Us Modernist Radio - Architecture You Love

Let’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 the Sting of Sweden, Anders Holst.

It’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 Frank Harmon.  Plus George's quest for an ES106!

Tom 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. 

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.

Every 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 Canaan CT, notable for houses by Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes, John Johansen, Frank Lloyd Wright, Edward Durell Stone, Gisue and Mojgan Hariri, Jim Evans, and other famous Modernists. What did our heroine get in return for this amazing project? A cranky Planning and Zoning board and crankier neighbors who apparently are into lawsuits. Joining us is Sharon Prince, CEO and Founder of Grace Farms. Later on, jazz from Canada with musical guest Lily Frost.

Bertie 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 programs he sponsored was Project H, teaching design and construction skills to high school students. There was a documentary about this called If You Build It. Nearly 10 years later, we talk to Emily Piloton-Lam, cofounder of Project H and executive director of Girls Garage; and Ron Wesson, a Bertie County Commissioner. Later on, music with Star Search champion and Broadway star Linda Eder. This show is dedicated to that school superintendent, Chip Zullinger, who died in 2014.

Tomorrow'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.

Every 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.

In 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 Walter Gropius, and Annie Gwathmey, daughter of Charles Gwathmey. Today we reach out to Palm Springs to talk with graphic designer Gary Wexler, son of architect Donald Wexler, and ophthalmologist Erik Williams, son of architect E. Stewart Williams. George chats with the new national AIA president, Peter Exley of Architecture is Fun, and later on, jazz with the lovely Connie Evingson.

Have 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. 

From 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 Panton.

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.  

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.

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.

2020 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 unsavory task of burning trash in Denmark, a country with no mountains. Later we welcome the incomparable singer Nneena Freelon as we remember her husband, architect Phil Freelon.

Everybody’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.

Whenever 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, musical guest Hailey Tuck.

Harriet 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 fulfilling, after his death in 1974, the 2012 completion of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in New York City. In 2016 she was inducted as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Her new book is Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn. Joining Pattison is former Kahn staff members Richard Saul Wurman and Reyhan Larimer, plus Steve Kroeter, publisher of a re-released book on Kahn.

It’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 new approaches and new understandings of both public policy and design that hold great promise.  Joining us today are Andrea Urton. CEO of HomeFirst Services, a Silicon Valley agency supporting housing the homeless, and architect Michael Lehrer of Los Angeles.  Later on, from the Lone Star State, jazz vocalist Rosana Eckert.

Well-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 beauty of a project.  Joining us are Eric Bricker, producer of Visual Acoustics, a documentary about the life and career of celebrated architecture photographer Julius Shulman, and Keith Isaacs, one of the South’s rising stars in architectural photography.  Later on, jazz with the fabulous Stacey Kent.