USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love

Palm Springs has a huge architecture event called Modernism Week every February.  It's a fascinating array of architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and the occasional plastic surgery gone awry.  Host  George Smart was there earlier this year talking with nearly all the speakers, authors, and special guests who make the week (actually 11 days) a blast! Today George talks with author and...

Architect Philip Johnson's father invested 100 years ago in ALCOA, the huge aluminum company, which Johnson a millionaire in his '20s. Before he became an architect, however, Johnson organized a landmark exhibition on International Style at the Museum of Modern Art in 1932 which introduced important Modernist architects as  Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe . He went on to get fo...

Palm Springs has a huge architecture event called Modernism Week every February.  It's a fascinating array of architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and the occasional plastic surgery gone awry.  Host  George Smart was there earlier this year talking with nearly all the speakers, authors, and special guests who make the week (actually 11 days) a blast! Today from poolside at the swanky...

Today host George Smart and special guest cohost  Kate Wagner  of McMansion Hell dives into two Modernist house museums by internationally famous architects: Richard Neutra's VDL house in LA and Philip Johnson's Glass house in New Canaan CT. Richard Neutra became one of the most important architects in the world. In fact, Time Magazine featured Neutra on its cover and ranked him second only to Fra...

Palm Springs has a huge architecture event called Modernism Week every February.  It's a fascinating array of architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and the occasional plastic surgery gone awry.  Host  George Smart was there earlier this year talking with nearly all the speakers, authors, and special guests who make the week (actually 11 days) a blast! Craig Ellwood was one of the most...

New York City architects Abby Suckle and William Singer are the authors of Cocktails and Conversations: Dialogues in Architectural Design.  AIA New York's Center for Architecture has a great Friday night format:  invite people to to hear a famous architect paired with a master bartender who creates a custom cocktail to share with a thirsty audience.  Architects have included  David Adjaye, Jeanne...

Today we kick off Modernism Week coverage with internationally known architect Moshe (mo-shay) Safdie . He's been famous for over 50 years for many brilliant buildings; first as architect for Habitat 67 in Montreal, in the 2000's as architect for the Marina Bay Sands, that crazy rich Singapore hotel featured in the movie Crazy rich Asians; and for a special small chapel you might not know about. S...

USModernist has documented thousands of mid-century modernist houses, especially in Los Angeles.  One name that kept popping up when those mid-century moderns needed renovation is Los Angeles architect Barbara Bestor.  She's referred to as the unofficial Mayor of Silver Lake, an area full of great Modernist houses. She also has a robust commercial practice, including the Beats Electronics Headquar...

Most people refer to architect Mies van der Rohe as Mies, which puts him into that rare club of people known by their first names, like Cher or Sting or Wynonna .  Born in Germany, Mies was into totally architect Adolf Loos -- who famously declared that ornament is a crime and pursued unadorned Modernist design to represent the new era of technology and production. Mies got worldwide attention wit...

Architect Victor Sidy was Dean of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture at Taliesin with campuses in Scottsdale, Arizona and Spring Green, Wisconsin. He was a vocal advocate for saving Frank Lloyd Wright houses and buildings and for walkable community development.  In 2015 he returned to private practice but is still involved with one special Frank Lloyd Wright house in Phoenix, the David...

USModernist took 25 fans of the podcast to tour Phoenix, Arizona last November. Phoenix is the home of the Chimichanga, which Tucson disputes, but more importantly for us, the city is home to some really great Modernist architecture.  We saw the Musical Instrument Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, Paulo Soleri's Cosanti and Arcosanti, Wright's First Christian Church, and the David and Gl...

Ah, Cape Cod, the arm-shaped stretch of Massachusetts where Boston goes in the summer.  The sun.  The ocean.  The traffic.  The clam chowder.  The summer theatre productions.  And best of all, except for perhaps the clam chowder, the modern architecture by Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius , and others. There are more than 100 modernist houses representing a little-known treasure map of residential ar...

Every fall, the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF) premieres the best new documentaries of the year. Host George Smart was on the scene talking with the people behind the new movies. Ultan Guilfoyle's award-winning films have been shown on PBS and HBO in the US and the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 in the UK. He is author of two books about design, and with Sydney Pollack , Guilfoyle p...

We love realtors, and we also know many who would rather tear mid-century Modernist houses down than find new caring owners. That's ok, because there are realtors like today's guests who are passionate advocates for Modernist houses and go the extra mile. Martie Lieberman is a real estate agent with fans all over the world for mid-century modern and unique architectural houses. Martie was the forc...

Watergate has come to mean scandal, usually but not always, political. The gate part is used as a suffix for other scandals in everything from sports to entertainment to media.  Along with co-host Erin Sterling Lewis , winner of the 2018 AIA Young Architects Awards, host George Smart welcomes  Joe Rodota , author of THE WATERGATE, a history of the iconic Washington DC building and some of its most...

Louis Kahn was one of the most brilliant and enigmatic architects of the 20th century.  He died in 1974. There's an stirring and brilliant documentary about his life, filmed by his son, called My Architect.  Kahn taught at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania most of his career.  He didn't do a lot of buildings, but he was famous for almost all of them plus many fascinating unbuilt projects.  O...

Every fall, the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF) premieres the best new documentaries of the year.  Kelsey Keith, the Editor-in-Chief of Curbed, was on the ADFF discussion panel for Enough White Teacups , a film by Michelle Bauer Carpenter about using design to solve critical human problems.  Host George Smart interviewed Keith at the Curbed offices in New York where they talk...

California architect  John Lautner , who died in 1994, was a genius of architecture who inspired generations of fans. His houses are among the most famous ever built - because you've seen them in so may movies: Chemosphere House (Body Double), Garcia House (Lethal Weapon), Sheats Goldstein House (Big Lebowski), and Elrod House (Diamonds are Forever) are just four of his many thrilling buildings. T...

Sekou Cooke is a Jamaican-born architect with degrees from Cornell and Harvard who is a assistant professor of Architecture at Syracuse. He is a leading columnist and lecturer advocating for more minorities in architecture.  If you think we live in a post-racial era in the profession of architecture, think again.  Minorities in 1968 made up only about 1% of the architects in America.  50 years lat...

Michigan, that fine state shaped like your hand, is a hotbed of amazing Modernism.  Today George Smart and co-host Bob Langford chat with three knowledgeable guests about Michigan Modern.  Michael Dow is President of the Alden and Vada Dow Family Foundations based in a town where the cherry pie is always amazing, Charlevoix Michigan.  Established in 1960, the Foundation benefits central Michigan....

Not only did Tom resupply the Cheetos and those delicious Delta airlines cookies today but we have the privilege of talking with podcast host  Frances Anderton .  If you live in LA, you're heard her since 2002 every Tuesday on KCRW and the podcast DNA which stands for Design N Architecture.  She is also a full-time producer of KCRW's national and local current affairs shows To The Point and Which...

We're checking out other design podcasts around the country and this week it's the host of the design podcast Convo By Design, Josh Cooperman .  Josh is a speaker, writer, publisher, host, brand manager and product designer with over 25 years in the broadcast industry including CBS Radio Motorsports and Playboy Radio. His masterful podcast Convo by Design tells powerful and inspiring stories of ho...

Laura Massino is LA's premier architecture tour guide and the prolific author of a series called Architecture Tours LA Guidebooks, which includes the volumes Frank Gehry Architecture, Pasadena, Downtown, Hancock Park, Hollywood, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, and our favorite hood, Silver Lake.  Heather Papinchak is co-owner of Polymath Park in Acme PA.  She and her husband Tom are serial Moder...

With training in historic Preservation, Architecture, and Urban Planning, Lorrie Muldowney is President of Creative Preservation and has lived in Sarasota County for the past 47 years.  She formerly served as the Sarasota County historical resources specialist and manager of the Sarasota County History Center. Lorrie is part of the wildly popular Architectural Trolley Tours offered by the Center f...

Tom Dyckhoff is one of Britain's best-known commentators on architecture and urbanism, with many radio, television, and documentaries to his credit. He is the presenter of The Great Interior Design Challenge and the Radio 4 series The Design Dimension. He was previously architecture and design critic for BBC2'sThe Culture Show and architecture critic of The Times. He presented The Secret Life of B...