USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love

Latest Episodes:

#179/Canberra's Parliament House: Architect Hal Guida + Secret City's Felicity Abbott Jan 18, 2021

Show notes

In 1978, Australia decided to replace their old Congress, or Parliament House, in the capitol of Canberra. The competition drew 329 entries from 29 countries. The winner was a Modernist design from the Philadelphia firm of Mitchell/Giurgola. Today we meet project architect Hal Guida, plus Felicity Abbott, the production designer for Secret City, a Australian TV political thriller starring Anna Torv filmed extensively at Parliament House.

#178/No More Federal Modernism: Classicist Catesby Leigh + Musical Guest Lucy Woodward Jan 11, 2021

Show notes

Some Classicists are so passionate about Modernist architecture they create a well-financed, highly effective organization to point out the flaws of Modernist buildings and actively discourage new Modernist projects. Every Classicist we talk to mentions today's guest, Catesby Leigh, who has written about architecture for over 30 years. He co-founded the National Classical Art Society, headed by past podcast guest Justin Shubow, which advocates the classical tradition in Federal buildings and monuments. He's a gifted writer and essayist and organizer, and we're surprised he hasn't won the Henry Hope Reed Award, the Oscar of Classicism, because no one is more deserving. If they accept nominations from us Modernist heathens, we'd like to be first to put his name in the hat. Later in the show, we sing to, and listen to, the charming Lucy Woodward.

#177/Mies, Edith, and the Farnsworth House: Alex Beam + Scott Mehaffey + A Few Minutes with Frank Harmon Jan 04, 2021

Show notes

Architect Maria Ludwig Michael Mies changed his name. He added his mother's maiden name Rohe and the Dutch "van der" to become, drum roll please, Mies van der Rohe. Most of his fans just refer to him as Mies – like Cher or Moby or Beyonce, he's still one of the most famous architects in the world some 50 years after his death. Today we talk about his greatest house – the Farnsworth House – with Alex Beam, author of the new book Broken Glass: Mies Van Der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight Over a Modernist Masterpiece - and Scott Mehaffey, Executive Director of the Farnsworth house in Plano IL, which you can visit. Later on, a few minutes with Frank Harmon, reading from his book Native Places.

#176/Where No Furniture Has Gone Before: Dan Chavkin + Brian McGuire plus Special Musical Guest Jennifer Warnes Dec 28, 2020

Show notes

In 1966 the first episode of Gene Roddenberry's Star Treklaunched a franchise still going strong over fifty years later. Sequels, movies, toys, fan films - there's just no end to Star Trek's bright, progressive, optimistic future where Earth has transcended national and international politics. Something architecture fans may have missed, and we certainly did, is that Star Trek adapted midcentury Modern furniture for the set design, from the Bridge to the Conference Room, to the alien buildings on the planets they landed on. Today we meet authors Dan Chavkin and Brian McGuire about their new book: Star Trek - Designing the Final Frontier - The Untold Story of How Midcentury Modern Decor Shaped Our View of the Future. Later on, legendary singer Jennifer Warnes, who you've loved for I've Had the Time of my Life, Right Time of the Night, Up Where We Belong, and a vast treasure of songs with and by Leonard Cohen.

#175/Festivus and Gene Leedy: Celebrating with Saffie Leedy Farris + Max Strang + Co-host Erin Sterling Lewis plus Musical Guest Laura Ridgeway Dec 21, 2020

Show notes

Ho Ho Ho, get out the Festivus Pole, it's our holiday show spectacular celebrating with returning guest co-host Erin Sterling Lewis. If your world is Florida, Gene Leedy was one of the masters of Modernism in the 20th century, bursting on the scene as one of Architectural Record's most successful young architects of 1965. With us is his daughter Saffie Leedy Ferris and architect Max Strang of Miami, who grew up in a Gene Leedy house, and worked for Gene Leedy. Later on, special musical guest Laura Ridgeway and the story of the legendary jazz nightclub, the Frog and Nightgown. This show is dedicated to Peter Ingram, co-founder of that club, who died in November 2020.

#174/New Modernist Developers + Holiday Gifts + Frank Harmon Dec 14, 2020

Show notes

Mack Paul is a Raleigh real estate attorney who focuses on land use and public policy. He owns a sweet Modernist house designed by Brian Shawcroft, and he's an investor in several new Raleigh Modernist projects. Charlie Miller is a real estate broker in Charlotte who expanded to building exciting new Modernist houses – lots of them. We'll also check in with Matt Bliss and Greg Kelly for unique Modernist gifts to think about for the holidays, Later on a few minutes with Frank Harmon, reading from his book Native Places.

#173/Triangle Modern Architecture: Victoria Ballard Bell Dec 07, 2020

Show notes

Victoria Ballard Bell's new book, Triangle Modern Architecture, documents the rich history and unique cultural significance of the Triangle region in North Carolina, one of the most important on the national map of modern design. Over the last 75 years, the Modernist architecture in this area has grown to creatively combine innovation and technology with the area's history, culture, unique landscape, and built context. Includes profiles on midcentury architects including Harwell Hamilton Harris, Leif Valand, Milton Small, George Matsumoto, Eduardo Catalano, Jon Condoret, and Brian Shawcroft, plus current Modernist modern architects including Kenneth Hobgood, Phil Szostak, Phil Freelon, Turan Duda, Ellen Cassilly, Ellen Weinstein, and Frank Harmon who wrote the foreword. It's an outstanding history of Triangle architecture, and then there's also some dude who wrote the epilogue. The book is Triangle Modern Architecture, published by ORO Editions, available at your favorite local bookstore or through USModernist.

#172/Grandpa Walter Gropius: Erika Pfammatter + Music by Tom Lehrer Nov 30, 2020

Show notes

Along with Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, LeCorbusier, and Marcel Breuer, architect Walter Gropius was one of the most influential Modernist architects of the 20th century. Gropius founded the heralded Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, but the rise of Hitler in the 1930's drove Gropius first to London working for Maxwell Fry, and later to Cambridge MA where he taught at Harvard and MIT. His post-war houses with Marcel Breuer were a distinctive combination of unusual geometries that people still treasure as owners and as fans. His granddaughter Erika Pfammatter is a musician, music teacher, and former minister of music. She's also the daughter of architect Charles Forberg and the stepdaughter of another famous architect, John Johansen. Later, a very special Gropius-related song by the one and only Tom Lehrer, still going strong at 92.

#171/Sumptuous Modernist Buffet: Jane King Hession Nov 23, 2020

Show notes

For your audible dining pleasure, today is a sumptuous Modernist buffet featuring Ralph Rapson, Elizabeth Schue Close, Frank Lloyd Wright, John Howe, and save room for dessert, a hazelnut Bjarke Ingels topped with marscapone. Yum! Jane King Hession is a Minneapolis-based architectural writer and historian specializing in midcentury modernism. With degrees in English and Art History and architecture, she is past president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and the Minneapolis Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. Her latest book is Elizabeth Scheu Close: A Life in Modern Architecture, and she's also written Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years; John H. Howe, Architect: From Taliesin Apprentice to Master of Organic Design; and wait, there's more. Minnesotans loved her book Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design which won the David Gebhard Award, named for the well-known author of LA Modernism books.

#170/Battling Wichita City Hall: Preservationist Celeste Racette + ADFF's Kyle Bergman Nov 16, 2020

Show notes

If your world is Wichita, Kansas, the birthplace of Pizza Hut, White Castle and Kirstie Alley, there's no more controversial building right now than Century II, a performing arts space built by John Hickman, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, that's under siege from new development. Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center was built to commemorate Wichita's 1970 centennial. Designed by architect John Hickman, the very Modernist Century II was built provide a large and attractive civic center with a Concert Hall, Convention Hall, Exhibition Hall, and later an expo hall and an attached Hyatt Regency. Our guest today is one of the best and hardest-working Modern preservationists in the country. With the mind of an auditor, the precision of a concert violinist, and the number-crunching of an MBA, because she is all three, Celeste Bogart Racette leads the movement to save Century II from the bulldozer. She has a personal connection to the building - as her father was Mayor at Wichita when it was built. Later on, a few minutes with Kyle Bergman on the upcoming Architecture and Design Festival, this year online.

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