USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love

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#189/Eastern Bloc Modernism: Marie Kordovská + Haruna Honcoop, plus Musical Guest Hailey Tuck Mar 29, 2021

Show notes

Whenever our friends the Classicists want to troll Modernism, they claim it's Communist-inspired and therefore no good. Since we have never known any building to determine economic policy, joining us are two people who dive deep into this "concrete" issue in the former Eastern Bloc: Haruna Honcoop, director of the film Built to Last: Relics of Communist Era Architecture, and Marie Kordovska, granddaughter of of Věra and Vladimir Machonins, late-modern architects from Czechoslovakia. Later on, musical guest Hailey Tuck.

#188/Loving Louis Kahn: Harriet Pattison + Richard Saul Wurman + Reyhan Larimer + Steve Kroeter Mar 22, 2021

Show notes

Harriet Pattison met renowned architect Louis Kahn in 1953 at Yale, but the real sparks flew years later in Philadelphia where she and Lou Kahn had a romantic relationship and a son, Nathaniel. It was, um, complicated. Pattison is an accomplished landscape architect, working in the Vermont office of the famous Dan Kiley and studied landscape architecture under Ian McHarg at the University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts. She collaborated with Kahn on a number of projects, especially fulfilling, after his death in 1974, the 2012 completion of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in New York City. In 2016 she was inducted as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Her new book is Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn. Joining Pattison is former Kahn staff members Richard Saul Wurman and Reyhan Larimer, plus Steve Kroeter, publisher of a re-released book on Kahn.

#187/Design for Homelessness: Andrea Urton + Michael Lehrer + Musical Guest Rosana Eckert Mar 15, 2021

Show notes

It's one thing when neighbors don't like that butterfly mother in law shed in your backyard. It's another when thousands of people in a city are without housing and neighborhoods don't want them anywhere close. Over the decades, architecture has proclaimed the solution to this and other social problems can be solved through design, but as Dr. Phil might ask, "how'd that work out?" Not so well, as large mid-century public housing projects proved over and over. Today, however, there are new approaches and new understandings of both public policy and design that hold great promise. Joining us today are Andrea Urton. CEO of HomeFirst Services, a Silicon Valley agency supporting housing the homeless, and architect Michael Lehrer of Los Angeles. Later on, from the Lone Star State, jazz vocalist Rosana Eckert.

#186/Architecture Photographer Julius Shulman: Eric Bricker + Keith Isaacs plus Musical Guest Stacey Kent Mar 08, 2021

Show notes

Well-known Modernist architects came to fame in a time before computers, a time where getting published in magazines was the mid-century equivalent of going viral. Even if an architect lived in a large metro such as Los Angeles, world of mouth and house tours wouldn't get you the big commissions. Blowing up meant having photos of your work in major publications of the era. To get those photos, you had to have a great photographer who really understood design and light and capturing the beauty of a project. Joining us are Eric Bricker, producer of Visual Acoustics, a documentary about the life and career of celebrated architecture photographer Julius Shulman, and Keith Isaacs, one of the South's rising stars in architectural photography. Later on, jazz with the fabulous Stacey Kent.

#185/The Future of Palm Springs: Richard and Debra Hovel + Sidney Willams + Dick Burkett, plus Frank Harmon Mar 01, 2021

Show notes

If you're a longtime listener, you know we have a special place in our hearts for Palm Springs, the mecca of Modernism, the home of the international film festival, the bedroom for concerts in Indio, and the cruising town that Sonny Bono cleaned up in the late 1980's before he ran for Governor. It's our home away from home, but even Paris has reinvent itself from time to time. Today's guests are looking to 2030, 2040, and beyond, and we welcome Dick Burkett, Sidney Williams, and Richard and Debra Hovel. Later on, a few minutes with Frank Harmon.

#184/2020's Architecture Documentaries: Royal Kennedy Rogers + Meredith Zielke + Yoni Goldstein + Ned Daly plus Musical Guest Pat Kirtley Feb 22, 2021

Show notes

This is the fourth year USModernist Radio has been part of the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival, if by festival you mean online and by New York you mean anywhere on earth. Every fall, the authors, producers, experts, stars, and creators gather to premiere their latest architecture and design documentaries, and this year because of COVID Executive Director Kyle Bergman completely re-engineered a wildly successful in-person weekend into a compelling virtual series. George and Tom talk with the people behind three of those documentaries, Royal Kennedy Rogers of Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story, Meredith Zielke and Yoni Goldstein of A Machine for Living, and Ned Daly of The Closer You Look. Later on, Brazilian guitar, via Kentucky, from Pat Kirtley.

#183/On Charles Dubois with Leonora Mahle / Lady Carnavon of Downton Abbey / Musical Guest Jane Monheit Feb 15, 2021

Show notes

Architect Charles Dubois was famous for designing houses in California which earned the nickname Swiss Miss. Designer Leonora Mahle takes us inside. Later on, for something completely different, we'll visit with Lady Carnarvon, the owner of Downton Abbey, aka Highclere Castle. Set on 5000 acres, it's the most famous house in Britain, except perhaps for an adorable little London starter home, by comparison, called Buckingham Palace, that a certain senior citizen - with a crown - lives in. Wrapping things up, one of the most beautiful voices in jazz today, Jane Monheit.

#182/Daughters of Design: Susan Saarinen + Celia Bertoia + Carla Hartman Feb 08, 2021

Show notes

Like the Supremes, or Destiny's Child, today's guests have been rocking with the greatest hits of Modernist design for decades as the daughters or granddaughters of its most iconic architects and designers, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, and Harry Bertoia. Carla Hartman, Susan Saarinen, and Celia Bertoia are the best of friends and speak around the country as the Daughters of Design.

#181/Greene + Greene + Harwell Hamilton Harris: Ted Bosley + Frank Harmon plus Musical Guest Elaine Elias Feb 01, 2021

Show notes

Before Bjarke Ingels, before Tom Kundig, before Charlie Gwathmey, even before Richard Neutra, two brothers rocked the architecture scene in southern California in the early 1900's. Funded by the family behind Ivory Soap, Proctor and Gamble's first product, Charles and Henry Greene perfected the modern bungalow in Pasadena and influenced a giant in Modernist architecture, Harwell Hamilton Harris. Joining us is Ted Bosley, Executive Director of the Gamble House plus Raleigh architect Frank Harmon, who was close friends with Harwell Hamilton Harris and executor of his estate. Later on, one of the top jazz vocalists in the world, Eliane Elias.

#180/Phoenix's David Wright House: Victor Sidy + Amanda Hu Jan 25, 2021

Show notes

In 1959, the US had 48 states and a population of 177 million, Frank Sinatra won his first Grammy for Come Dance with Me, DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover, which had been banned for decades, became OK to print, and a certain exciting and controversial architect died in his 90's. Frank Lloyd Wright left an incredible legacy of innovative and beautiful buildings, one of which just changed hands last year in Phoenix, Arizona. We talk with architects Victor Sidy and Amanda Hu about the David Wright house, designed by Frank for his son.

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