Every now and then, we run into A-students who have become so accomplished in the multiple worlds of art, architecture, preservation, business, and common sense, that it’s a shame not to share those conversations.  Joining us today is Christy MacLear, the founder of Artist Ventures. She’s been CEO for Superblue, a thrilling immersive experience in Miami, which you should put on your travel list; the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Philip Johnson's Glass House.  She’s been Vice Chairman at Sotheby's and consulted for the Cleveland Clinic, Disney, and the fabulously midcentury ..read more

In our ongoing series Children of Genius, we’ll talk to John Barnes, son of New York Modernist architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, and Ainsley Gores Gilligan, daughter of Connecticut architect and one of the Harvard Five, Landis Gores.  They join our past interviews with family of well-known architects such as Eric and Susan Saarinen, children of Eero; Raymond and Dion Neutra, children of Richard;  grandchildren of Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles and Ray Eames; and children of Craig Ellwood, Bill Cody, Charlie Gwathmey, Charles Deaton, and many more ..read more

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Few large art museums in the world are dedicated to architecture as well as art, and joining us is Adam Lerner, the CEO of one of those, the Palm Springs Art Museum.  A few blocks away, that museum owns another museum, the Palm Springs Architecture and Design Museum, location of an upcoming January exhibition on architect Albert Frey, the patron saint of Modernist design in Palm Springs.  Curating that exhibition, we have the noted and in-demand Palm Springs and LA designer, preservationist, returning podcast guest Brad Dunning ..read more

Back in the 1980’s, architect Richard Meier got a commission for a series of buildings in Los Angeles.  The Getty Foundation, sourced from the prestigious family of oil fame, wanted a huge new complex on land they owned off the 405.  This would turn out to be one of the largest private commissions in the world at the time, costing about 1.3 billion by the time it opened in the 1990’s.  Of course, the neighbors fought it, as neighbors do with just about anything Modernist, and now it’s a source of pride for all of Los Angeles.  If you’re into architecture, art, history, or r ..read more

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 si ..read more

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.  ..read more

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, A ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more