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Ohio native Dan Duckham moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1956 after graduating from Miami University of Ohio. Three years later in 1962 he formed his own firm and over the last seven decades, Dan Duckham completed more than 500 projects, including many Modernist houses.  Dan Duckham is one of the last living masters of Florida modern, and joining him is architect and author Randolph Henning, who in addition to his design practicewrites books on architects who followed in the tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright, architects such as Alfred Browning Parker and Aaron Green.  His next book is on Dan Duckham. Later on, the Queen of the American Songbook, musical guest Ann Hampton Calloway. 

Recorded at New York's Architecture and Design Film Festival, George talks with Jason Cohn and returning podcast guest Fred Noyes talking Modernism Inc, a documentary about Eliot Noyes. We’ll also visit with another filmmaker from the festival, Hans Christian Post, who has a few problems with idyllic Copenhagen.  And later on, music with North Carolina’s legendary bandleader, trumpeter Jim Ketch. 

There’s a new edition out of the popular book Midcentury Houses Today, and we’ll have on co-author and architectural photographer Michael Biondo.  Next up, someone we admire for keeping Modernist houses on the radar in Los Angeles, filmmaker Russell Brow,  founder of FORT LA, aka Friends of Residential Treasures. Later on, music from Durham’s Sharp 9 Jazz club with pianist Lenore Raphael and guitarist Howard Alden. 

Two authors of new books:  Todd Cronan, with the book Nothing Permanent: Modern Architecture in California; and, don’t throw any stones, it’s Andrew Heid, with the book Glass Houses.  Later on, George and Tom welcome musical guest Claudia Acuna. 

Have you seen that photo of the two gorgeous glamourous blondes, sitting in loungers, sipping drinks by the pool of a Richard Neutra house in Palm springs?  That iconic photo, called Poolside Gossip, was taken over 50 years ago by Slim Aarons.  Joining us Shawn Waldron, author of a new book on Slim Aarons, and one of the two women in that photo, the Queen of Palm Springs Nelda Linsk. Later on, music with China Forbes from Pink Martini, who will tell us what really happened with Eugene. 

We gear up 2024 with conversations with Damien Lipp and Stephanie Mauro on tiny houses in Iceland; Long Beach Architecture Week’s Sal Flores; a Modernist renovation in Altadena CA with Goli Karimi, and later a wonderful musical guest, Nicole Zuraitis.

In October, USModernist was at the Palm Springs Modernism Show and visited with hundreds of wonderful fans from around the country. We are going to be in Palm Springs again in February for Modernism Week, and in preparation, George spoke with today’s guests, architectural archivist Frank Lopez of Sunnylands, the Palm Springs Modernism Show’s Rosemary Krieger, artist Christopher Georgesco, Destination Eicher’s Karen Nepacena, and musical guest Lizzy Shapiro of LA’s hottest jazz and swing band, Lizzy and the Triggermen.

Returning podcast guest Takashi Yanai is a partner at Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects where he is director of both the Los Angeles and San Francisco residential studios. Returning podcast guest Mina Chow is and architect and Principal of mc2 Spaces, a multimedia company. She is also an architecture professor at USC. Mina and Takashi talk about the contributions of Asian-American architects, many of whom suffered through the forced relocation of internment camps during WWII.

Happy 2024!  We open up the new year with another great episode in our continuing series Children of Genius.  Francesca Breuer Wallace gives her first interview - ever - on her father Marcel Breuer; and later it’s the grandson of Aino and Alvar Aalto, Heikki Aalto-Alanen, with a new book on his grandparents. 

What better subject to talk about during the holidays than Modernist bliss?  Joining us is Charlotte North Carolina architect and author Toby Witte. And later, not one but two holiday musical guests:  from his new Christmas album, Michael Sinatra, and bringing holiday cheer from Raleigh NC, Peter Lamb and the Wolves. 

In architecture up until the 1990’s, it was raining men, and the few women architects had to work twice as hard to get the same recognition and the same pay, if they got either at all. That's slowly changing, thanks to pioneering leaders like today's guests.  Phyllis Bronfman Lambert is a Canadian architect, philanthropist, and member of the family that brought Seagrams spirits to fame in the 20th century.  She created the Canadian Centre for Architecture, one of the world's leading architectural museums and research centers and 1954, she oversaw the design of the Seagram Building in New York City by Mies van der Rohe.  Later on, it's the first woman president of the AIA, Susan Maxman, who in the 90's broke a century of male leadership in America's largest professional association for architects.

Be careful about giving a coffee table book to your architecture-lovin’ spouse for Christmas, because one day, you might have a new Modernist house by a famous architect - plus a railroad - on your property.  Joining us is Seattle brand designer Lou Maxon and his long strange journey to build a Tom Kundig house with a unique Kundig gizmo on rails. Later on, returning podcast guest Peter McMahon of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust shares his group’s wildly successful preservation of Modernist cottages, including their new campaign to buy and restore the Marcel Breuer house in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, largely untouched since Breuer died over 40 years ago.  Learn more about the Maxon house at www.maxonhouse.com and www.maxonrailway.com.  Learn more about the CCMHT at www.ccmht.org.