USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love

We're on today with two special guys from the Netherlands, Jan-Richard Kikkert and Tycho Saariste, the Lewis and Clark of architectural exploration, going to visit nearly all the John Lautner houses in the world.  Next, David Mauer and Elizabeth Godley are bringing one of those Lautner houses back from decades of decline. We'll wrap up with returning podcast guest Nicole Zuraitis, the Grammy-winni...

Right here in Raleigh NC, like every town, there are buildings mostly lost to history.  But not every town has a book, and today in the studio we'll talk with preservationists Mary Ruffin Hanbury and Ian Dunn about the Lost Moderns of Raleigh.  Author Brian Goldstein tracks the work of architect Max Bond across three continents. Sarah Hill explores Modernist jewelry, and later, musical guest Karen...

Herb Greene is a giant in the field of organic architecture, and his great-niece Lila Cohen is making a long-awaited documentary about his life and work. Jesse Lazar is Executive Director of AIA New York, one of the largest and most active chapters in the country. Monica Penick talks about her new book. And closing us out, musical guest Harin W, using AI to create the sound of vintage atomic era l...

Let's visit one of our favorite Modernist cities, New Canaan CT. It's a town full of Modernist houses made famous by architects called The Harvard Five others - and today we'll talk with David Prutting, the New Canaan contractor who's built many Modernist houses over the last 50 years. Then we'll talk with the architect of New Canaan's newest Modernist house, Sacha Roubeni. Later, we're back in th...

Today's episode brings together some big names in design: architects Steven Holl and Dimitra Tsachrelia, then authors Robert Ivy, Cathleen McGuigan, and Peter MacKeith discussing their new book Out There: Architecture Across America . And later, returning podcast guest, for whom we swoon, Halie Loren.

Cameron Hassid bought a bankrupt, boarded-up Richard Neutra apartment building in Los Angeles and turned its restoration into a second career. Bay area architect Darren Kelly is an expert on Rush Creek Village, Ohio's little-known Usonian-inspired community, and the author of a new book. Author Patrick Cannon retired from public relations and wrote a comprehensive book on Frank Lloyd Wright's work...

It's author day on the show. Trig Thoreson wrote a biography of architects Louis Sullivan and Daniel Burnham. Owen Hopkins wrote a book on Brutalist buildings in London. Craig McDonald wrote  Mid-Century Modern Midland , exploring the architectural history of Midland, Michigan. Later, returning musical guest Lucy Woodward, one of our favorites.

Christopher Hawthorne spent fourteen years as the L.A. Times' architecture critic before becoming Los Angeles's first-ever Chief Design Officer. Chris Freeland runs Library Services at the Internet Archive, leading the charge to keep our digital past from fading away, and later, musical guest Kitty Kallen, via her son Jonathan Granoff. Kitty's 1954 hit "Little Things Mean a Lot" topped the charts...

It's our Children of Genius edition – part of a long-running series interviewing the kids of famous architects. First up, not falling far from the tree, architect Christen Johansen, son of Harvard Five member John Johansen in Connecticut's epicenter of Modernism, New Canaan. Next, Ben Colburn — a Massachusetts real estate attorney whose father, I.W. Colburn, helped define Chicago modernism and eve...

On today's episode, architect Anne Fougeron spent thirty years proving that architecture can be both beautiful and socially responsible —  and the New York Times named her Suspension House one of the thirteen best modern homes in the world. Laurinda Spear co-founded Arquitectonica in a 600-square-foot studio in Coconut Grove and changed the face of Miami's architecture. And,  at 22 years old, our...

There's no business like the architecture business, and the AIA chose out first guest Carole Wedge as CEO to lead their 98,000 members. Architects Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster make cool swing sets and pipe installations - and they wrote a book about kids who grew up in Modernist houses. Darcy Frank MacKay is one of those lucky kids.  She grew up in a 17,000-square-foot Pittsburgh house with a...

We talk with the brilliant author and architect Richard Saul Wurman, who wrote more than ninety books, founded TED talks, and pretty much created the field of information architecture.  Architectural historian Kim Hoagland sues Donald Trump over the East Wing demolition, and musical guest, the lovely Quinn Lemley, brings Hollywood glamour back to life.  

On this episode, Ellen Mirro and Howard Miller of Studio TJP; then Dominic Bradbury, author of a new book on the style we all love to love, Nordic modernism.  Next Andy Cohen: a magician, business strategist, and NYU professor who argues that architects and illusionists are in exactly the same business. Last to bat, musical guest, Steve Holt, a Montreal jazz pianist who gave up Wall Street and won...

Will Bruder is a celebrated architect that never went to architecture school, but he became one of the most respected architects in America through apprenticing to Paolo Soleri and Gunnar Birkerts.  Alex Josephson quit London's most prestigious architecture program mid-degree and struck out on his own. Greg Case isn't an architect at all — he's an ad guy who out-researched the professionals and re...

On today's episode, international architect Patrik Schumacher, CEO of Zaha Hadid Architects;  Elias Tabache shares beautifully shot house videos of his Open Space platform, and later, musical guest Karrin Allyson.  

We're revisiting conversations with two special guests who have passed away since these interviews were recorded — architect Paul Rudolph's partner Ernst Wagner and Frank Lloyd Wright's grandson, architect Eric Lloyd Wright.  Ernst Wagner died in 2024 at 81. A Swiss exchange student who came to New York in 1970, he met architect Paul Rudolph and the two became lifelong partners both in architectur...

In another of our wildly popular series, Children of Genius, we talk with family of famous architects, starting with Jennifer Lapidus, granddaughter of Morris Lapidus who reshaped Miami with hotels like the Fontainebleau. Next, Jenny Jacks Shreve, daughter of Arkansas architect Ernie Jacks, who worked on the Kennedy Center with Edward Durell Stone and the Case Study Houses with Craig Ellwood.  Lat...

Acclaimed architect Tom Phifer builds around light, with three decades designing buildings that make walls feel invisible.  Author Alastair Gordon has written more than 28 books and knows all the midcentury Modern houses in the Hamptons that shaped American architecture.  Jeanie Bryson spent decades as a jazz vocalist, sharing stages with Grover Washington Jr., Kenny Burrell, and Etta Jones.  Havi...

Elizabeth Gordon was editor-in-chief of House Beautiful.  In April 1953 she published an influential and controversial editorial that rocked the architecture world, presenting Modernism as uncomfortable, impractical, and like communism a threat to American cultural values. We'll talk with author Monica Penick, author of the definitive book on Gordon, 2001's Tastemaker.  Next up, Alison Fisher just...

On this special edition of USModernist taped live earlier this year at the Onera Foundation in New Canaan CT,  we explore diplomacy through Modernist architecture with three guests: Dublin architect Cormac Murray gives a talk on John Johansen's US Embassy in Dublin; legendary photographer Norman McGrath, who shot that building soon after it opened, and architect Christen Johansen, son of John Joha...

New York architect Tom Gluck of GLUCKplus, son of architect Peter Gluck, takes us behind the scenes of projects from prefab high-rises in Manhattan to his Tower House in upstate New York. Nick Ferrell brings the history of Modernist lighting design in Modeline of California: Pioneer of Modern Lighting , with lamps that have inspired designers for decades. And freshly-minted Pulitzer prize winner M...

In Bakersfield CA, David Coffey preserves two houses one by Neutra, and one by Wright, but today we talk about his passion, Modernism in Uruguay.  In Los Angeles, Cindy Olnick stewards the Neutra Institute. Later on, jazz duo Lenore Raphael and Chris Hodgkins reunite for their joyful new album, Pennies From Heaven. 

We're talking about North Carolina, our home state.  Architect Phil Szostak has shaped some of the state's most prominent cultural spaces and houses.  Architect Ben Taylor's long career starting in the 1950's has left a lasting mark across North Carolina. Later, it's straight out of Birdland with musical guests Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. 

Imagine doing Modernist preservation – in a war zone.  Dmytro Soloviov documents Ukraine's modernist architecture.  Ben Wever cares for one of America's modernist treasures, the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. Hallie Swenson uncovers the stories of San Diego Modernism, and architect Robert Stone brings new desert Modernism to life. 

We dug into the podcast vault for one of the most successful and admired architects in the world, Bjarke Ingels of BIG. Later, we swoon over jazz vocalist Halie Loren.