USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love
402 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 22 hours ago - ★★★★★ - 74 ratingsListen to one of America's top-rated architecture podcasts as the USModernist® Radio crew talks and laughs with fascinating people who own, create, love, and hate Modernist architecture, the most controversial houses and buildings in the world.
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Episodes
#222/New Palm Springs Modernism: Architect Sean Lockyer + Comedian Aaron Kominos-Smith
November 15, 2021 08:00 - 53 minutes - 49.2 MBArchitects like Chambers, Clark, Cody, Frey, Kaptur, Krisel, Wexler, and Williams put the Modernist architecture of Palm Springs on the map from the 1940’s through the 2000’s, and in Hugh Kaptur’s case, still going at age 90. Behind them are a new generation of Modernist architects and today we talk with one of the area’s most successful, Sean Lockyer. Later on, comedian and former architecture student Aaron Kominos Smith.
#221/Palm Springs' Desert Maverick, William Cody: Cathy Cody + Raice McLeod + Music by Eva Cassidy
November 08, 2021 08:00 - 43 minutes - 39.7 MBOne of the great architects of midcentury Palm Springs was William F. Cody, featured in the Leo Zahn documentary Desert Maverick. Joining us is the author of a new book on Cody - his daughter, Cathy Cody, and later on, drummer Raice McLeod remembers the amazing singer Eva Cassidy and shares two of her songs.
#220/When No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ross Johnston + Mike and Nina Marco + Musical Guest Susannah Clifford Blachly
November 01, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 63.8 MBWhen 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 follow...
#219/Where the Bodies are Buried: Henry Kuehn + Christine Madrid French + Peter Lamb and the Wolves
October 25, 2021 07:00 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBJust when you thought it was another safe architecture chat, it’s our Halloween midnight madness Mod-tacular, and joining us is someone who knows where all the bodies are buried, author Henry Kuehn of Architects Gravesites – along with modern preservationist by day, horror historian by night, Christine Madrid French. Later on, music from Peter Lamb and the Wolves, hopefully under a full moon.
#218/Escape to New York: Gisue Hariri + Theo Prudon + Fred Bernstein
October 18, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 82.7 MBThis has been a tough time for travel, but in between COVID surges last summer, host George Smart managed to get to New York City for a series of conversations with architect Gisue Hariri, DOCOMOMO-US founder and architecture professor Theo Prudon, and prolific architecture journalist Fred Bernstein. Later on, a few minutes with TikTok design critic Louisa Whitmore.
#217/Connecticut! Ken Sena + Craig Bassam + Scott Fellows
October 11, 2021 07:00 - 45 minutes - 41.5 MBConnecticut is famous for the first hamburger (1895), Polaroid camera (1934), helicopter (1939), and color television (1948). It’s the home of PEZ, World Wrestling, and Design Within Reach. It’s also a hotbed for Modernist houses by many famous architects such as Philip Johnson, John Johansen, Eliot Noyes, Edward Durell Stone, Gisue and Mojgan Hariri, Marcel Breuer, and even Frank Lloyd Wright. Joining us is Ken Sena, Connecticut Marcel Breuer homeowner and recently part of the new documen...
#216/The New EU Bauhaus Commission: Michela Magas + Musical Guest Monika Ryan
October 04, 2021 07:00 - 42 minutes - 39.5 MBThe European Union has some of the same problems we do: damaging climate change, a flood of immigrants, and a population frequently in disagreement. But while America argues vaccines and pounces on Hamilton’s uber-inclusive Lin-Manuel Miranda for not being inclusive enough, the EU President Ursula von der Leyden created the New European Bauhaus High-Level Round Table. Nice. These valiant design knights of the design realm include Bjarke Ingels, Shiguru Ban, Francesca Bria, and today’s gue...
#215/The Stahl House: Shari Stahl Gronwald + Bruce Stahl + Kim Cross + Kyle Bergman + Musical Guest Fallow Ground
September 27, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 61.9 MBThe Stahl House in Los Angeles is among the most famous houses in the world. Designed by Pierre Koenig and engineered by William Porush, the Stahl House and its pool were immortalized by legendary design photographer Julius Shulman. In a conversation recorded poolside at the swanky Hotel Skylark in Palm Springs, where they were part of a panel discussion at the Palm Springs Museum of Art, our George Smart talks with Shari Stahl Gronwald and Bruce Stahl. They grew up in the Stahl House and sp...
#214/The Peter Principles: Peter Bohlin + Peter Gluck
September 20, 2021 07:00 - 40 minutes - 37.6 MBPeter Bohlin and Peter Gluck are two of most innovative and successful architects in residential Modernist design. In careers spanning over 14 decades, if we add them all together, their award-winning practices created several hundred award-winning houses you can see at usmodernist.org/gluck and usmodernist.org/bohlin. Later on, commentary on the the famous Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe with Louisa Whitmore.
#213/Prefab: Authors Avi Friedman + Allison Arieff + Special Musical Guest Maria Maldaur
September 13, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 55.6 MBLike 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 Fri...
#212/Seattle Modernism: Jim Olson + Musical Guest Erin Boheme
September 06, 2021 07:00 - 49 minutes - 45.8 MBThe 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 Ol...
#211/Los Angeles: Adrian Scott Fine + Ken Bernstein + Musical Guest Hetty Loxston
August 30, 2021 07:00 - 59 minutes - 54.9 MBThere’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 cit...
#210/Marcel Breuer's Bohemia: James Crump
August 23, 2021 07:00 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBMarcel Breuer was one of several architects who brought European Modernism to the US. He was known for hundreds of projects including the Atlanta Public Library, The Whitney Museum in New York, the Pirelli Building in New Haven, The Housing and Urban Development Building in Washington DC, and many iconic houses in Massachusetts and Connecticut. No one was more passionate than Breuer about his work - except for maybe Rufus Stillman, who commissioned four houses over the years. Joining us is ...
#209/Albert Frey in Palm Springs: Co-Host Jake Gorst + Craig Hartzman + Brad Dunning + Marc Koller / Musical Guest Rebecca Kilgore with Dave Frishberg
August 16, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 90.7 MBBorn 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, Tram...
#208/Modernist Escapes: Stefi Orazi + Joan Gand + Musical Guests The Gand Band
August 09, 2021 07:00 - 43 minutes - 40.3 MBMany of our Modernist listeners are planning long-delayed holidays. Oh where shall you go? Roman ruins? Cape Cod Villages? Colonial Williamsburg? We doubt it. You’re planning to hit the Modernist hotspots, and to help you we talk with Stefi Orazi, author of Modernist Escapes. Later on, the leading edge of high school architecture education with returning guest Joan Gand - then music from Palm Springs finest, the Gand Band.
#207/Sarasota FL: Architect Guy Peterson + Musical Guest Heather Rigdon + Frank Harmon
August 02, 2021 07:00 - 57 minutes - 52.7 MBIn Sarasota, Florida, one of the east coast’s finest centers for Modernism, names like Paul Rudolph, Gene Leedy, Victor Lundy, Tim Siebert, and Jack West dominated the design scene from the 1940’s through the 1980’s. Then came a new generation of architects that took things to a whole new level. One of those, Guy Peterson, joins us from Sarasota. Later on, returning musical guest Heather Rigdon, then a few minutes with Frank Harmon.
#206/Built Beautiful: Don Ruggles + Lisa Heschong + Louisa Whitmore
July 26, 2021 07:00 - 58 minutes - 53.4 MBWhat is a beautiful building? What is an ugly building? People have very different reactions looking at say Biltmore versus Fallingwater, and not just because they are vastly different sizes. Joining us to discuss beauty in architecture is Don Ruggles, author of Beauty, Neuroscience & Architecture and Producer of a new documentary, Built Beautiful. Next, special USModernist correspondent Raymond Neutra interviews Lisa Heschong, author of Visual Delight in Architecture: Daylight, Vision, ...
#205/Serial Modernist: Mark Haddawy + Musical Guest Anders Holst
July 19, 2021 07:00 - 52 minutes - 48.3 MBLet’s say you collect stamps. If you go to the stamp club, you’re gonna find people who collect more stamps than you. Then if you go to the stamp convention, you’re gonna find an even more successful crowd. Then if you go to Sotheby’s for one of their top stamp auctions, you’re gonna find Mr. – or Ms. -- Big. In the world of serial Modernist owners, Mark Haddawy is Mr. Big. He’s had his hands and his budgets on more classic Modernist houses than just about anyone. Later on, music with ...
#204/Modernist Chairs We Love: Herman Miller's Amy Auscherman + NC State's Gwen Emery + A Few Minutes with Frank Harmon
July 12, 2021 07:00 - 39 minutes - 36.5 MBIt’s almost a certainty that before anyone owns a Modernist house, they own a piece of Modernist furniture, the gateway drug of great architecture. Today’s guests are Amy Auscherman, design archivist at Herman Miller, famous for the Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, and the Eames Lounge Chair, among many other icons, and Gwen Emery, Director of Library Environments at NC State University Libraries and the author of the book ChairHunt. Later on, a few minutes with architect Fran...
#203/Grandpa Frank Lloyd Wright: Tom Wright + Steven Reiss + Music from Carol Sloane
July 05, 2021 14:46 - 57 minutes - 53.2 MBTom Wright studies volcanoes. If that’s not exciting enough right there, and it certainly was for us, he’s also the grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright and lives in a Wright House - the last one still owned by the family. Also joining us is Wright author Steven Reiss and later, music from the breakout singer of the 1961 Newport Jazz Festival, Carol Sloane.
#202/Six of Five: James Evans + Musical Guest Janis Siegel
June 28, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 56.9 MBArchitect 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.
#201/Grace Farms: Sharon Prince + Musical Guest Lily Frost
June 21, 2021 07:00 - 54 minutes - 50.4 MBEvery town hopes that someone will come along, and at no expense to the town, create something beautiful. We’re not talking a new mall. We’re talking acres of flowing grounds open to the public, an award-winning complex of stunningly beautiful buildings by a world-class architecture firm, and a philanthropic mission that includes, among other noteworthy causes, the elimination of slave labor in the construction supply chain. One visionary person did just that in the Modernist center of New C...
#200/Return to Bertie County: Emily Piloton-Lam + Ron Wesson + Musical Guest Linda Eder
June 14, 2021 07:00 - 57 minutes - 53.4 MBBertie County, North Carolina, has only about 19,000 people, about 62% Black. That's fewer than in most city zip codes. It’s one of the poorest county in the state, and the population is down about 10% over the last decade. Black farmers lost much of their land as subsidies and credit by the USDA heavily favored white farmers. In 2007, the schools were in terrible shape, as you might expect. Then, an innovative school superintendent came to town, did a great job, and got fired. One of the pr...
#199/Architecture Teen Style: Danielle Willkens + Louisa Whitmore + Musical Guest Sophie Milman
June 07, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 56.7 MBTomorrow's architects and their architecture critics are today's teenagers. Joining us are Danielle Willkens, author of the new book, Architecture for Teens: A Beginner Book for Aspiring Architects, and an actual teen critic, Louisa Whitmore, a TikTok sensation from our favorite jazz nation, Canada. Later on, surprise, surprise - Canadian jazz with Sophie Milman.
#198/Yolanda's Little Black Book: James McClain + Special Music by Dave and Darius Brubeck
May 31, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 58.8 MBEvery industry has insiders, and no city other than perhaps New York attracts more attention from residential architecture than Los Angeles. Joining us is James McClain, co-founder and editor-at-large at Dirt.com, which tracks significant celebrity houses. He's James now, but previously he had a secret identity. Later on, music from legendary jazz musician, Dave Brubeck, and his son, Darius Brubeck.
#197/Children of Genius: Gary Wexler + Erik Williams + Peter Exley + Musical Guest Connie Evingson
May 24, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 61.8 MBIn our ongoing series Children of Genius, we’ve spoken with Raymond and Dion Neutra, sons of Richard Neutra; Guilliame Schindler, great-grandson of Rudolph Schindler; Randy Koenig, son of Pierre Koenig; Susan and Eric Saarinen, children of Eero Saarinen; Eric Lloyd Wright, grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright; Emily Ain, daughter of Gregory Ain; Celia Bertoia, daughter of Harry Bertoia, Eames Demetrios and Carla Hartman, grandchildren of Charles and Ray Eames, Erika Pfammatter, granddaughter of Wa...
#196/Gabriella the Billionaire: Andi Schmied + Musical Guest Bobbie Eakes
May 17, 2021 07:00 - 56 minutes - 52.4 MBHave you ever wondered what’s it’s like to live in a $5M apartment in the New York skyline? What about a $10 million coop? A $25 million penthouse? Joining us is Andi Schmied, aka Gabriella, a visual artist who pretty much became a performance artist, talking her way into some of these very posh residences. Later on, jazz with Bobbie Eakes, a face you know from Days of our Lives, The Bold and the Beautiful, and even the very last episode of Laverne and Shirley – but a voice you might not.
#195/Adam Štěch + Victor Lundy + Donna Kacmar + Musical Guest Diana Panton
May 10, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 56.9 MBFrom an author who’s created a worldwide book of mostly Modernist buildings to a master Modernist who created beautiful buildings across the world, we’ve got a great show today. Joining us first is Adam Štěch, author of the new book Modern Architecture and Interiors, an atlas of more than one thousand Modernist architectural masterpieces; next a true master, architect Victor Lundy, along with Lundy author Donna Kacmar, and later on from Canada, our favorite jazz country, musical guest Diana...
#194/Architectural Record at 130: Alex Bachrach + Aaron Prinz + Phoebus Panigyrakis + Musical Guest Bria Skonberg
May 03, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 76 MBWay 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, Arch...
#193/Photographing the Late Modern: Wayne Thom + Emily Bills
April 26, 2021 07:00 - 32 minutes - 30 MBWe 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 educa...
#192/Researching Modernism: Alan Hess + Bill Storrer + A Few Minutes with Frank Harmon
April 19, 2021 07:00 - 39 minutes - 36 MBResearching 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, a...
#191/Bjarke Ingels Makes a Mountain: Kaspar Astrup Schröder + Rikke Selin Fokdal + Special Musical Guest Nneena Freelon
April 12, 2021 07:00 - 57 minutes - 52.8 MB2020 was the fourth year USModernist Radio has been part of the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival, if by festival you mean online and by New York you mean anywhere on earth. Every fall, the authors, producers, experts, stars, and creators gather to premiere their latest architecture and design documentaries. Today we talk with Rikke Selin Fokdal and Kaspar Astrup Schröder, producers of the new documentary Making A Mountain, Bjarke Ingels flat-out brilliant solution to the unsav...
#191/Bjarke Ingels Makes a Mountain: Kaspar Astrup Schroder + Rikke Selin Fokdal + Special Musical Guest Nneena Freelon
April 12, 2021 07:00 - 57 minutes - 52.8 MB2020 was the fourth year USModernist Radio has been part of the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival, if by festival you mean online and by New York you mean anywhere on earth. Every fall, the authors, producers, experts, stars, and creators gather to premiere their latest architecture and design documentaries. Today we talk with Rikke Selin Fokdal and Kaspar Astrup Schröde, producers of the new documentary Making A Mountain, Bjarke Ingels flat-out brilliant solution to the unsavo...
#190/Mod Betty + Howard and Gaby Morris + Musical Guest Melissa Morgan
April 05, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 56.3 MBEverybody’s got some niche they are into, right? There are cat people, NASCAR people, golfing people, escape room people, and even after 55 years, Star Trek people. Today we welcome leaders in two special niches of Modernism, Beth Lennon, aka Mod Betty, of Retro Roadmap, and Howard and Gaby Morris of GreyScape, a London website dedicated to Brutalism, Modernism, and Constructivist design. Later on, jazz with the wonderful Melissa Morgan.
#189/Eastern Bloc Modernism: Marie Kordovská + Haruna Honcoop, plus Musical Guest Hailey Tuck
March 29, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 63.6 MBWhenever our friends the Classicists want to troll Modernism, they claim it's Communist-inspired and therefore no good. Since we have never known any building to determine economic policy, joining us are two people who dive deep into this "concrete" issue in the former Eastern Bloc: Haruna Honcoop, director of the film Built to Last: Relics of Communist Era Architecture, and Marie Kordovska, granddaughter of of Věra and Vladimir Machonins, late-modern architects from Czechoslovakia. Later on...
#188/Loving Louis Kahn: Harriet Pattison + Richard Saul Wurman + Reyhan Larimer + Steve Kroeter
March 22, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 59.4 MBHarriet Pattison met renowned architect Louis Kahn in 1953 at Yale, but the real sparks flew years later in Philadelphia where she and Lou Kahn had a romantic relationship and a son, Nathaniel. It was, um, complicated. Pattison is an accomplished landscape architect, working in the Vermont office of the famous Dan Kiley and studied landscape architecture under Ian McHarg at the University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts. She collaborated with Kahn on a number of projects, especially fulf...
#187/Design for Homelessness: Andrea Urton + Michael Lehrer + Musical Guest Rosana Eckert
March 15, 2021 07:00 - 57 minutes - 53 MBIt’s one thing when neighbors don’t like that butterfly mother in law shed in your backyard. It’s another when thousands of people in a city are without housing and neighborhoods don’t want them anywhere close. Over the decades, architecture has proclaimed the solution to this and other social problems can be solved through design, but as Dr. Phil might ask, “how’d that work out?” Not so well, as large mid-century public housing projects proved over and over. Today, however, there are ne...
#186/Architecture Photographer Julius Shulman: Eric Bricker + Keith Isaacs plus Musical Guest Stacey Kent
March 08, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 64.3 MBWell-known Modernist architects came to fame in a time before computers, a time where getting published in magazines was the mid-century equivalent of going viral. Even if an architect lived in a large metro such as Los Angeles, world of mouth and house tours wouldn’t get you the big commissions. Blowing up meant having photos of your work in major publications of the era. To get those photos, you had to have a great photographer who really understood design and light and capturing the bea...
#185/The Future of Palm Springs: Richard and Debra Hovel + Sidney Willams + Dick Burkett, plus Frank Harmon
March 01, 2021 08:00 - 37 minutes - 34.3 MBIf you’re a longtime listener, you know we have a special place in our hearts for Palm Springs, the mecca of Modernism, the home of the international film festival, the bedroom for concerts in Indio, and the cruising town that Sonny Bono cleaned up in the late 1980’s before he ran for Governor. It’s our home away from home, but even Paris has reinvent itself from time to time. Today’s guests are looking to 2030, 2040, and beyond, and we welcome Dick Burkett, Sidney Williams, and Richard an...
#184/2020's Architecture Documentaries: Royal Kennedy Rogers + Meredith Zielke + Yoni Goldstein + Ned Daly plus Musical Guest Pat Kirtley
February 22, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 63 MBThis is the fourth year USModernist Radio has been part of the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival, if by festival you mean online and by New York you mean anywhere on earth. Every fall, the authors, producers, experts, stars, and creators gather to premiere their latest architecture and design documentaries, and this year because of COVID Executive Director Kyle Bergman completely re-engineered a wildly successful in-person weekend into a compelling virtual series. George and T...
#183/On Charles Dubois with Leonora Mahle / Lady Carnavon of Downton Abbey / Musical Guest Jane Monheit
February 15, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 55.6 MBArchitect Charles Dubois was famous for designing houses in California which earned the nickname Swiss Miss. Designer Leonora Mahle takes us inside. Later on, for something completely different, we’ll visit with Lady Carnarvon, the owner of Downton Abbey, aka Highclere Castle. Set on 5000 acres, it’s the most famous house in Britain, except perhaps for an adorable little London starter home, by comparison, called Buckingham Palace, that a certain senior citizen - with a crown - lives in. ...
#182/Daughters of Design: Susan Saarinen + Celia Bertoia + Carla Hartman
February 08, 2021 08:00 - 50 minutes - 46.1 MBLike 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.
#181/Greene + Greene + Harwell Hamilton Harris: Ted Bosley + Frank Harmon plus Musical Guest Elaine Elias
February 01, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 58.1 MBBefore 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 Ha...
#180/Phoenix's David Wright House: Victor Sidy + Amanda Hu
January 25, 2021 08:00 - 45 minutes - 42 MBIn 1959, the US had 48 states and a population of 177 million, Frank Sinatra won his first Grammy for Come Dance with Me, DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover, which had been banned for decades, became OK to print, and a certain exciting and controversial architect died in his 90’s. Frank Lloyd Wright left an incredible legacy of innovative and beautiful buildings, one of which just changed hands last year in Phoenix, Arizona. We talk with architects Victor Sidy and Amanda Hu about the Dav...
#179/Canberra's Parliament House: Architect Hal Guida + Secret City's Felicity Abbott
January 18, 2021 08:00 - 47 minutes - 43.9 MBIn 1978, Australia decided to replace their old Congress, or Parliament House, in the capitol of Canberra. The competition drew 329 entries from 29 countries. The winner was a Modernist design from the Philadelphia firm of Mitchell/Giurgola. Today we meet project architect Hal Guida, plus Felicity Abbott, the production designer for Secret City, a Australian TV political thriller starring Anna Torv filmed extensively at Parliament House.
#178/No More Federal Modernism: Classicist Catesby Leigh + Musical Guest Lucy Woodward
January 11, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 66.4 MBSome Classicists are so passionate about Modernist architecture they create a well-financed, highly effective organization to point out the flaws of Modernist buildings and actively discourage new Modernist projects. Every Classicist we talk to mentions today’s guest, Catesby Leigh, who has written about architecture for over 30 years. He co-founded the National Classical Art Society, headed by past podcast guest Justin Shubow, which advocates the classical tradition in Federal buildings and...
#177/Mies, Edith, and the Farnsworth House: Alex Beam + Scott Mehaffey + A Few Minutes with Frank Harmon
January 04, 2021 08:00 - 48 minutes - 44.9 MBArchitect 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 Fig...
#176/Where No Furniture Has Gone Before: Dan Chavkin + Brian McGuire plus Special Musical Guest Jennifer Warnes
December 28, 2020 08:00 - 1 hour - 64.3 MBIn 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 build...
#175/Festivus and Gene Leedy: Celebrating with Saffie Leedy Farris + Max Strang + Co-host Erin Sterling Lewis plus Musical Guest Laura Ridgeway
December 21, 2020 08:00 - 52 minutes - 48.6 MBHo Ho Ho, get out the Festivus Pole, it’s our holiday show spectacular celebrating with returning guest co-host Erin Sterling Lewis. If your world is Florida, Gene Leedy was one of the masters of Modernism in the 20th century, bursting on the scene as one of Architectural Record's most successful young architects of 1965. With us is his daughter Saffie Leedy Ferris and architect Max Strang of Miami, who grew up in a Gene Leedy house, and worked for Gene Leedy. Later on, special musical gu...
#174/New Modernist Developers + Holiday Gifts + Frank Harmon
December 14, 2020 08:00 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBMack Paul is a Raleigh real estate attorney who focuses on land use and public policy. He owns a sweet Modernist house designed by Brian Shawcroft, and he's an investor in several new Raleigh Modernist projects. Charlie Miller is a real estate broker in Charlotte who expanded to building exciting new Modernist houses – lots of them. We’ll also check in with Matt Bliss and Greg Kelly for unique Modernist gifts to think about for the holidays, Later on a few minutes with Frank Harmon, reading...