Celebrities aren’t typically huge fans of Modernist architecture. Most prefer a 1930’s mansion or an Italianate villa. But there are a few, like Jennifer Aniston, Holland Taylor, Scott Caan, Kelly Lynch, Leonardo DiCaprio, and others who keep Modernist houses in the spotlight.  Today we’ll talk with Alison Martino, producer, historian, and preservationist, the Godmother of Old Hollywood and Los Angeles.  Next up, Frank Sinatra expert Bill Boggs, and later, we’ll learn about the Modernist town of Columbus Indiana from author Matt Shaw, with a new book. 

The town of Lancaster OH is famous as the birthplace of David Graf, best known as Sgt. Eugene Tackleberry in the Police Academy series.  Lancaster is also famous for … glassware, and their best-known creative rebel was Fran Taylor.  From 1939 to 1962, Taylor ran GayFad Studios, and 60+ years after her business closed, partners Jason and David Annecy have revived the brand, opened a store, and held Bottoms Up, a wildly successful midcentury barware show this past summer.  USModernist was there, interviewing the Annecys, artist Josh Agle aka Shag, and  the barware lady Amy Chastek.

We can't believe it, but USModernist Radio will be ten years old soon.  We'll have a special show number 400 featuring past guests and - you!  Are you a fan of the show?  Learned something useful?  Got a funny story?  Please contact George Smart [email protected] or 919.740.8407

From Australia, we talk with with architect and 2002 Pritkzer Prize winner Glenn Murcutt. From the UK, we’ve got architecture critic Rowan Moore, and wrapping up, the author of Modern Chinese Architecture: 180 Years, Nancy Steinhardt.

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!

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 wonderfully restored on a new site next to their existing mid-century Modernist house. And with the best architecture book of the year, we'll talk to architect and author James Biber. Later on, musical guest Allegra Levy.

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.

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 MacIntyre of modtraveler.com.  Later on, musical guest Emilie-Claire Barlow. 

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 like a concrete jungle and that your suburban sprawl doesn’t completely lose touch with nature. Today we’ll talk with two exceptional landscape architects, Chris LaGuardia and Michael Van Valkenburgh. Later, music with Pink Martini’s Timothy Nishimoto. 

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 has the most homeless citizens in America, everyone recognizes the problem but there’s complete lack of political will or consensus to significantly address it.  Even with the better ideas, there’s a generally well-funded, lawyered-up constituency that’s going to fight it.  Joining us today are the authors of the new book Housing the Nation, architect Alexander Gorlin and architectural historian Victoria Newhouse, with their take on what to do.