Today USModernist Radio welcomes guest co-host Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell along with two people working to keep Modernism alive and well - brutalist documentarian Chris Grimley and the founder of iconichouses.org, Natascha Drabbe.  Chris Grimley is a partner at the firm over/under, designing not just buildings but full experiences in architecture, graphic design, and interior design. His book Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston has been awarded honors by DoCoMomo and the Boston Preservation Alliance. In addition, he curates the pinkcomma gallery, is a co-founder of Design Biennial Boston, and recently released the Boston Brutalist Map, published by Blue Crow Media.  Natascha Drabbe is an architectural historian and founder of the Iconic Houses Network, connecting important 20th century houses from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater to Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat. She divides her time between Amsterdam and Utrecht, where she runs the Van Schijndel House that inspired her to set up the house museum network.

#70/Saving Spaces: Chris Grimley + Natascha Drabbe w/Guest Co-Host Kate Wagner

Listen to one of America's top-rated architecture podcasts as the USModernist® Radio crew talks and laughs with fascinating people who own, create, love, and hate Modernist architecture, the most controversial houses and buildings in the world.

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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. 

#347/Maritime Modernism: Peter Knego + Brian Biggott + Musical Guest Chris Brubeck

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 in his 90’s.  And later on, music with the charming and mindful Julianna Raye. 

#346/He Saw Frank Lloyd Wright in 1950: Architect Truman Newberry + Musical Guest Julianna Raye

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 enchanting Lucy Woodward. 

#345/Modernism Week 2024: Alan Hess on Irving Gill + Erin Ellwood on Craig Ellwood + Musical Guest Lucy Woodward

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. 

#70/Saving Spaces: Chris Grimley + Natascha Drabbe w/Guest Co-Host Kate Wagner

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