In the first of two shows on Modernist interiors and interior designers, host George Smart chats poolside with two organizers of the Alexander Girard exhibition held during Modernism Week at the Palm Springs Museum of Art, Christine Marvin of Marvin Windows and Doors and Michela O’Connor Abrams of MOCA+, and later he talks about interior designers Steve Chase and Arthur Elrod with former Chief Curator of the Museum, Katherine Hough, who worked with them both.

#145/Modernism Week Interiors: Honoring Alexander Girard, Steve Chase, and Arthur Elrod with Christine Marvin + Michela O’Connor Abrams + Katherine Hough

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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 saving Marcel Breuer’s Cape Cod house.

#351/Bakersfield with David Coffey + Palm Desert with Luke Leuschner + Cape Cod with Peter McMahon

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. 

#350: Alastair Gordon + Barbara Gordon + Musical Guest 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.  Recorded poolside at Modernism Week,  you will hear about this visionary house, designed by Albert Frey and Lawrence Kocher, and Aluminaire’s journey from a private Long Island estate to the New York Institite of Technology to Palm Springs.  Later on from the studio, we chat with architectural photographer Robin Hill. 

#349/Aluminaire:  Frances Campani + Michael Schwarting + Architecture Photographer Robin Hill

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, well, let’s say you could do better working a couple of months under the golden arches.  That’s why these folks are our heroes and heroines.  We’ll talk to Louise Lemoine of Beka and Lemoine, Denise Zmekhol, and Simon Mark-Brown. 

#348/Architecture Documentaries: Louise Lemoine + Denise Zmekhol + Simon Mark Brown

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 to talk about nautical Modernism. Later on, from the studio, music from the next generation of the Dave Brubeck dynasty, his son Chris Brubeck, who grew up in a Modernist house. 

#145/Modernism Week Interiors: Honoring Alexander Girard, Steve Chase, and Arthur Elrod with Christine Marvin + Michela O’Connor Abrams + Katherine Hough

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