USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love

Today USModernist Radio welcomes guest co-host Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell along with author of the book The Creative Architect, Pierluigi Serraino , the Fox Mulder of architecture, with information on a secret 1950's psychological study involving IM Pei, Richard Neutra, George Nelson, Victor Lundy, Louis Kahn, Eero Saarinen, and Philip Johnson among others.  Yes, folks, there are architecture X...

Today USModernist Radio welcomes guest co-host Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell along with two people working to keep Modernism alive and well - brutalist documentarian Chris Grimley and the founder of iconichouses.org, Natascha Drabbe.   Chris Grimley is a partner at the firm over/under, designing not just buildings but full experiences in architecture, graphic design, and interior design. His book...

Craig Ellwood was not a licensed architect but to his Los Angeles design clients he was a true design genius, and he could sell, too.  Derided by the architecture profession of which he was formally not a part, he rose to public fame when three of his designs were included in the iconic Case Study House series. His houses are still incredibly prized today.  Michael Boyd  is a landscape, furniture,...

Anyone listening to USModernist has gotten in a car, or a plane, to pilgrimage to some amazing building.  In fact, tt's a sure sign you're a Modernist fan if you go to a city just for the architecture.  Sam Lubell  is an expert on Modernist buildings and houses you can visit.  He writes for Wired, the architect's newspaper, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Architect...

USModernist Radio goes to Palm Springs each February for the incredibly popular Modernism Week, a fascinating array of sunshine, architecture, lectures, parties, tours, and exhibits. Host   George Smart  wraps up our series in conversation with some of the talented people behind Modernism Week: Executive Director Lisa Vossler Smith, early organizer Jacques Caussin, and Chairman William Kopelk.

Modernist fans tend to be foodies - or it is the other way around?  USModernist Radio's biggest fan in Melbourne, Australia is Chef Ben Shewry .  He's been featured in many publications, including the New York Times as owner of Attica in Melbourne.  He was one of six chefs featured in the inaugural season of the Netflix original documentary Chef's Table and he is author of Origin: The Food of Ben...

USModernist Radio goes to Palm Springs each February for the incredibly popular Modernism Week.  It's a fascinating array of sunshine, architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and you can even order martinis for breakfast. Yes, you can do that anywhere but you'll feel glamorous in Palm Springs. USModernist Radio's  George Smart  was there with keynote speakers and other special guests who...

People who like Modernism show it in various ways. They buy the books, they watch the documentaries, they get a few pieces of furniture, they may visit the work of a few famous architects.  Sometimes they build or buy a Modernist house.  Michael LaFetra is way beyond that. Born in Los Angeles, Michael had a successful career creating restaurants in New York City before he moved back home to LA in...

USModernist Radio goes to Palm Springs each February for the incredibly popular Modernism Week.  It's a fascinating array of sunshine, architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and you can even order martinis for breakfast. Yes, you can do that anywhere but you'll feel glamorous in Palm Springs. USModernist Radio's  George Smart  was there with keynote speakers and other special guests who...

USModernist Radio goes to Palm Springs each February for the incredibly popular Modernism Week.  It's a fascinating array of sunshine, architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and you can even order martinis for breakfast. Yes, you can do that anywhere but you'll feel glamorous in Palm Springs. USModernist Radio's  George Smart  was there with keynote speakers and other special guests who...

Architect Paul McClean grew up Ireland, thinking of houses and getting in trouble for drawing them in high school.  He graduated from the Dublin Institute of Technology in 1994 and by 2000, he was on his own in Los Angeles. His clients include Irish real estate investor Paddy McKillen , Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of Facebook fame, and developer  Niles Niami , a spec Modernist house clocking in a...

USModernist Radio goes to Palm Springs each February for the incredibly popular Modernism Week.  It's a fascinating array of sunshine, architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and you can even order martinis for breakfast. Yes, you can do that anywhere but you'll feel glamorous in Palm Springs. USModernist Radio's  George Smart  was there with keynote speakers and other special guests who...

In 1948, most US universities were slow to embrace the growing Modernist movement.  Then NC State University brought in a brilliant Dean from Oklahoma who went all-in on Modernism.  Within two years, Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra were speaking at the school and students and faculty from all over the world wanted to be there.  He wasn't the greatest architect and only designed a few buildin...

USModernist Radio goes to Palm Springs each February for the incredibly popular Modernism Week.  It's a fascinating array of sunshine, architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and you can even order martinis for breakfast. Yes, you can do that anywhere but you'll feel glamorous in Palm Springs. USModernist Radio's  George Smart  was there with keynote speakers and other special guests who...

Architect Ellen Cassilly worked in Paris with Christian DePortzamarc, who you'll recall was a winner of the Pritzker Prize, and Arata Isozaki in Tokyo, before coming to North Carolina.  After bringing exciting projects together for other firms, such as the NC Museum of Art Ampitheatre, she started Ellen Cassilly Architect in 1999.  She is featured in the book, Drawing From Practice, and she co-tea...

USModernist Radio goes to Palm Springs each February for the incredibly popular Modernism Week.  It's a fascinating array of sunshine, architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and you can even order martinis for breakfast. Yes, you can do that anywhere but you'll feel glamorous in Palm Springs. USModernist Radio's  George Smart  was there with keynote speakers and other special guests who...

In this digital age, everyone's taking photos, billions of them, primarily with their phones.  We talk today about architectural photography, and how both digital and social changes in photography affect decisions about the kind of buildings we see built, the design competitions where photos play a part, and how you can take better photos of architecture you love, like your own house. Our first gu...

USModernist Radio goes to Palm Springs each February for the incredibly popular Modernism Week.  It's a fascinating array of sunshine, architecture, lectures, parties, tours, exhibits, and you can even order martinis for breakfast. Yes, you can do that anywhere but you'll feel glamorous in Palm Springs. USModernist Radio's  George Smart  was there with the week's keynote speakers and other special...

Richard Neutra was one of the world's most important architects, and today his work is even more popular.  Neutra designed more than 300 amazing Modernist houses in California and elsewhere. In 1949, Time Magazine featured Neutra on its cover and ranked him second only to  Frank Lloyd Wright  in American architecture. Neutra hired several architects who went on to independent success, including  G...

Gregory Ain  was inspired to become an architect after visiting Rudolf Schindler's  King's Road house. He worked for Richard Neutra as well as Harwell Hamilton Harris . As a result of a proposed housing project suspected of being communist by Senator Joseph McCarthy -- because it was racially integrated -- Ain was investigated by the FBI over 30 years.  He was considered the most dangerous archite...

Johnny Örbäck was about 47 when he had a fantastic idea.  It was 1999, and as Managing Director of a public housing agency in Malmo, Sweden, he decided to commission the world's most unique housing project from architect  Santiago Calatrava . Calatrava ,  known for wildly creative buildings and bridges all over the world is famous for being an architectural genius, and he's also famous for enormou...

Covering topics from England to the Congo, today's show features host George Smart and the stars, producers, and creators of the latest architecture documentaries, recorded in New York at the Architecture and Design Film Festival late last year.  George's first guest is Sarah Howitt, Producer and Director of  Building Hope: The Maggie's Centres, beautiful architect-designed facilities for patients...

Hugh Hefner passed away last year after decades at the helm of Playboy magazine, the first mainstream magazine featuring nude centerfolds that depending on your point of view, liberated women, demeaned women, or both.  But you may not know that for nearly 20 years, Playboy  promoted Modernist design like no other publication. Features on Frank Lloyd Wright, Bucky Fuller, Mies Van Der Rohe, Charles...

Seattle has coffee, and rain, and Amazon, and amazing Tom Kundig houses.  It also has our guest today, Eugenia Woo , one of Seattle's top advocates for Modernist historic preservation. She is the director of preservation services at  Historic Seattle  and is a co-founder and board member of  Docomomo WEWA . Founded in 1974, Historic Seattle preserves Seattle's architectural legacy. Eugenia has a B...

From the Architecture and Design Film Festival in New York City, held late last year, host George Smart's first guests are Ted Bosley and Lori Korngeibel talking about the Gamble House in Pasadena, America's most famous Arts and Crafts house, and later, George is joined by Catherine Ledner and Roy Beeson , creators of a new documentary about Catherine's father, New Orleans architect Albert Ledner...