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! Architecture documentaries visually...

In an interview recorded at REX in Brooklyn, New York, George Smart sat down with architect Josh Ramus . The Huffington Post named him one of the five greatest architects under 50. Wallpaper Magazine described him as one of the world's most influential young architects. Esquire Magazine dubbed him the young saviour of American architecture. Icon Magazine called him one of the 20 Essential Young Ar...

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! Authors  Michael Stern  and  Alan Hes...

Despite enormous success, architect  Minoru Yamasaki's  reputation declined in the 1970's with the negative public reception of the World Trade Center in New York and the spectacular failure of St. Louis's Pruitt-Igoe public housing project. Author  Dale Gyure  is associate chair and professor of Architecture at Lawrence Technological University. His most recent book, Minoru Yamasaki: Humanist Arc...

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! The photographers documenting the...

If you've been listening closely, you know our special series called Children of Genius, featuring  Susan Saarinen, daughter of Eero Saarinen, Raymond Neutra, son of Richard Neutra,  Emily Ain, daughter of Gregory Ain, and Randy Koenig, son of Pierre Koenig. Today we're thrilled to talk with Charlee Deaton , daughter of architect Charles Deaton. You can also see it from the nearby Interstate. The...

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 USModernist welcomes two Cal...

Debbie Millman is the founder and host of the pioneering, award-winning, long-running, and successful podcast, Design Matters. Going into her 14th year, Millman has interviewed over 400 designers, artists, and others in the creative culture such as Milton Glaser, Malcolm Gladwell, Barbara Kruger, Massimo Vignelli, Marina Abramovic, Thomas Kail, Laurie Anderson, Shepard Fairey, and Steven Heller. S...

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! You remember books, right?  Those...

Kinston is about as typical Eastern North Carolina as you can get.  They have lots of barbeque, a minor league baseball team that's pretty good,  they support what's left of the tobacco industry, and they keep up the CSS Neuse, one of the last Confederate ironclad ships, although Donald Trump is considering restoring it to attack Canada.  Kinston never had a really great restaurant, but that  chan...

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! Music is an important part of Mode...

Over the last few months, we've been checking out fellow design and architecture podcasts from around America.  We've had Frances Anderton of DnA and Josh Cooperman of Convo by Design – and today we're excited to welcome the hosts of Midnight Charrette.   Co-host Marina Bourderonnet (bor-dare-ro-nay) grew up in France, training at the Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture with a Bachelor of Ar...

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...