Episodit
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In late 2023, new owners of a classic George Matsumoto Modernist house in Raleigh NC took out a demolition permit. Usually, that’s the end of the road for a Modernist house, but Melinda and Andy Knowles stepped up and persuaded those owners to delay demolition – so the couple could move the house seven miles across town, where it has been wonderfully restored on a new site next to their existing mid-century Modernist house. And with the best architecture book of the year, we'll talk to architect and author James Biber. Later on, musical guest Allegra Levy.
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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.
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Landscape architects are the ninjas of the design world, silently orchestrating beauty around buildings while you’re too busy staring at your phone. They decide whether that park bench is in the sun or shade, the exact curve of a sidewalk, and how to make an average building look extraordinary. They’re the ones who make sure your city doesn’t feel like a concrete jungle and that your suburban sprawl doesn’t completely lose touch with nature. Today we’ll talk with two exceptional landscape architects, Chris LaGuardia and Michael Van Valkenburgh. Later, music with Pink Martini’s Timothy Nishimoto.
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In nearly every major city, housing the homeless is a major problem. Since the defunding of residential mental health programs in Reagan era, the dramatic cost of housing, and other cutbacks in the welfare safety net, America created a huge population of people with problems who have nowhere to live except outside. Especially in California, which has the most homeless citizens in America, everyone recognizes the problem but there’s complete lack of political will or consensus to significantly address it. Even with the better ideas, there’s a generally well-funded, lawyered-up constituency that’s going to fight it. Joining us today are the authors of the new book Housing the Nation, architect Alexander Gorlin and architectural historian Victoria Newhouse, with their take on what to do.
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Where does the real work get done in Modernist preservation? State and local preservation groups show up at long, boring, and ridiculously bureaucratic public meetings, week after week, sometimes for years. They get historic preservation tax credits passed in most states, and they monitor everything from development to the preservation easements we talk about frequently. Joining us in the studio are two of these heroes, Preservation Durham’s Julianne Patterson and Preservation North Carolina’s Benjamin Briggs. From Chicago, we’ll talk with Ben Thomas, Executive Director of the Society of Architectural historians; later, music with Helena Redman.
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Interviewing the children of mid-century architects has been one the best parts of producing USModernist Radio. We’ve had the pleasure of talking to Hicks Stone, son of Edward Durell Stone; John Barnes, son of Edward Larrabee Barnes, Ainsley Gores Gilligan, daughter of Landis; Fred Noyes, son of Eliot; Eric and Susan Saarinen, children of Eero; Raymond and Dion Neutra, children of Richard; Francesca Breuer, daughter of Marcel; Mira Nakashima, daughter of George; Miles Jaffe, son of Norman; grandchildren of Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles and Ray Eames; and many more. While most architect’s children do not become architects, Modernism is always in their DNA. Joining us today are Elaine Dart Hanan, daughter of Chicago architect Edward Dart; filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn, son of architect Louis Kahn; and special musical guest Lori Lieberman.
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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.
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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.
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For every 3 or 4 Modernist buildings out there, there is likely one amazing unbuilt building with plans sitting in a drawer or a hard drive somewhere. Exploring the wonderful world of the imagined but not realized, joining us are the authors of Never Built Los Angeles, Never Built New York, and the new book, the Atlas of Never Built Architecture, Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin. Later, music with Chicago’s Paul Giallorenzo.
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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.
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It’s a sad day in the studio, because this is the last Modernism Week show of 2024. We’ve brought you 11 wonderful episodes from our annual pilgrimage, and today wraps up the series with returning guests mid-century historian Charles Phoenix; Natascha Drabbe of iconichouses.org; traveling all the way from Canberra, Australia, Phillip Jones the Martini Whisperer; and Lautner homeowner Andrew Vottero.
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In this our next to last show from Modernism Week 2024, George talks with San Francisco concrete designer and architect Fu Tung Cheng, and later Marisa Mulder + Jim Burns + Brooke Babcock on composer and arranger Jimmy Van Huesen, who with Frank Sinatra as his muse carried the great American songbook to new heights in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
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When the internet came along, many industries changed forever, and one of them was the auction business. Remember how exciting eBay was when everything was up for bid? Traditional auction houses had to move quickly to adapt, and the opportunities of moving from a local to a regional or national or international market through the internet were immense. One auction firm which has made a wildly successful transition is Leland Little in Hillsborough NC, and we’ll talk inside their Modernist warehouse with Modernist director Luke Newbold. Later, it’s architect, professor, attorney, and former first lady of Hartford CT, Sara Bronin, chair of the US Advisory Council for Historic Preservation, plus musical guest Roslyn Kind.
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If there’s one thing architecture fans love as much as tours and parties, it’s architecture documentaries, and we’ve been covering dozens of those over the years. Recorded at Modernism Week 2024, George talks with author and Emmy-winning filmmaker Jake Gorst on his new film New England Modernism. Following that, a chat with Kirk Brown of DesignOnScreen, who funded many of Gorst’s films about Palm Springs, creating a visual history of Modernism. Later on, musical guest Laura Pursell skates into our hearts.
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Oh California, where the sun is warm. Where the winds from Santa Ana make you feel like you belong. California, wherever you may roam. California keeps calling you home. Those words from the 1978 movie If Ever I see You Again, a tribute to California. Are you pining to live in the Golden State? Joining us are today are well-known California architects Leo Marmol, Wally Cunningham, Monika Hafelfinger, and Drew Pedrick.
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We’ve had many shows on the great midcentury architects of Palm Springs, people like Chambers, Clark, Cody, Frey, Krisel, Sackley, Wexler, White, Williams, and the last man standing, Hugh Kaptur. But that was the 20th century, and we’re in the 21st. In fact, we’re pretty near mid-century in the 21st, so today, you’ll hear from two of today’s Palm Springs architects, Michael Kiner and Mark Daniels. They create houses that Modernist fans will be fondly touring and doing podcasts about - 30 years from now.
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