Rocking the California architecture scene for over 60 years, we’ll talk with Malibu architect Ed Niles. Then it’s over 3000 miles and down 500 to Florida with tropical architect Ralph Choeff. Later, one of the stars of the Purple Room in Palm Springs, musical guest Chris Bennett!بقلم george smart

In late 2023, new owners of a classic George Matsumoto Modernist house in Raleigh NC took out a demolition permit. Usually, that’s the end of the road for a Modernist house, but Melinda and Andy Knowles stepped up and persuaded those owners to delay demolition – so the couple could move the house seven miles across town, where it has been wonderful…

We’ll talk today about Texas and California, two of our most populous states that could not be more different, with Kathryn O’Rourke and Ben Koush, authors of Home, Heat, Money, God: Texas and Modern Architecture; and Michael Webb, author of California Houses: Creativity in Context.بقلم george smart

Talking architecture can be a little dense, wordy, and imponderable, especially for people who aren’t architects but just love talking about, visiting, and being inspired by cool buildings. Today we talk with two noted populists who make architecture understandable, architect and professor Christopher Wilson, and journalist and architourist Ken Mac…

Landscape architects are the ninjas of the design world, silently orchestrating beauty around buildings while you’re too busy staring at your phone. They decide whether that park bench is in the sun or shade, the exact curve of a sidewalk, and how to make an average building look extraordinary. They’re the ones who make sure your city doesn’t feel …

In nearly every major city, housing the homeless is a major problem. Since the defunding of residential mental health programs in Reagan era, the dramatic cost of housing, and other cutbacks in the welfare safety net, America created a huge population of people with problems who have nowhere to live except outside. Especially in California, which h…

Where does the real work get done in Modernist preservation? State and local preservation groups show up at long, boring, and ridiculously bureaucratic public meetings, week after week, sometimes for years. They get historic preservation tax credits passed in most states, and they monitor everything from development to the preservation easements we…

Today you’ll hear from Miami architect and author Chad Oppenheim; from Long Beach architect Alan Pullman; from New Canaan author David Peterson, and later we swoon again with returning musical guest Halie Loren singing from her new album.بقلم george smart

Interviewing the children of mid-century architects has been one the best parts of producing USModernist Radio. We’ve had the pleasure of talking to Hicks Stone, son of Edward Durell Stone; John Barnes, son of Edward Larrabee Barnes, Ainsley Gores Gilligan, daughter of Landis; Fred Noyes, son of Eliot; Eric and Susan Saarinen, children of Eero; Ray…

Being a Black architect in the white-male-dominated 20th century was tough. You were paid less, worked harder, and rarely got any credit. That is, if you could get hired at all. For example, by 1950 there were only two Black architects registered in North Carolina, both male. By 1980 the number was only 65 out of 1909. Even by 1993, Black architect…

The 2024 Architecture and Design Film Festival, or ADFF, starts up next week in New York. This long-running series is led by returning podcast guest Kyle Bergman, who founded the ADFF in New York in 2008 and hosts versions all over the world. ADFF seeks out films with impassioned, human stories that appeal to both architects and the general design-…

For every 3 or 4 Modernist buildings out there, there is likely one amazing unbuilt building with plans sitting in a drawer or a hard drive somewhere. Exploring the wonderful world of the imagined but not realized, joining us are the authors of Never Built Los Angeles, Never Built New York, and the new book, the Atlas of Never Built Architecture, S…

Today we’re talking about Modernist havens San Diego and La Jolla with midcentury author and historian Keith York; plus Joan Gand and Lauren Lockhart of the La Jolla Historical Society on their upcoming Modernist tour, of which USModernist is a sponsor. Later on, jazz with Lisa Veronica Wood and the Sidecar Social Club.…

It’s a sad day in the studio, because this is the last Modernism Week show of 2024. We’ve brought you 11 wonderful episodes from our annual pilgrimage, and today wraps up the series with returning guests mid-century historian Charles Phoenix; Natascha Drabbe of iconichouses.org; traveling all the way from Canberra, Australia, Phillip Jones the Mart…

Today we’re talking about an architecture TV series spanning the globe and a new design documentary. Joining us is ByDesign’s Mike Chapman and IBM archivist Jamie Martin, who is featured in the new documentary Modernism Inc. Later, musical guest Paget Moren.بقلم george smart

In this our next to last show from Modernism Week 2024, George talks with San Francisco concrete designer and architect Fu Tung Cheng, and later Marisa Mulder + Jim Burns + Brooke Babcock on composer and arranger Jimmy Van Huesen, who with Frank Sinatra as his muse carried the great American songbook to new heights in the 1950’s and 1960’s.…

When the internet came along, many industries changed forever, and one of them was the auction business. Remember how exciting eBay was when everything was up for bid? Traditional auction houses had to move quickly to adapt, and the opportunities of moving from a local to a regional or national or international market through the internet were imme…

If there’s one thing architecture fans love as much as tours and parties, it’s architecture documentaries, and we’ve been covering dozens of those over the years. Recorded at Modernism Week 2024, George talks with author and Emmy-winning filmmaker Jake Gorst on his new film New England Modernism. Following that, a chat with Kirk Brown of DesignOnSc…

Oh California, where the sun is warm. Where the winds from Santa Ana make you feel like you belong. California, wherever you may roam. California keeps calling you home. Those words from the 1978 movie If Ever I see You Again, a tribute to California. Are you pining to live in the Golden State? Joining us are today are well-known California archite…

We’ve had many shows on the great midcentury architects of Palm Springs, people like Chambers, Clark, Cody, Frey, Krisel, Sackley, Wexler, White, Williams, and the last man standing, Hugh Kaptur. But that was the 20th century, and we’re in the 21st. In fact, we’re pretty near mid-century in the 21st, so today, you’ll hear from two of today’s Palm S…

Michael Kimmelman is the architecture critic for the New York Times. He writes on design, housing and homelessness, neighborhood development, cities, the environment, and civil society. Then it's a delightful visit with returning musical guest Monika Ryan.بقلم george smart

Kirsten Reoch is the new executive director of Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. Then, take a ride down memory lane with Marina Coates, creator of the YouTube series Behind the Scenes, featuring tours of your favorite TV and movie houses. Later on, musical guest Andrea Carter.بقلم george smart

Designed by Richard Meier, with project architect Tod Williams, the 1973 Douglas House is a towering white residence built on a steep, conifer-covered slope overlooking Lake Michigan. In 2007, retired Proctor & Gamble executives Mike McCarthy and Marcia Myers became the fourth owners and embarked on its second restoration, doing a deep dive to brin…

Today, we’ll talk to three people who live in Palm Springs: the folks who work to document, share, and safeguard Palm Springs’ heritage – and gladly share their stories. First, expert tour guides John Stark and Trevor O’Donnell. Later on, the President of the Palm Springs Plaza Theatre Foundation, JR Roberts, working to bring back the theatre to it…

In the Modernist kitchen today, we’ve got a full course meal, starting with architect and author Scott Specht, architecture photographer Ste Murray, and wrapping up for dessert, the always delightful hosts of the podcast Bad Architecture, Sara Tietje-Mietz and Erin Kennealy.بقلم george smart

Let’s talk art, maybe one of the paintings you could buy from today’s guests. The height of Modernist architecture was around 1962 but those butterfly roofs, dressing up for martini parties, sculpted tailfins, and even tiki décor have never been more popular. Artists Danny Heller and Josh Agle, aka Shag, each brilliantly capture that midcentury vib…

In 1966 the first episode of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek launched a franchise still going strong nearly 60 years later. Star Trek adapted midcentury Modern furniture for set design, from the Bridge to the Conference Room to buildings on the planets they landed on. In a follow up to Where No Furniture Has Gone Before, where we interviewed Dan Chavk…

Ah, Aspen. The land of clean air, brisk skiing, pensive thinktanks, and enormous wealth. Nestled in the gorgeous mountains of Colorado, you might not know that Aspen was influenced by Modernism and has special connections to the Bauhaus in Germany. Today you’ll hear from Lissa Ballinger, acting director of the Aspen Institute, about the Bauhaus-Asp…

Welcome to USModernist Radio, where we talk and laugh with people who enjoy, own, create, dream about, preserve, love, and hate Modernist architecture, the most exciting and controversial buildings in the world. It’s especially exciting in New York City, which punches way above its weight in architecture and architects, and today we’ll talk with th…

Palm Springs and Los Angeles have thousands of Modernist houses, but there are many towns with their own midcentury architectural heritage. From Modernism Week 2024, we talk with David Coffey about Bakersfield CA; Palm Desert CA native and architectural researcher Luke Leuschner, then Peter McMahon with Cape Cod Modern House Trust, for an update on…

There are lots of famous people named Gordon, people like chef Gordon Ramsay, actress Ruth Gordon, musician Gordon Lightfoot, and even Sting, whose real name is Gordon Sumner. Joining us are today are two Modernist Gordons, author Alistair Gordon and Chicago preservationist Barbara Gordon. Later, jazz with North Carolina’s own Kate McGarry.…

Way back in 1987, New York Institute of Technology architects Michael Schwarting and Frances Campani saved the 1931 Aluminaire House from destruction, and rebuilt it. Then they had to take it apart. Now nearly 40 years later, Aluminaire House reached it’s final resting place at the Palm Springs Art Museum, visible today on the museum grounds. Recor…

Joining the show are three documentary filmmakers bravely capturing architects and architecture on film. Making these movies is an incredible labor of love; it takes a tremendous amount of work and time, often years, you’re fundraising continually, production is expensive, even when done on the cheap, and the financial reward at the end of all that…

From the great postwar transatlantic liners to the sleek Scandinavian cruise ships of the 1970s, to Captain Stuebing and the Love Boat, ships and private yachts are also design showcases that featured edgy, trendsetting architecture. Maritime historian and art dealer Peter Knego and yacht owner Brian Biggott joins George poolside at Modernism Week …

In May of 1950, a young man attended a packed lecture by Frank Lloyd Wright in the then-new Reynolds Coliseum at NC State in Raleigh NC. It was the largest architecture lecture ever in North Carolina. He was also witness to the construction of the 1954 Catalano House, sadly destroyed in 2001. Today George talks with architect Truman Newberry, now i…

Recorded poolside at the Hotel Skylark during Modernism Week in Palm Springs, prolific architect and architectural historian Alan Hess talks about California architect Irving Gill, who was doing Modernism way back in 1905; plus Erin Ellwood, daughter of Craig Ellwood, on her father’s singular legacy. Later, back in the studio, music with the enchan…

In another of our wildly popular Children of Genius shows, we’re honored to talk with furniture designer Mira Nakashima, who carries on the tradition of her father, George Nakashima, and Peg Risom Bull, daughter of Danish furniture designer Jens Risom.بقلم george smart

An exhibition last fall on the late architect Myron Goldfinger opened and USModernist was there moderating the panel’s remembrances. Circle Square Triangle: The Architecture of Myron Goldfinger, closed at the end of 2023 but will be touring other locations in 2024. Myron Goldfinger’s signature Modernist houses of the Hamptons and Westchester in New…

Creating affordable, transportable, innovative prefab houses has been the holy grail of architecture for 100 years, and if you were reading DWELL in the early 2000’s, you couldn’t miss their coverage of the latest adventurers on that quest. Joining us today is one of the most successful, Michelle Kaufmann, now with Google. Later on George travels t…

Ohio native Dan Duckham moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1956 after graduating in architecture from Miami University of Ohio. Three years later in 1962 he formed his own firm and over the last seven decades, Dan Duckham completed more than 500 projects, including many Modernist houses. Dan Duckham is one of the last living masters of Florida modern, and…

Recorded at New York's Architecture and Design Film Festival, George talks with Jason Cohn and returning podcast guest Fred Noyes talking Modernism Inc, a documentary about Eliot Noyes. We’ll also visit with another filmmaker from the festival, Hans Christian Post, who has a few problems with idyllic Copenhagen. And later on, music with North Carol…

There’s a new edition out of the popular book Midcentury Houses Today, and we’ll have on co-author and architectural photographer Michael Biondo. Next up, someone we admire for keeping Modernist houses on the radar in Los Angeles, filmmaker Russell Brown, founder of FORT LA, aka Friends of Residential Treasures. Later on, music from Durham’s Sharp …

Two authors of new books: Todd Cronan, with the book Nothing Permanent: Modern Architecture in California; and, don’t throw any stones, it’s Andrew Heid, with the book Glass Houses. Later on, George and Tom welcome musical guest Claudia Acuna.بقلم george smart

Have you seen that photo of the two gorgeous glamourous blondes, sitting in loungers, sipping drinks by the pool of a Richard Neutra house in Palm springs? That iconic photo, called Poolside Gossip, was taken over 50 years ago by Slim Aarons. Joining us Shawn Waldron, author of a new book on Slim Aarons, and one of the two women in that photo, the …

We gear up 2024 with conversations with Damien Lipp and Stephanie Mauro on tiny houses in Iceland; Long Beach Architecture Week’s Sal Flores; a Modernist renovation in Altadena CA with Goli Karimi, and later a wonderful musical guest, Nicole Zuraitis.بقلم george smart

In October, USModernist was at the Palm Springs Modernism Show and visited with hundreds of wonderful fans from around the country. We are going to be in Palm Springs again in February for Modernism Week, and in preparation, George spoke with today’s guests, architectural archivist Frank Lopez of Sunnylands, the Palm Springs Modernism Show’s Rosema…

Returning podcast guest Takashi Yanai is a partner at Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects where he is director of both the Los Angeles and San Francisco residential studios. Returning podcast guest Mina Chow is and architect and Principal of mc2 Spaces, a multimedia company. She is also an architecture professor at USC. Mina and Takashi talk about…

Happy 2024! We open up the new year with another great episode in our continuing series Children of Genius. Francesca Breuer Wallace gives her first interview - ever - on her father Marcel Breuer; and later it’s the grandson of Aino and Alvar Aalto, Heikki Aalto-Alanen, with a new book on his grandparents.…

What better subject to talk about during the holidays than Modernist bliss? Joining us is Charlotte North Carolina architect and author Toby Witte. And later, not one but two holiday musical guests: from his new Christmas album, Michael Sinatra, and bringing holiday cheer from Raleigh NC, Peter Lamb and the Wolves.…

In architecture up until the 1990’s, it was raining men, and the few women architects had to work twice as hard to get the same recognition and the same pay, if they got either at all. That's slowly changing, thanks to pioneering leaders like today's guests. Phyllis Bronfman Lambert is a Canadian architect, philanthropist, and member of the family …