Many Modernist buildings are located in New York City, but not all of them are open to the public except for one special weekend in the fall. Joining the show on this Valentine’s day are Pamela Puchalski and Dee Dunn of Open House New York, the organization that gets hundreds of buildings in the Big Apple to open up.  In just a few days, Tom heads out to Palm Springs for Modernism Week 2022.  George is already out there interviewing special guests we’ll have for you over the spring, summer, and fall. There are still tickets available for events at modernismweek.com but if you can’t go this year, hang out with us in 2023.

US Modernist Radio - Architecture You Love

#235/Open House New York: Dee Dunn + Pamela Pulchalski

Today we are excited to introduce four really interesting design professionals who got on our radar over the last few months, including architectural historian Catherine Zipf on Frank Lloyd Wright, architect and author Bryan Toepfer on dealing with builders, preservation professional Tim Cannan on his new funding site, and the architect of one of the coolest concept houses in the world, the Darth Vader House in Houston TX, Lynn Spears. 

#234/Wright's Fallingwater / Builders / Funding / Darth Vader House

The promise and pursuit of successful prefab houses has been going on nearly 100 years. Frank Lloyd Wright tried and it didn’t go so well.  Sears, the retail store that's hurting these days, had a pretty good run in the early 20th century. For a while, people loved ordering houses right out of the Sears catalog.  Later on after WWII, the cult favorite Lustron, well, not so much.  There have been more than a dozen firms trying to create a modular home line that people will buy in large-enough  numbers.  But the idea of getting a well-designed, energy-efficient, affordable factory-built house delivered to your lot and assembled in days or weeks?  What’s not to like?  Today we continue the prefab quest with Connect Homes’ Gordon Stott, Jared Levy, and Greg Leung. Then we visit with Steve Glenn, founder and CEO of Plant Prefab and Steve’s collaborator, Swiss designer Yves Béhar. Later on, a few minutes with Frank Harmon.

#233/Fabulous Prefab: Gordon Stott + Jared Levy + Greg Leung + Steve Glenn + Yves Béhar

It’s not easy being an architect. Make a living running an architecture practice can be tough. Just getting through design school is grueling, and then there's years of internship and employment detailing utility closets - while sitting in a thoughtfully beautiful but completely open office - where everyone can hear and see everything you’re saying and doing. Once out on your own, clients who want imaginative design solutions are hard to find, especially in smaller cities. The money is not great. Design isn’t enough to sell your work.  Standing out in the field of architecture is also who you know, how well you sell, and how well build your brand.  We talk today with architecture communications and marketing experts Liz Kubany, Iva Kravitz, Sara Kolata, and Mark LePage.

#232/Advice To Architects: Liz Kubany + Iva Kravitz + Mark LePage + Sara Kolata

Remember when libraries were dark stately places with only books and magazines?  Where if you talked at more than a whisper some stern librarian shushed you? No one likes to be shushed!  And forget about eating or drinking. While those stately libraries still exist, new libraries have computers, 3d printing, video production, and even lattes.  New construction is almost always modern, with naturally lit rooms replacing those dark bookstacks.  Libraries have become community centers, voting centers, and social services centers, too. Joining us are two well-known Modernist library architects, Raleigh North Carolina’s Louis Cherry and from Oslo Norway, architect Siv Helene Stangeland.

#231/Modernist Libraries: Architects Louis Cherry + Siv Helene Stangeland

This is the fifth year USModernist Radio has covered the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival, if by festival you mean mostly online and by New York you mean all over the world.  Every year, producers, experts, stars, and creators gather to premiere their latest architecture and design documentaries, and this past year with COVID subsiding, but still concerning, Executive Director Kyle Bergman had a hybrid schedule of virtual and in-person screenings.  Today, George talks with people behind three of those documentaries, Nico Weber of Inside Prora, Lauren Levine of Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wright's Modern Masterpiece, and Nathan Eddy of Battleship Berlin. Later on, a special musical guest, Storm Large. 

#230/Architecture Documentaries of 2021 + Special Musical Guest Storm Large

Architect Louis Kahn has been gone almost 50 years, but his legacy and influence only grows as architects the public alike cherish his enduring importance. His major works include the National Parliament in Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California; the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth Texas; and the Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Kahn was also a revered educator, teaching at Yale and The University of Pennsylvania. Joining us today Michael Merrill, author of the new book Louis Kahn, the Importance of a Drawing, and filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.  Yes, he's related.

#229/Deep Into Louis Kahn: Michael Merrill + Nathaniel Kahn + A Few Minutes with Frank Harmon

Oh, how times have changed for the newspaper world. From 2008-2020, about two-thirds of newsroom jobs went away. Then the pandemic hit and more than 90 local papers shut down or were slashed in headcount. Even big papers like the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and the New York Times are smaller and more focused, with digital and video media adding to but more often replacing coverage of cultural topics like architecture and design.  While the big papers still cover stories like glamourous supertall buildings - and lawsuits when the pipes break - one newspaper burrowed away in the heart of New York City continues to put out some of the best, most detailed, most comprehensive architecture coverage.  Joining us is Diana Darling, founder and publisher of The Architect’s Newspaper, and its new-ish editor-in-chief, Aaron Seward. Later on, architecture commentary from our special Gen Z correspondent, Louisa Whitmore, and music with Kate Earl.

#228/The Architects Newspaper: Diana Darling + Aaron Seward + Louisa Whitmore + Musical Guest Kate Earl

Happy Holidays with George, Tom, Raleigh architect Erin Sterling Lewis, and author Elizabeth A. T. Smith, whose famous book on the Case Study Houses is an architecture heavyweight champion. The New York Times said “You need a California workout to lift it, but the book, an exhaustive homage to the houses, is worth the effort.” Architecture critic J. P. Cohen said, “This book is a true gem, and considering its size it's the Hope diamond.” Later on, the John Lautner homeowner who’s been on Batman, The Monkees, and the ultimate 60s teen movie, Beach Blanket Bingo, musical guest Donna Loren.

#227/Case Study Houses: Happy Holidays with Elizabeth A. T. Smith + Erin Sterling Lewis + Musical Guest Donna Loren

Columbus, Indiana is a city of just over 47,000, yet the national AIA ranks it 6th in the nation for architectural innovation and design – behind Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington DC.  Like Marfa, Texas is for artists, Columbus is a modernist architecture fan’s heaven with an astonishing lineup of buildings by celebrated architects like Eero Saarinen, Richard Meier, I. M. Pei, and Kevin Roche.  Joining us is Richard McCoy, founding director of Landmark Columbus, and Mary Chandler,  Vice President of Cummins, the company that funded the design of all of these great buildings. Later on, musical guest Judy Carmichael, host of NPR’s Jazz inspired.

#226/Columbus, Indiana: Richard McCoy + Mary Chandler + Musical Guest Judy Carmichael of Jazz Inspired

In 1950, a modest glass-walled Modernist house designed by Gregory Ain was on exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art’s garden, another in the Museum’s series of full scale builds of Modernist houses.  A system of movable walls made flexible spaces even though there were only two-bedrooms.  But once the exhibition closed, the entire house, and any knowledge of it, disappeared. Countless people over the decades searched for it. The New York Times published an article in 2017 extolling the mystery and highlighting efforts from filmmakers, academics, and the Museum to find it.  Our George Smart solved this Modernist mystery, and today we'll hear from guests Emily Ain, Cornelia Cotton, Soni and Lisa Bell, David Stevens, Shaun Kelly, and New York Times reporter Eve Kahn. Later on, musical guest Alice Peacock, for which we swoon.  

#225/Zoinks! The Gregory Ain / Museum of Modern Art House Mystery, Solved + Musical Guest Alice Peacock

Remember our show a while back on Seattle Modernism with Jim Olson of Olson Kundig?  Well before Jim Olson and Tom Kundig came along, the Pacific Northwest had architect Paul Hayden Kirk creating amazing Modernist houses.  Joining us today is Dale Kutzera, author Paul Hayden Kirk and the Rise of Northwest Modern.  Later on, travel in time back to 1961 and the Rat Pack with music from Deana Martin, daughter of one of the coolest dudes ever, singer and actor and producer Dean Martin. 

#224/Seattle's Paul Hayden Kirk: Dale Kutzera + Musical Guest Deana Martin

Research Triangle Park in North Carolina is the largest planned research center in the United States, and it’s getting bigger - much bigger, at least in terms of buildings.  During its first heyday in the 1960’s, Research Triangle Park boasted several Modernist corporate campuses, most notably aul Rudolph’s complex of buildings for Burroughs Wellcome. Now under the leadership team of today’s guest, Research Triangle Foundation CEO Scott Levitan, the park has over a billion in new investment going up – in addition to a brand new Apple Campus.  Later on, a chat with Suzanne Somers about the famed Richard Neutra-designed Kaufmann house in Palm Springs, which can be yours for a consumer-friendly $17 million, $8 million off original retail price. 

#223/Research Triangle Park: Scott Levitan + Suzanne Somers

Architects like Chambers, Clark, Cody, Frey, Kaptur, Krisel, Wexler, and Williams put the Modernist architecture of Palm Springs on the map from the 1940’s through the 2000’s, and in Hugh Kaptur’s case, still going at age 90.  Behind them are a new generation of Modernist architects and today we talk with one of the area’s most successful, Sean Lockyer.  Later on, comedian and former architecture student Aaron Kominos Smith.

#222/New Palm Springs Modernism: Architect Sean Lockyer + Comedian Aaron Kominos-Smith

One of the great architects of midcentury Palm Springs was William F. Cody, featured in the Leo Zahn documentary Desert Maverick. Joining us is the author of a new book on Cody - his daughter, Cathy Cody, and later on, drummer Raice McLeod remembers the amazing singer Eva Cassidy and shares two of her songs.

#221/Palm Springs' Desert Maverick, William Cody: Cathy Cody + Raice McLeod + Music by Eva Cassidy

Join Mr. Modernism and crew as they 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. Backed by US Modernist, the largest open digital archive for Modernist residential architecure in America.

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US Modernist Radio - Architecture You Love

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