The Modernist architecture we love is exciting, edgy, sometime inexplicable, often brilliant.  Modernism has been around a long time, yet there’s also been a movement beyond  Neutra and Corbusier and Gropius and Breuer and Mies, that’s frequently misunderstood.  We’re talking about organic architecture, houses that make Neutra look downright classical. Organic architects are a fiercely independent breed, using their intuition like Yoda would use the Force, taking on unusual materials and construction techniques, and sculpting residences that look out of this world.  More simply put, organic architecture is to modernism like monks are to priests, and these monks take their craft very seriously.  As a client, you tell them what you need, but you are not going to tell them what to design.  Joining us today are two prominent living organic architects, Bart Prince and Michael Johnson and later on, returning musical guests Peter Lamb and The Wolves.

Returning podcast guest Stewart Hicks is best-known for his wildly popular YouTube video series Architecture with Stewart, and in his spare time, he’s Associate Dean at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Every few weeks, you’ll find a new YouTube release helping the general public, which is us, on topics as varied as the desperation of contemporary mall architecture, why linear cities don’t work, why people want to live in corncob-shaped buildings, the latest in toilet design, and the many ways your Roomba is spying on you. 

What modernist architect doesn’t want a museum commission? Along with airports and hotels, or huge corporate campuses for  tech bros, museums are the most lucrative and high-profile projects an architect can get.  Budgets are big, backers are rich, publicity is guaranteed, and most of the time clients want the architect to fully self-express their wildest plans. It’s a good deal for the museum, too, as they get to brag about their remarkable new building.  A graduate of the PhD program in sociology at Columbia, museum consultant Andras Szanto he has written for New York Times, ArtForum, and Art Newspaper, and has overseen the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia and the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His latest books are The Future of Museums which interviews 28 of the world’s leading museum directors – and Imagining the Future Museum, 21 conversations with prominent museum architects.

Melodie Yashar is VP for building design and performance at ICON, a firm devoted to developing 3D construction. Their neighborhood of attractive, affortable 3D-printed houses, designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, went on sale in Austin TX this past June.  Later on, we talk with German director Jan Schmidt-Garre whose latest film is The Promise: Architect BV Doshi, an intimate portrait of the late architect’s life and work.  But first, we check in with Kyle Bergman, founder of the New York Architecture and Design Film Festival, on this year's lineup.

Palm Springs has seen its share of glamour, from the Hollywood celebrities who made the place their playground last century to the musicians and entertainers who kept the party going. Today we’ll hear from Will Friedwald on the jazz trio The Poll Winners; Courtney Newman on the classic entertainers who flocked to Palm springs; and Susan Claassen, who has brought legendary Hollywood costume designer Edith Head to life.  If you don’t know who Edith Head is, think Edna Mode from the Incredibles movies, a character that was based on Edith Head.

Renovations on Modernist buildings can be particularly tricky. Nick Martin's firm recently remodeled Charles Gwathmey’s Tolan House in the Hamptons.  Matt Loader and Iain King of Loader Monteith lead Modernist preservation projects including the Glasgow School of Art Mackintosh Building, the Jenners Building redevelopment, and something definitely not Modernist, Rosslyn Chapel, a church made famous the Dan Brown book and movie, the Da Vinci Code. More recently, Loader Monteith conserved and updated High Sunderland, a Modernist house designed by Peter Womersley. 

Modernism isn't just architecture; it also highlights the artists and artisans whose textiles, ceramics, furniture, and other objects bring modern spaces to life. Recorded at Modernism Week 2023, we’ll hear from a gaggle of interesting guests:  Susan Brown, Alexa Griffith Winton, Leigh Wishner and Charlotte Von Hardenburgh on textile artist Dorothy Liebes; Annalisa Capurro and Paul Ortega on the Swedish Modern design of Svenskt Tenn; ceramics historian Margaret Carney on midcentury dinnerware; and Jim Rawitch on the arts and crafts of Sam Maloof.

In 1946, Carl Strandland asked for $15 million worth of emergency loans to build small houses for GIs returning from WWII. Strandland was not an architect, but his idea that metal neighborhoods could be prefabricated and swiftly built was persuasive, and Lustron prefab house was born. To manufacture the ten tons of steel that went into each two-bedroom Lustron, Strandland bought a 25-acre factory in Columbus OH which was used during WWII to build fighter planes. A few years and only about 3,000 Lustrons later, the company declared bankruptcy but thousands of these unique houses survive.  Joining us is USModernist’s resident Lustron expert, Virginia Faust, and new Lustron owner Mark Seibel. Later on, returning jazz vocalist Monika Ryan. 

As more and more midcentury buildings get destroyed, we have to rely on midcentury photography collections as a window into the past and as inspiration for the future. Today we’ll talk to Ethan Wayne, son of actor John Wayne, Laurie Kratochvil, and Amy Shepherd about the John Hamilton Collection, a priceless trove of photographs from Hollywood’s golden age.  After that, paint company Dunn-Edwards’s head colorist Sara McClean talks about keeping the midcentury color vibe alive. And later, jazz with North Carolina’s own Ariel Pocock.

Architectural historian Owen Hopkins has written or edited 16 books on architecture and his stories have appeared in Architectural Design, Dezeen, the Independent, and Blueprint, among many others. A graduate of the Courtauld Institute in London, Owen has served as architectural program curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, senior curator at Sir John Soane’s Museum, and now the director of Newcastle University’s new Farrell Centre. His latest book is about brutalism, those large concrete buildings many people love and King Charles and critics Roger Scruton and Dr. J. S. Curl and Justin Shubow hate hate hate hate hate.  Did we mention hate?

As the book points out, Brutalist architecture inspires a passionate response, be it adulation or contempt. There’s lots of both to go around.  Later on, music from some great architects, and their IT buddy, in a group called Poinsettia.