USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love

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#259/Scholars: Joseph Giovannini + Kenneth Frampton + Musical Guest Ilene Graff Aug 01, 2022

Show notes

It's not easy getting people to admit something is a problem, then getting agreement on a solution, then finding the political will and money to get anything implemented. Architectural scholars offer intricate and complex design analysis for even larger and more complex social problems. Design scholars have their own rhythmic and intense way of writing as they search to provide meaningful analysis about buildings, materials, design, planning, and social impact. All this can be a little intimidating for the general public. Imagine if Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang theory studied architecture instead of physics. Yet scholars are the R&D department for innovations that may come 5, 10, or even 50 years later. Joining us are two of the most celebrated, most wicked smart design authors - Joseph Giovannini and Kenneth Frampton. Later, music by the lovely and charming Ilene Graff.

#258/Mid-Century Song and Dance: Ron Hicklin + Janet Borgerson + Jonathan Schroeder Jul 25, 2022

Show notes

Ron Hinklin is the most famous voice you've never heard of. A successful singer since his junior high school days, Ron led the group responsible for some of the most iconic sounds of the 1970s, including vocals on the Partridge Family hit "I Think I Love You," for which Ron and his group nabbed a Grammy nomination. He also sang some of TV's most memorable theme songs like MASH, That Girl, Batman, Happy days, Laverne and Shirley, and the famous Mickey D jingle You Deserve a Break Today. Popular music, from Big Band to Swing to Rock, had album covers and liner notes that inspired Americans yearning to be more modern. All this helped generate today's huge consumer culture, and it's the subject of a new book. Author Janet Borgerson is the senior Wicklander fellow at the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul. Author Jonathan Schroeder is Professor of Communications at Rochester Institute of Technology. Together, they wrote Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America.

#257/Michelangelo Sabatino + Helen Staley + Musical Guest Don Most Jul 18, 2022

Show notes

Michelangelo Sabatino is a professor in the IIT College of Architecture. He has trained as an architect, preservationist, and architecture-art-design historian and has served on a number of not-for-profit organization boards ranging from the Society of Architectural Historians to Docomomo International. His books include Making Houston Modern: The Life and Architecture of Howard Barnstone and his latest, co-authored with Susan Benjamin, Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses, 1929-1975. Later on, our oldest guest yet at 100, architect Helen Staley. And he's still got it after all these years, formerly Ralph Malph on Happy Days, singer Don Most.

#256/Mid-Century Cars and Trailers: Susan Skarsgard + Tom Dolle + Jeff Stork + Eric Bricker Jul 11, 2022

Show notes

The development of four-lane highways and interstates in the 1950's and 1960's created a huge surge in car travel. In a time before the minivan, families would pile in the station wagon or the Airstream and hit the road to discover America. Roadside motels sprung up everywhere and car culture exploded. Sports cars like the wildly famous Mustang defined cool, and what better than to drive around LA or Palm Springs, or anywhere, really, than in a cool car. Today we explore cars and trailers and Modernism with three guests: Susan Skarsgard, author of Where Today Meets Tomorrow: Eero Saarinen and the General Motors Technical Center; Tom Dolle and Jeff Stork, authors of Glamour Road: Color, Fashion, Style, and the Midcentury Automobile, and returning podcast guest Eric Bricker, producer of Alumination, a new film about the iconic Airstream travel trailer.

#255/Design Critics: Inga Saffron + Louisa Whitmore Jul 04, 2022

Show notes

Design critic Inga Saffron is the Philadelphia Inquirer's most feared columnist. Raised in Levittown NY she always wanted to be a newspaper reporter - and her first beat was the Girl Scout newspaper. She attended New York University, studied in France, and settled in Dublin, Ireland writing Irish publications and Newsweek. Joining the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1984, from 1994-1998, she was their Moscow correspondent and covered the Yugoslav Wars and First Chechen War. Since 1999, she has written an architecture criticism column titled "Changing Skyline" winning multiple awards including the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award, the Vincent Scully Prize, and the big one, the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Later on, the Inga Saffron of the 2040's, TikTok architecture critic Louisa Whitmore.

#254/The Modernist Lifestyle in Art: Josh Agle/Shag + Carrie Graber + Musical Guest Gina Eckstine Jun 27, 2022

Show notes

Every strong passion has … a gift shop ... with art capturing the enthusiast's lifestyle. If you're into Star Wars or golf or architecture, the world's artists have plenty of wonderful paintings and prints to illuminate your walls. Today we talk from Modernism Week 2022 with two artists, Josh Agle (aka Shag) and Carrie Graber, whose works hang in hundreds if not thousands of Modernist houses and many more non-Modernist houses of architecture fans. Later on back in the studio, music with jazz singer Gina Eckstine, daughter of Billy Eckstine.

#253/Daniella Ohad on Design Jun 20, 2022

Show notes

One of the most well-known New York design educators, Daniella Ohad of Daniella on Design was former sergeant in the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate. She graduated from Tel Aviv University and moved to New York for a Masters from FIT and a PhD from Bard. Now she's an influencer, historian, writer, talk show host, curator, and keynote speaker. She's committed to design education and has taught at the School of Visual Arts, Pratt, Parsons, Cooper Union, and the New York School of Interior Design. She curated and hosted events at AIA New York, the venerable 92nd Street Y; the talk show Spring/Harvest Dialogues; the video series The Collector; and the Italian network Skyarte. Her blog Daniella on Design attracts hundreds of thousands of readers weekly.

#252/Three Modernist Owners and One Lucky Houseguest: Ronnie Sassoon + Alfonso Cordon + Cord Struckmann + Josh Gorrell + Reading by Anthony Poon Jun 13, 2022

Show notes

In our 5th show from Modernism Week 2022, George and Tom talk with owners of significant Modernist houses, plus one very lucky houseguest: Ronnie Sassoon who's owned houses by Hal Levitt, Richard Neutra, and Breuer; Alfonso Cordon and Cord Struckmann of Beverly Thorne's Case Study House 26; and coming into town from LA just for this interview, the man, the myth, the legend, the Kato Kaelin of his generation, Josh Gorrell. Later on, in the last of our series from his new novel, Death by Design at Alcatraz, a reading by architect and author Anthony Poon.

#251/Edith Farnsworth, The Real Story: Nora Wendl + Alice Friedman Jun 06, 2022

Show notes

Here's the story…of a lovely lady….who hired a world-famous architect to design a small but spectacular house in Plano, Illinois, along the Fox River. Things didn't work out so well, and unfortunately Dr. Edith Farnsworth's story has been told largely from the perspective of that world-famous architect. Joining us today to share Edith's story, and what happened to the house, are professors Nora Wendl and Alice Friedman.

#250/Dogs, Motels, and Tiki: Nancy Baron + Heather David + Sven Kirsten + Reading by Anthony Poon May 30, 2022

Show notes

What could be more fun than Modernist dogs, tiki culture, and mid-century modern motels? George and Tom talk with the author of Palm Springs Modern Dogs at Home, Nancy Baron, motels with Heather David, author of Motel California, and dive into Tiki culture with Sven Kirsten, author of the Book of Tiki. Later on, reading from his latest novel, Death by Design at Alcatraz, Anthony Poon.

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