Unfrozen

Unfrozen

By Daniel SafarikSociety & CultureArts
Download on the App Store

Unfrozen episodes

  • 125. Roscoe

    Intro/Outro: “Roscoe,” by Midlake

    Andrew James Gregor

    Roscoe

    Blue Dog Construction

    Embarcadero Center

    John Portman

    Hyatt Regency San Francisco

    The Clift Hotel’s Redwood Room

    The Tenderloin

    “Hostile” architecture

    Interboro Partners: The Arsenal of Inclusion and Exclusion

    San Francisco’s “doom loop”

    Kansas City, MO’s “Zero KC” initiative

    Invisible People Instagram channel

    Mary Leakey

    Urbz’s interventions in Mumbai and elsewhere (see Unfrozen 115, “Homegrown Cities”)

    Patrick Fealey’s “The Invisible Man,” Esquire, 14 November 2024

    Rebuilding Together East Bay Network

    HOPE (Homeless Outreach Population Estimate) NYC

    46 min
  • 124. Lost in Translation

    Intro/Outro: “Kaze Wo Atsumete,” by Happy End

    Discussed:

    • Pittsburgh
      • Mark Houser
      • Unfrozen 81: Houser + Hytha = Highrises
      • Cathedral of Learning
      • The Pittsburgh Agreement
      • Richard Florida’s “Eds and Meds” theories
      • Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s former interurban trolley lines
      • The Inclines
    • Tokyo
      • Thanks, Points Guy!
      • Shinjuku Park Tower / Park Hyatt (Kenzo Tange, 1994)
      • Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola, 2003
      • Midtown Tower (SOM, 2007)
      • Roppongi Hills (KPF, 2003)
      • Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (Kenzo Tange, 1991)
      • Imperial Hotel – Frank Lloyd Wright, 1922-1967; Mitsui Fudosan, 1970-present; next edition coming soon-ish
      • Hotel Okura (Yoshiro Tanaguchi, 1962-2019; Taisei Corp. 2019-present)
    • Hong Kong
      • M+ (Herzog & De Meuron, 2XXX)
      • Eric Chen
      • Shirley Surya
      • Archigram Archives
      • Nakagin Capsule Tower
      • Eric Ho, via Greg’s “Hacking the City: A New Model for Urban Renewal,” The New Republic, 10 December 2015
    • Sao Paulo
      • Dan’s Vertical Urbanism article on his trip
      • Cracolandia
      • Japan <> Brazil polestar
      • Fasano Hotel Sao Paulo (Isay Weinfeld)
      • Hotel Unique (Ruy Ohtake)
      • SESC Pompeia (Lina Bo Bardi, 1986)
    • KPF Tech Week
    • Upcoming Greg Lindsay / Brian Boyer White Paper for University of Michigan on “Chain Drain”
    • Autodesk: time wasted communicating about construction
    • Navigant survey on RFIs
    • McKinsey survey on construction costs
    • Argues for the need for a standard of governance and/or quality 
    • Can/should we Wal-martize our A/E/C supply chain?
    • Pokemon Go’s 10th anniversary: 6 July 2026
    • EU Digital Product Passports
    • Local Law 97
    • 270 Park Avenue
    • NYRA 50th Edition: Goldberger vs Krotov
    • Jamie Dimon’s back to office call – is any data being collected?
    • Brian Potter, Construction Physics: “Welcome to Another Day in Katerra-dise” 9 June 2021
    • Anori (born from Google X, The Moonshot Factory) and BIM 2.0
    • The Lacaton & Vassal Model: Just Don’t Build It
    • Google repurposing lumber from the Moffett Field blimp hangars for its building in The Dalles, Oregon
    • Florida + BCG: Rise of the Urban Knowledge Campus
    • Mass Design: Alan Ricks
    • Ha/f Climate Design: Kelly Alvarez Doran
    • Bobby Fijan, American Housing Corp.
    • WeWork
    • Phil Kirschner : The Workline
    • Canoa
    • Sidewalk Toronto
    • The Baumol Cost Disease Effect
    • Niantic Spatial
    • Keyhole (In-Q-Tel)

    Greg’s next appearance: 

    FWD50 7 July 2026

    48 min
  • 123. Buttafuoco's Quandary: Pregaming the 2027 Biennale

    --

    Intro/Outro: “Got to Do It,” by Andrew W.K.

    --

    Discussed:

    • Amateur Architecture Studio: Wang Shu and Liu Wenyu
    • A surreal and uncanny live translation of the press announcement. Sample sentences, per AI:
    • “Then tell your ego can contribute to tie your to the total, one lie or toggle lie or drone gorgeous, so it will usually kind of boil in here.”
    • “So it a general fish on the Gita woman sound lion eating the Minion, and Villa means young Jewish show that comes in the currency.”
    • “Yes, we shall defund the pushes away, and the way this would come dark.”
    • Is this the China-max Biennale?
    • Marco Polo reference (visited Hangzhou in 1275)
    • Shades of Lacaton & Vassal, curators of the 2018 Biennale
    • Shades of, and throwing shade at, Mindfulness City from the 2025 edition
    • Complexity of taking on the US Pavilion responsibility in this timeline
    • The 2025 edition, PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity
    • Our somewhat lame attempt at Fantasy Biennale:
    • Post-warfare architecture / rebuilding schemes from Ukraine or Gaza?
    • One source of ideas: Constructing Hope: Ukraine | Chicago Architecture Center
    • Expected returnees:
    • Francis Kere
    • Lacaton & Vassal
    • Probably not Ma Yansong
    • Probably not Ai Weiwei
    • Question mark over Russia and Israel pavilions, which were unoccupied and closed for renovations, respectively, in 2025
    • The 2026 Art Biennale debacle
    • Death of curator Koyo Kuoh
    • No Golden Lions for nations accused of war crimes
    • Potential Greg- and Michèle Champagne-led activation: EU-CAN Alliance:
    • Greg: Classic OMA-AMO content, shitposting, that kind of thing. 
    • Michele: An alliance around new Bauhaus principles concerning housing.
    • Exclusive first right of refusal obtained for Mind Enterprises performance
    • Will the menagerie of pavilions make space for protest and dialogue around the more controversial entrants?
    • Sorkin’s take on the Rafi Segal-designed Israeli National Library and its cancellation
    • Austrian pavilion bridge to the adjoining neighborhood
    • Venezia FC
    • Closing of current arena on the Venetian lagoon, Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo
    • Opening of a new stadium in Mestre
    • Enter the Canadians:
    • Major investment from Drake
    • New management from Toronto FC
    • Giuseppe Saputo (Quebecois) owns Bologna FC
    • Flashback to episode 119, Paul Goldberger’s interview and comments on the politics of sports and their arenas
    • Como FC
    28 min
  • 122. All-American City

    --

    Intro/Outro: “Ya Got Trouble,” by Robert Preston (Original Cast Recording of “The Music Man”)

    -

    Discussed:

    “All-American City: Bluster, Boom and Bust in Wichita,” by Chase M. Billingham

    “The Midwest Revival: A Well-Kept Secret,” Alan Arenhold, in Governing, April 21, 2026

    Unfrozen 118, “Migrant Midwest”

    Unfrozen 108, “NORTH”

    The Chisholm Trail

    Cessna

    Beechcraft

    Stearman Aircraft

    The Coleman Company

    White Castle

    Pizza Hut

    Spirit AeroSystems

    Wichita’s non-annexation agreement with the Aerospace Industrial District, renewed 2021

    Overview | Aerospace | Industry... | Greater Wichita Partnership

    Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida

    The Cheesecake Factory arrives in Wichita – stop the presses

    Jack De Boer 

    Gilbert and Mosley chemical bloom,1986

    “The Minnesota Guys” – David G. Lundberg and Michael Elzufon
    - Arrest for fraud

    “Harvard-educated” James Chung: 2015 Focus Forward

    Marshall Murdock and the Wichita Eagle

    “The City as a Growth Machine: Towards a Political Economy of Place,” (1976) by Harvey Molotch

    “Urban Fortunes,” (1987), Harvey Molotch and John Logan 

    Markus Moos, University of Waterloo: “Youthification”

    Tulsa Remote Program

    Choose Topeka Program

    Modern Romance, by Aziz Ansari and Eric Kleinenberg

    Century II (1970), by John M. Hickman

    Wichita Public Library (1967), by Schaefer, Schirmer & Eflin

    Naftzger Park (2019 edition, Garver)

    Naftzger Park (1979 edition)

    54 min
  • 121. Dwelling on Earth

    Intro/Outro: “Here on Earth,” by Love and Rockets

    --

    • “Dwelling on Earth,” by Stefan Al
    • “Supertall,” by Stefan Al
    • Unfrozen 29, “‘Al’ in on Supertalls”
    • Etymology of “oikonomia” = “economy” in ancient Greek
    • The Nebelivka Hypothesis
    • “The Poetics of Space,” by Gaston Bachelard
    • Pierre Bordeau’s theory of “habitus”
    • The Roman insulae
    • “The Island at the Center of the World,” by Russell Shorto
    • Angkor Wat
    • Lidar scanning
    • Mesopotamia’s use of plaster leading to deforestation
    • The Frankfurt Kitchen
    • Communal living at TU Delft
    • Bosco Verticale, Milan
    • Mjostarnet, Brummundal, Norway
    • ICON Technology
    • 3D printing on the Moon

     

    51 min
  • 120. Lunch on a Beam

    Intro: “Stop the Rock,” by Apollo 440

    --

    Discussed:

    • “Lunch on a Beam: The Making of an American Photograph,” by Christine Roussel
    • “The Art of Rockefeller Center,” by Christine Roussel
    • Rockefeller Center history
    • Tishman Speyer acquired in 2000
    • Nelson Rockefeller
    • John D. Rockefeller Jr.
    • The Ludlow Massacre
    • John R. Todd
    • Raymond Hood
    • Wallace Harrison
    • Andrew Reinhard
    • Delirious New York (Rem Koolhaas) and “Manhattanism”
    • Empire State (Empty State) Building
    • Ivy Lee
    • Merle Crowell
    • Charles Clyde Ebbetts
    • Thomas Kelley
    • William Leftwich
    • Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), est. 1971
    43 min
  • 119. Mussolini's Ballroom, or, The Leopards Ate My Face

    Intro: “S.P.Q.R.” by This Heat

    Discussed:

    Paul Goldberger

    “Trump Will Destroy Washington if It’s the Last Thing He Does,” New York Times, March 13, 2026

    More Times analysis on the White House ballroom plans

    Godwin’s Law

    Albert Speer

    Benjamin Latrobe

    Alternate venues, that would not require a new ballroom at the White House:

    • National Building Museum
    • Mellon Auditorium

    Moynihan Train Hall

    Saarinen's Dulles Airport design 

    “Fedlandia” – a plan to rebuild 230 acres of Federal downtown Washington

    East Potomac Golf Links Trump takeover plan, and the resistance

    National Garden of American Heroes

    Christopher Columbus statue, Baltimore

    White House ballroom architects

    • James McCrery
    • Shalom Baranes

    Arc de Trump – Justin Shubow

    Suit against Kennedy Center renovations

    Mamdani’s Trump-whispering to get funding for the Sunnyside Yards overbuild

    Dulles Airport overhaul proposals

    Original Dulles Airport mobile lounges

    John Foster Dulles

    Trump offer to release Gateway Tunnel funds in exchange for naming Penn Station after him

    Renaming of Palm Beach airport, after Trump

    Renovation and expansion of the US Embassy in Delhi, India (Edward Durell Stone > Weiss Manfredi)

    Penn Station reconstruction under Trump:

    • Move Madison Square Garden?
    • AECOM joint venture to lead project management
    • ASTM + HOK + PAU Plan: Keep MSG, remove Hulu Theater

    Moynihan Train Hall

    Ballpark: Baseball in the American City

    FIFA Sites include:

    • Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA
    • Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO
    • SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA
    • AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX

    Chuck Klosterman: “Football” as a “hyperobject”

    Milan San Siro (Stadio Giuseppe Meazza)

    NY Jets plan for West Side stadium

    Upcoming Goldberger book (11/17/2026): “The Imperfect City: Design, Serendipity, and the Real Life of Cities”

    --

    Outro: “The Leopards Ate My Face,” by Franchesca Ramsey

     

    51 min
  • 118. Migrant Midwest

    Intro/Outro: “America,” by Neil Diamond

    --

    Discussed:

    Jonathan Burkham

    Migrant Midwest

    Ed Glaeser – “Human Capital Follows the Thermometer,” New York Times, April 19, 2011

    Civic Federation’s report “Chicago's Budget Growth: 2019–2025”

    Minneapolis’ resilience and defense of its Somali community against ICE raids

    Springfield, Ohio – myths and realities about its Haitian population

    Milwaukee – population trends 1960-2024

    Michigan governor Rick Snyder’s 2014 call for 50,000 visas

    Michigan’s population growth, 2021-2025

    Nick Reding, “Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town”

    Canadian Provincial Nominee Program

    Backlash to the CPNP + no housing growth

    Canada’s population decline – 102,000 in 2025, the first since Confederation in 1867

    Allan Mallach – Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World – Unfrozen 61 

    Jesse Keenan – North – Unfrozen 108

    “Climate-proof Duluth” 

    Daryl Fairweather, Redfin chief economist, new resident of Williams Bay, WI

    National Association of Realtors migration trends 2024

    46 min
  • 117. The Death and Life of Gentrification

    Intro/Outro: “Depreston,” by Courtney Barnett

    --

    Discussed:

    Japonica Brown-Saracino

    The Death and Life of Gentrification: A New Map of a Persistent Idea

    The Gentrification Debates

    Explicating Divided Approaches to Gentrification and Growing Income Inequality

    Sarah Schulman: The Gentrification of the Mind

    Ruth Glass and the coining of “Gentrification” as a term in 1964

    Jane Jacobs: The Death and Life of Great American Cities

    Robert Goldman: Renovating Value: HGTV and the Spectacle of Gentrification

    Sharon Zukin: Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places

    Neil Smith: The Rent-Gap Theory

    Vida

    Gentefied

    The Curse

    Loretta Lees: Super-Gentrification

    Wendy Griswold: Regionalism and the Reading Class

    44 min
  • 116. The Desert of the Real

    Intro: “Megeve,” by Henry Mancini

    Part 1: White-Hot Mid-Century Blowout

    • The Lautner Compound (Hotel Lautner)
    • Lucien Hubbard
    • John Lautner
    • Albert Frey
    • Frey House II
    • Tamarisk trees
    • “Racist Trees,” the movie, and the blowback from Tucker Carlson

    Part 2: Palm Springs Mod Squad tours by Kurt Cyr

    Transition: “Loose Caboose,” by Henry Mancini

    • Home 1: The Wentworth, Fairway Estates, Donald Wexler, 1965; addition by Robin Abrahams, 2022
    • The Alexander Construction Co.
    • Pilkington float glass
    • Canyon View Estates – Palmer & Krisel for the Alexanders -- home of “Barbie” and “Don’t Worry Darling” 
    • Atomic Ranch magazine
    • Roman tubs

    Transition: “Caravan,” by John Buzon Trio

    • Home 2: Kurt Cyr home, Kurt Cyr, 2020
    • Lawrence Crossley and the Crossley Tract
    • Washingtonia filifera (California palm)
    • Hortus conclusus
    • Kenny Irwin Jr. robot designs, feat. “Winston”
    • Hans Wegner
    • Room 606, SAS Royal Hotel (Arne Jacobsen)
    • Craig Ellwood
    • Danish case study houses, per Wallpaper*

    Transition: “Miniskirt,” by Esquivel

    • Home 3: The Desert Star Apartments (Motel), Howard Lapham, 1956; Converted to private residences in 2005
    • “Car decking”
    • Uba Tuba marble
    • Calico marble
    • Carrara marble
    • Nichols Company Chinese Art Deco rugs
    • The Palm Springs School, by Alan Hess, (Rizzoli, 2025)
    • Florence Knoll

    Transition: “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody),” by Talking Heads

    Part 3: An Archipelago of Disney Lifestyle

    • Mad Men: Season 2, Episode 12, “The Mountain King.”
    • Storyliving by Disney: Cotino, Rancho Mirage, CA
    • Sunnylands
    • Storyliving by Disney, Asteria, Pittsboro, NC
    • DMB Development
    • It’s not Celebration, FL
    • Crystal Lagoons – “Swimming pools are things of the past.”
    • Dubai Festival City
    • "Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next"
    • ULI Florida Summit, Orlando
    • Joshua Harris
    • “The Anti-Social Century,” by Derek Thompson, in The Atlantic, February 2025
    • TestFit
    • Greg’s address to the ULI Global Governing Trustees Meeting, Washington DC
    • “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community,” by Robert Putnam (2000)
    • Firefly by Candlelight Homes, Eagle Mountain, Utah
    • Stonethrow, Dallas
    • Christopher Leinberger

    Transition: “Terms and Conditions,” by Dan Safarik, recorded on the Teenage Engineering Riddim EP-40 dub machine

    Part 4: Terms and Conditions of Cotino

    Transition: “The Community of Hope,” by PJ Harvey

    Part 5: The Community of Hope

    • Artifacts of an optimistic age:
    • New York World’s Fair 1964
    • Montreal Expo 1967
    • “Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?”, by Mark Fisher
    • “Welcome to the Desert of the Real,” by Slavoj Zizek
    • BNP Paribas Indian Wells Open, sponsored by Emirates Airlines and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia
    • The destruction of the present and perhaps the future: Dubai’s neo-liberalism vs Iran and the rest of the world coming to its doorstep with bombs
    • Palm Springs International Airport Main Building, Donald Wexler, 1966

    Outro: “Crawl Home,” by Desert Sessions (Josh Homme feat. PJ Harvey)

    1 hr 48 min

About Unfrozen

From the publisher's feed

A podcast on architecture and urbanism.

More shows like Unfrozen

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

16,072 Listeners