Us Modernist Radio - Architecture You Love

This is the fifth year USModernist Radio has covered the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival, if by festival you mean mostly online and by New York you mean all over the world.  Every year, producers, experts, stars, and creators gather to premiere their latest architecture and design documentaries, and this past year with COVID subsiding, but still concerning, Executive Director Kyle Bergman had a hybrid schedule of virtual and in-person screenings.  Today, George talks with people behind three of those documentaries, Nico Weber of Inside Prora, Lauren Levine of Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wright's Modern Masterpiece, and Nathan Eddy of Battleship Berlin. Later on, a special musical guest, Storm Large. 

Architect Louis Kahn has been gone almost 50 years, but his legacy and influence only grows as architects the public alike cherish his enduring importance. His major works include the National Parliament in Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California; the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth Texas; and the Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Kahn was also a revered educator, teaching at Yale and The University of Pennsylvania. Joining us today Michael Merrill, author of the new book Louis Kahn, the Importance of a Drawing, and filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.  Yes, he's related.

Oh, how times have changed for the newspaper world. From 2008-2020, about two-thirds of newsroom jobs went away. Then the pandemic hit and more than 90 local papers shut down or were slashed in headcount. Even big papers like the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and the New York Times are smaller and more focused, with digital and video media adding to but more often replacing coverage of cultural topics like architecture and design.  While the big papers still cover stories like glamourous supertall buildings - and lawsuits when the pipes break - one newspaper burrowed away in the heart of New York City continues to put out some of the best, most detailed, most comprehensive architecture coverage.  Joining us is Diana Darling, founder and publisher of The Architect’s Newspaper, and its new-ish editor-in-chief, Aaron Seward. Later on, architecture commentary from our special Gen Z correspondent, Louisa Whitmore, and music with Kate Earl.

Happy Holidays with George, Tom, Raleigh architect Erin Sterling Lewis, and author Elizabeth A. T. Smith, whose famous book on the Case Study Houses is an architecture heavyweight champion. The New York Times said “You need a California workout to lift it, but the book, an exhaustive homage to the houses, is worth the effort.” Architecture critic J. P. Cohen said, “This book is a true gem, and considering its size it's the Hope diamond.” Later on, the John Lautner homeowner who’s been on Batman, The Monkees, and the ultimate 60s teen movie, Beach Blanket Bingo, musical guest Donna Loren.

Columbus, Indiana is a city of just over 47,000, yet the national AIA ranks it 6th in the nation for architectural innovation and design – behind Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington DC.  Like Marfa, Texas is for artists, Columbus is a modernist architecture fan’s heaven with an astonishing lineup of buildings by celebrated architects like Eero Saarinen, Richard Meier, I. M. Pei, and Kevin Roche.  Joining us is Richard McCoy, founding director of Landmark Columbus, and Mary Chandler,  Vice President of Cummins, the company that funded the design of all of these great buildings. Later on, musical guest Judy Carmichael, host of NPR’s Jazz inspired.

In 1950, a modest glass-walled Modernist house designed by Gregory Ain was on exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art’s garden, another in the Museum’s series of full scale builds of Modernist houses.  A system of movable walls made flexible spaces even though there were only two-bedrooms.  But once the exhibition closed, the entire house, and any knowledge of it, disappeared. Countless people over the decades searched for it. The New York Times published an article in 2017 extolling the mystery and highlighting efforts from filmmakers, academics, and the Museum to find it.  Our George Smart solved this Modernist mystery, and today we'll hear from guests Emily Ain, Cornelia Cotton, Soni and Lisa Bell, David Stevens, Shaun Kelly, and New York Times reporter Eve Kahn. Later on, musical guest Alice Peacock, for which we swoon.  

Remember our show a while back on Seattle Modernism with Jim Olson of Olson Kundig?  Well before Jim Olson and Tom Kundig came along, the Pacific Northwest had architect Paul Hayden Kirk creating amazing Modernist houses.  Joining us today is Dale Kutzera, author Paul Hayden Kirk and the Rise of Northwest Modern.  Later on, travel in time back to 1961 and the Rat Pack with music from Deana Martin, daughter of one of the coolest dudes ever, singer and actor and producer Dean Martin. 

Research Triangle Park in North Carolina is the largest planned research center in the United States, and it’s getting bigger - much bigger, at least in terms of buildings.  During its first heyday in the 1960’s, Research Triangle Park boasted several Modernist corporate campuses, most notably Paul Rudolph’s complex of buildings for Burroughs Wellcome. Now under the leadership team of today’s guest, Research Triangle Foundation CEO Scott Levitan, the park has over a billion in new investment going up – in addition to a brand new Apple Campus.  Later on, a chat with Suzanne Somers about the famed Richard Neutra-designed Kaufmann house in Palm Springs, which can be yours for a consumer-friendly $17 million, $8 million off original retail price. 

Architects like Chambers, Clark, Cody, Frey, Kaptur, Krisel, Wexler, and Williams put the Modernist architecture of Palm Springs on the map from the 1940’s through the 2000’s, and in Hugh Kaptur’s case, still going at age 90.  Behind them are a new generation of Modernist architects and today we talk with one of the area’s most successful, Sean Lockyer.  Later on, comedian and former architecture student Aaron Kominos Smith.

One of the great architects of midcentury Palm Springs was William F. Cody, featured in the Leo Zahn documentary Desert Maverick. Joining us is the author of a new book on Cody - his daughter, Cathy Cody, and later on, drummer Raice McLeod remembers the amazing singer Eva Cassidy and shares two of her songs.

When we hear about a Modernist house by an important architect being bought and destroyed, there’s widespread outrage from preservationists. Why didn’t these people try to save them?  Why didn’t the buyers consult architectural historians?  The owners should be forced to do whatever it takes, and whatever it costs, to keep the houses intact, right?  It’s a classic struggle between property rights and preservation ideals.  Turns out, though, that some of those dastardly owners actually followed the rules, got the approvals, met with the committees, consulted the historians, and still got criticized by the preservation community. Today we talk with Ross Johnston, owner of the Largent House in San Francisco, designed by Richard Neutra, and Mike and Nina Marco, owners of the Biggs House in Delray Beach Florida, designed by Paul Rudolph.  Later on, music with Susannah Clifford Blachly.

Just when you thought it was another safe architecture chat, it’s our Halloween midnight madness Mod-tacular, and joining us is someone who knows where all the bodies are buried, author Henry Kuehn of Architects Gravesites – along with modern preservationist by day, horror historian by night, Christine Madrid French. Later on, music from Peter Lamb and the Wolves, hopefully under a full moon.

This has been a tough time for travel, but in between COVID surges last summer, host George Smart managed to get to New York City for a series of conversations with architect Gisue Hariri, DOCOMOMO-US founder and architecture professor Theo Prudon, and prolific architecture journalist Fred Bernstein.  Later on, a few minutes with TikTok design critic Louisa Whitmore.

Connecticut is famous for the first hamburger (1895), Polaroid camera (1934), helicopter (1939), and color television (1948). It’s the home of PEZ, World Wrestling, and Design Within Reach.  It’s also a hotbed for Modernist houses by many famous architects such as Philip Johnson, John Johansen, Eliot Noyes, Edward Durell Stone, Gisue and Mojgan Hariri, Marcel Breuer, and even Frank Lloyd Wright.  Joining us is Ken Sena, Connecticut Marcel Breuer homeowner and recently part of the new documentary Breuer’s Bohemia by past podcast guest James Crump. Later, a conversation with Philip Johnson homeowners Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows of BassamFellows.

The European Union has some of the same problems we do: damaging climate change, a flood of immigrants, and a population frequently in disagreement.  But while America argues vaccines and pounces on Hamilton’s uber-inclusive Lin-Manuel Miranda for not being inclusive enough, the EU President Ursula von der Leyden created the New European Bauhaus High-Level Round Table.  Nice.  These valiant design knights of the design realm include Bjarke Ingels, Shiguru Ban, Francesca Bria, and today’s guest Michela Magas, a designer and innovation specialist based in Sweden. Later on, delightful jazz with musical guest Monika Ryan.

The Stahl House in Los Angeles is among the most famous houses in the world. Designed by Pierre Koenig and engineered by William Porush, the Stahl House and its pool were immortalized by legendary design photographer Julius Shulman. In a conversation recorded poolside at the swanky Hotel Skylark in Palm Springs, where they were part of a panel discussion at the Palm Springs Museum of Art, our George Smart talks with Shari Stahl Gronwald and Bruce Stahl. They grew up in the Stahl House and spent a lot of time in that pool. Joining them is author Kim Cross of the new book The Stahl House: Case Study House #22—The Making of a Modernist Icon. Later on, an update on the New York Architecture and Design Festival with Executive Director and friend of the show Kyle Bergman, plus music with architect and artist Albert McDonald and Fallow Ground.

Peter Bohlin and Peter Gluck are two of most innovative and successful architects in residential Modernist design.  In careers spanning over 14 decades, if we add them all together, their award-winning practices created several hundred award-winning houses you can see at usmodernist.org/gluck and usmodernist.org/bohlin.  Later on, commentary on the the famous Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe with Louisa Whitmore. 

Like the Holy Grail or Colonel Sanders special 11 herbs and spices, people have been searching for the secret to successful prefabricated houses for nearly 100 years.  What could possibly be better than reasonably-priced, mostly factory built house parts assembled on your land in a matter of days or weeks, not months?  The promise of well-designed houses fast and cheap turns out, not so easy – or popular with a public that still prefers developer tract houses. Joining us is Professor Avi Friedman, author of the new book Prefab Living, and Allison Arieff, founding editor at DWELL and author of the 2002 book Prefab. Later on, special musical guest Maria Muldaur, putting that camel to bed.

The bluest skies you've ever seen?  The hills the greenest green?  It’s Seattle, Washington, backdrop for TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Frasier, and if you go back far enough, Here Come The Brides, the breakout series for 70’s pop icons David Soul and Bobby Sherman.  In addition to having the most tech jobs in North America (sorry, San Jose) the Emerald city is also home to Starbucks and incredible Modernist houses from the early days of Paul Hayden Kirk to today’s guest, architect Jim Olson of Olson Kundig.  Later on, jazz with singer Erin Boheme, then a few minutes with Frank Harmon.

There’s a lively city on the West Coast, a sprawling California metropolis that many consider the epicenter of Modernist architecture. Sorry, Bakersfield, it’s not you, although you’ve got two good ones we know of. We’re talking greater Los Angeles, 30,000 plus square miles from the valleys to the sea and across the mountains with thousands of Modernist houses from the 1920’s through today.  Joining us is the Director of Advocacy for the Los Angeles Conservancy, Adrian Scott Fine, and LA city planner Ken Bernstein, author of the new book Preserving Los Angeles: How Historic Places can Transform America’s Cities. Later on, jazz from the UK with the charming Hetty Loxston.