USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love

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...

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...