USModernist Radio - Architecture You Love

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#130/Architecture + Design Film Festival #2: Alysa Nahmias + Akira Boch Feb 10, 2020

Show notes

Alysa Nahmias is an award-winning filmmaker and founder of the Los Angeles-based production company Ajna Films. Her directorial debut feature, Unfinished Spaces, co-directed with Benjamin Murray, won a 2012 Spirit Award, numerous festival prizes, and is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In The New Bauhaus, the film's narrative weaves original interviews with archival footage, voiceover, and stylized filming of documents and artwork. The result is a new perspective view of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, a man who was ahead of his time creating a philosophy of art and design education that has captured imaginations for nearly a century.

Akira Boch is an award-winning filmmaker and Director of the Media Arts Center at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. He has made over 50 short films, documentaries, and music videos. His latest film, Masters of Modern Design: The Art of the Japanese American Experience explores five second generation Japanese American artists—Ruth Asawa, George Nakashima, Isamu Noguchi, Gyo Obata, and S. Neil Fujita—following the ways in which their US internment camp experiences impacted their lives, influenced their art, and sent them on trajectories that eventually led to their changing the face of American culture with their immense talents.

#129: Children of Genius: Annie Gwathmey + Guest Co-host Paige Claussen Feb 03, 2020

Show notes

Charles Gwathmey was a native of North Carolina and got interested in architecture at an early age. Charlie, as he was known, studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and at Yale University under Paul Rudolph, then went into partnership with Richard Henderson and later Robert Siegel. Over a career spanning five decades, Charlie and Bob designed some of the country's most iconic Modernist houses (for celebrities and CEO's such as Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Spielberg, and Michael Dell) and buildings such as the Guggenheim addition and the US Mission to the UN, both in New York. Gwathmey died in 2009 but the firm lives on as Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman.

Today we talk with Gwathmey's daughter Annie Gwathmey, an actress, producer, and teacher known for films such as Romeo Must Die and My Father's House. She attended Cornell and Sarah Lawrence College and joins us from LA.

With us in the studio, guest co-host Paige Wagoner Claassen, an architectural historian whose Instagram architecture feed Claasshaus has happy fans all over the world.

#128/Modernist House Museums: Kelvin Dickinson/Modulightor + Lucia Dewey Atwood/Eames House Jan 27, 2020

Show notes

Fire up the car or start booking plane tickets, as today we're talking about two amazing Modernist house museums you'll definitely want to visit, one in New York City, and one in Los Angeles, with guest Executive Directors: Kelvin Dickinson of the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation and the Modulightor Building in New York, last home of architect Paul Rudolph; and Lucia Dewey Atwood of the Charles and Ray Eames House in Los Angeles.

#127/NY Architecture + Design Film Festival: Britni Harris on Bruce Goff + Lene Borch Hansen on Jorn Utzon Jan 20, 2020

Show notes

This is the third year USModernist Radio has been part of the Architecture and Design Film Festival in New York. Every fall, the stars, producers, and creators gather to premiere their latest documentaries. ADFF Executive Director Kyle Bergman curates visually wonderful, thought-provoking, and faithfully documented films that capture the brilliance of architects, artists, and significant buildings.

Host George Smart talks with two of the filmmakers from this year's festival: Lene Borch Hansen, of the movie The Man & The Architect - Jørn Utzon; and Britni Harris, of the movie Goff.

Bonus Show #2: PJ Letofsky, Producer of Neutra: Survival Through Design Jan 16, 2020

Show notes

In this bonus show, George gets locked out of Tom's studio but still manages to record and edit an interview with PJ Letofsky, producer of the documentary Neutra: Survival Through Design. Featuring historian Barbara Lamprecht, son Raymond Neutra, son Dion Neutra who just passed away, Norman Foster, Moshe Safdie, and of course -- Alan Hess. Neutra's houses are still highly prized 50 to 90 years later, and his legacy of incredibly beautiful and functional design is still wildly popular. George kicks off things with PJ talking about his publicity tour for the movie.

#126/Southwest Modern: Texas and New Mexico Jan 13, 2020

Show notes

Amy Walton is from Texas, where she spent 15 years managing nonprofits like the North Texas Food Bank and the Jewish Family Service. Last year, she launched modTEXAS, an initiative to draw attention to Texas modernism and celebrate the people and institutions working to preserve it. Building a coalition of over a dozen nonprofits using social media, modTEXANS have shared thousands of images of midcentury design and architecture that can literally be mapped across the state.

When you think of Albuquerque, New Mexico, you might think of southwest adobe design, or maybe that TV show In Plain Sight which filmed there for five years, but you're certainly not thinking of Modernist architecture – yet. Thea Haver is hoping to change that as co-founder and director of Modern Albuquerque.

Co-host Paige Wagoner Claassen is an architectural historian with the popular Instagram feed Claasshaus, seeking out meaning, beauty, and significance in buildings and history in objects. Co-host Wayne Pond's melodious voice hosted an interview show called Soundings based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina from 1980 to 1997, interviewing journalists, poets, novelists, documentary film makers, musicians, governors, members of Congress, and tech leaders about their work in the arts, education, ethics, literature, religion, politics, music, philosophy, and even architecture. The shows live on at at the National Humanities Center iTunes site.

#125/Bob Borson: Life of an Architect Jan 06, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to 2020! In our ongoing quest to seek out other architecture podcasts, we've talked with hosts such as Frances Anderton, Donna Sink, Steve Chung, Josh Cooperman, David+Marina, and Debbie Millman. Today we talk with Bob Borson, creator of the most visited privately-maintained architectural blog in the world, Life of an Architect, which as of two years ago is also a podcast. We first encountered Bob's blog in 2012 when he put out a wonderful series of hilarious architecture Christmas cards!

New Year's Eve Bonus! Luca Baraldo of COOKFOX on Geller's Double Diamond + Rocky Rochon on Colors Dec 31, 2019

Show notes

Shhh! George broke into Tom's studio late at night to bring you two bonus interviews from 2019. Happy new year!

#124/Almost Live from Neutra's Lovell House: Lyra Kilston + Josh Gorrell with Musical Guest Valerie Wood Dec 30, 2019

Show notes

Host George Smart met today's guests at a LA party USModernist Radio threw last year at Neutra's Lovell House. Lyra Kilston is a writer and editor focused on architecture, design, art, urbanism, with publication in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Los Angeles Times, Next City, Artforum, Wired, TIME, Art in America, and ICON. She is an editor for the Getty Museum, a consulting editor for Hyperallergic, and her first book is Sun Seekers: The Cure of California. Josh Gorrell is a preservationist who worked to save Rudolph Schindler's Van Dekker house, declared a historic landmark in 2010. He's either, um, housesitting or holding the occupants hostage at the Lovell Health house, Richard Neutra's iconic Los Angeles creation that ushered in the California health craze.

Stopping by the studio, the enchanting jazz vocalist Valerie Wood.

#123/Architecture Into Comedy: Writer Ron Friedman Dec 16, 2019

Show notes

Ron Friedman graduated in architecture from Carnegie Mellon University. After working for a few years as an architect, he came to his senses and started writing and performing stand-up comedy. He was spotted by Dean Martin and Danny Kaye which launched a career writing for countless TV and variety shows, over 700 hours of beloved prime-time TV that you know and probably love, including The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Vegas, and Fantasy Island. If you're younger than 45, you'll know the G.I. Joe series and of course, the epic animated show Transformers for which Ron wrote 64 shows. He worked with the legendary Stan Lee to create The Marvel Action Hour. He drafted the episode of Happy Days that introduced The Fonz, and he wrote the episode of Bewitched that introduced Uncle Arthur played by Paul Lynde. His new memoir is called I Killed Optimus Prime.

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