

Janice Lyle is the Director of Operations for Sunnylands Center and Gardens, known as the "Western White House" or “Camp David West” as a secure facility established by Walter and Leonore Annenberg for internationally significant meetings.  Like world-leaders level of significant!  She is the author of "Sunnylands: America’s Midcentury Masterpiece" and is the former Director of the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Shhh!  George broke into Tom's studio late at night to bring you two bonus interviews from 2019. Happy new year!

There’s a lively city on the West Coast, a sprawling California metropolis that many consider the epicenter of Modernist architecture. Sorry, Bakersfield, it’s not you, although you’ve got two good ones we know of. We’re talking greater Los Angeles, 30,000 plus square miles from the valleys to the sea and across the mountains with thousands of Modernist houses from the 1920’s through today.  Joining us is the Director of Advocacy for the Los Angeles Conservancy, Adrian Scott Fine, and LA city planner Ken Bernstein, author of the new book Preserving Los Angeles: How Historic Places can Transform America’s Cities. Later on, jazz from the UK with the charming Hetty Loxston.

Louis Kahn was one of the most brilliant and enigmatic architects of the 20th century.  He died in 1974. There’s an stirring and brilliant documentary about his life, filmed by his son, called My Architect.  Kahn taught at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania most of his career.  He didn’t do a lot of buildings, but he was famous for almost all of them plus many fascinating unbuilt projects.  One of those was the Four Freedoms memorial to Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Roosevelt Island in New York City.  It was on the drawing boards when Kahn died.  The project languished for decades and wasn’t finished until 2012.  The architecture firm Mitchell Giurgola in New York ultimately took Kahn’s design and faithfully executed it to much international acclaim.  Host George Smart does a West Wing walk n talk with Paul Broches, the Mitchell Giurgola partner in charge of Four Freedoms.  They met at the tram station on the East side, right near the Queensboro Bridge. After a while exploring the memorial, they met one of the show's favorite guests.

Today we welcome back Justin Shubow, President of the National Civic Art Society, a non-profit dedicated to promoting the classical tradition in public art and architecture. President Trump appointed him in 2018 to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a federal agency which oversees the design and construction of government buildings and memorials in Washington DC. Shubow is the author of The Gehry Towers over Eisenhower, a 150-page critique of the Eisenhower Memorial, a battle he sort of won, sort of lost against architect Frank Gehry. With a background in philosophy and law, he has taught at Michigan and Yale and speaks on architecture at places like the US State Department, Baylor University, Colorado College, Hamilton College, and the University of Virginia.