Us Modernist Radio - Architecture You Love

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.

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

What would happen if you threw the letters of the alphabet in a hat, drew out two at random, then asked people with those initials on a podcast?  Today we find out, and just like Sesame Street, today’s show is brought to you by the letters W and G.  We could have chosen from musician Woody Guthrie, grandpa on the Waltons Will Geer (George: loved that guy), one of the brothers Grimm, Wilhelm, and of course architect Walter Gropius.  They were, ahem, not available, so today we’ve got two wonderful living and breathing WG guests: first, architect, professor, and modernist master W. G. Clark and legendary design editor Wendy Goodman. 

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.

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.  

You know when you go to an impressive Modernist building, part of what’s impressive is more than just the structure.  The landscape all around the building, from the sidewalks to the signage to the plants to how the sun hits everything just right – this is the stuff that the general public often takes for granted.  But it doesn’t happen by accident, and it’s not typically part done by the building’s main architect.  What often takes a building from good to great is an important profession called landscape architecture.  Poolside in Palm Springs, George talks with Roderick Wyllie and James Lord, partners with the award-winning San Francisco-based landscape design firm SurfaceDesign.  Later on, some high-quality time with Durham jazz recording artist Al Strong. 

Joining us here in the studio is designer and builder Alicia Hylton-Daniel, owner of the Durham North Carolina firm Hylton Daniel.  Later on, from Romania, it’s the creator of the wildly popular “of houses” blog, architect Daniel Munteanu. 

One of the most famous homes in Palm Springs is the Kaufmann House, designed by Richard Neutra.  It was recently the star of Don't Worry Darling, filmed right before it sold, and there's a rich history there.  Even Barry Manilow owned it at one point!  Adele Cygelman is the author of Palm Springs Modern and Arthur Elrod: Desert Modern Design. Her recent research focused on Edgar Kaufmann’s first wife, Liliane, and his second, a woman who, um, assumed hostessing duties after Liliane retreated back to Pittsburgh. Cathy Whitlock is a film journalist and author of Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction. Chris Baugh is a film location manager who secured the Kaufmann house for the movie. Later on, from our studios, a legend in folk music, someone who was actually there at the Lincoln Memorial for Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic speech, musician Noel Paul Stookey of Peter Paul and Mary.

Welcome to USModernist Radio, where we talk and laugh with people who enjoy, own, create, dream about, preserve, love, and hate Modernist architecture, the most exciting and controversial buildings in the world.  Joining us today is one of foremost architectural historians in the world, professor, and former Museum of Modern Art architecture curator Barry Bergdoll, plus a special guest!  Later, music with legendary jazz pianist Joanne Brackeen. 

We all love midcentury Modernism, but what about new Modernist houses? How much do you follow the past versus innovating for the future? After all, we are not the same culture and technology and building materials we were in the 1950's. And what about renovations? Today's show features homeowner Sean Gaston, who's working on a restoration project close to our hearts, a hyperbolic paraboloid house; author and architect Anthony Poon; and some of the hottest residential architects in LA, Brett Woods and Joe Dangaran.

Joining us is Robert Rubin, no not the guy who was secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton, although people do get them confused.  This Robert Rubin built one of the world's only Modernist golf clubhouses and will be transforming that golf course into a Modernist enclave. He also saved and restored a Pierre Chareau house in Paris, the famous Maison de Verre. Later, great jazz with musical guest Libby York.

More fun Modernist places most people don't know - explored from conversations at Modernism Week 2023  between George Smart, Tom Guild, and:  Simcha Schtull on the Elvis Honeymoon House, Melissa Riche and Dan Allen on Rancho Mirage, Dana Al-Marashi and TK Harvey on the United Arab Emirages; and the famous Isokon building in the UK with Magnus England and Leila DayBelge.

We're thrilled to talk with two of America's foremost architecture critics, recorded in New York City. Alexandra Lange is an award-winning architectural critic for Curbed.com and the author of several books on architecture and America’s built environment. A graduate of NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts and a former Loeb Fellow in the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, her most recent book is Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall. Paul Goldberger is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and educator who made his mark as an architecture critic for the New York Times. A New Jersey native, Paul studied art history at Yale University and then settled in NYC, where he now serves as the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School. He is the author of a number of books on architecture, and an advisor on matters of architecture and design to institutions all over the country. His latest book is DUMBO: The Making of a New York Neighborhood. 

Today’s show, recorded at Modernism Week 2023, is places.  With some great guests, we will explore Southridge in Palm Springs with architect Susan Secoy Jensen; Marfa, Texas with Dean Upe Peter Flueckiger; and the Rocky Mountains with author John Gendall. After that, music with returning podcast guest Laura Windley and her Mint Julep Jazz Band.

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.

Starting in the late 50’s, the Hamptons was largely farmland, and people built small, intricate Modernist houses to get away from city life.  Today, with a new wave of huge houses and immense wealth controlling real estate, preservationists are focusing on both creating new modest Modernist houses and saving midcentury Modernist houses from the bulldozer.  David Sokol is the former managing editor of ID magazine and the author of  Hamptons Modern: Contemporary Living on the East End. When Tim Godbold he learned that Norman Jaffe’s Lloyds House in East Hampton had been torn down, he felt sure that an architectural conservancy in the Hamptons would be on the case, but as happens in many communities, none existed, so in 2020, he started Hamptons 20th Century Modern devoted saving the Hamptons’ Modernist heritage. Later on, like magic, it's musical guest Robin McKelle.

Architect John Patrick Winberry is the founding principal of the Queens-based UP Studio, recently longlisted for Dezeen’s architecture studio of the year award, and one of the firm’s latest projects is featured on CBS’s America: By Design. Later on, we meet a dynamic duo of moms and longtime friends who started flipping Modernist houses and repairing others for clients wanting to sell.  Hairpin Homes partners Michelle Rembolt and Angel Kwiatkowski buy deliciously dated midcentury houses in all conditions, from houses that have too many cats to houses that have never been cleaned out. 

We’ve got a full roster of guests from Modernism Week 2023 in Palm Springs. Speaking on famous midcentury architects and designers, you'll hear from Jacques Caussin on Raymond Loewy, Lila Cohen on Herb Greene, Alan Hess on Googie architecture, and Michelangelo Sabatino and Maristella Casciato on Carlo Mollino.

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.

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.