Us Modernist Radio - Architecture You Love

Returning podcast guest Stewart Hicks is best-known for his wildly popular YouTube video series Architecture with Stewart, and in his spare time, he’s Associate Dean at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Every few weeks, you’ll find a new YouTube release helping the general public, which is us, on topics as varied as the desperation of contemporary mall architecture, why linear cities don’t work, why people want to live in corncob-shaped buildings, the latest in toilet design, and the many ways your Roomba is spying on you. 

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.

Melodie Yashar is VP for building design and performance at ICON, a firm devoted to developing 3D construction. Their neighborhood of attractive, affortable 3D-printed houses, designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, went on sale in Austin TX this past June.  Later on, we talk with German director Jan Schmidt-Garre whose latest film is The Promise: Architect BV Doshi, an intimate portrait of the late architect’s life and work.  But first, we check in with Kyle Bergman, founder of the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival, on this year's lineup.

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.

Renovations on Modernist buildings can be particularly tricky. Nick Martin's firm recently remodeled Charles Gwathmey’s Tolan House in the Hamptons.  Matt Loader and Iain King of Loader Monteith lead Modernist preservation projects including the Glasgow School of Art Mackintosh Building, the Jenners Building redevelopment, and something definitely not Modernist, Rosslyn Chapel, a church made famous the Dan Brown book and movie, the Da Vinci Code. More recently, Loader Monteith conserved and updated High Sunderland, a Modernist house designed by Peter Womersley. 

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.

In 1946, Carl Strandland asked for $15 million worth of emergency loans to build small houses for GIs returning from WWII. Strandland was not an architect, but his idea that metal neighborhoods could be prefabricated and swiftly built was persuasive, and Lustron prefab house was born. To manufacture the ten tons of steel that went into each two-bedroom Lustron, Strandland bought a 25-acre factory in Columbus OH which was used during WWII to build fighter planes. A few years and only about 3,000 Lustrons later, the company declared bankruptcy but thousands of these unique houses survive.  Joining us is USModernist’s resident Lustron expert, Virginia Faust, and new Lustron owner Mark Seibel. Later on, returning jazz vocalist Monika Ryan. 

As more and more midcentury buildings get destroyed, we have to rely on midcentury photography collections as a window into the past and as inspiration for the future. Today we’ll talk to Ethan Wayne, son of actor John Wayne, Laurie Kratochvil, and Amy Shepherd about the John Hamilton Collection, a priceless trove of photographs from Hollywood’s golden age.  After that, paint company Dunn-Edwards’s head colorist Sara McClean talks about keeping the midcentury color vibe alive. And later, jazz with North Carolina’s own Ariel Pocock.

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.