#459/Architect Tom Phifer + Author Alastair Gordon + Musical Guest Jeanie Bryson

In another of our wildly popular series, Children of Genius, we talk with family of famous architects, starting with Jennifer Lapidus, granddaughter of Morris Lapidus who reshaped Miami with hotels like the Fontainebleau. Next, Jenny Jacks Shreve, daughter of Arkansas architect Ernie Jacks, who worked on the Kennedy Center with Edward Durell Stone and the Case Study Houses with Craig Ellwood.  Later, returning musical guest, Stacey Kent, one of the most noted jazz vocalists in the world. 

Acclaimed architect Tom Phifer builds around light, with three decades designing buildings that make walls feel invisible.  Author Alastair Gordon has written more than 28 books and knows all the midcentury Modern houses in the Hamptons that shaped American architecture.  Jeanie Bryson spent decades as a jazz vocalist, sharing stages with Grover Washington Jr., Kenny Burrell, and Etta Jones.  Having a famous but also secret father helped, yet losing her husband and musical partner had her step away from performing for years.  Now she's back, and we're lucky to have her.

Elizabeth Gordon was editor-in-chief of House Beautiful.  In April 1953 she published an influential and controversial editorial that rocked the architecture world, presenting Modernism as uncomfortable, impractical, and like communism a threat to American cultural values. We'll talk with author Monica Penick, author of the definitive book on Gordon, 2001's Tastemaker.  Next up, Alison Fisher just closed a wildly successful exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago on Bruce Goff, an architect who made Frank Lloyd Wright look restrained. Wrapping up, Naama Gheber is a jazz vocalist with four albums and a voice critics have compared to Peggy Lee. 

On this special edition of USModernist taped live earlier this year at the Onera Foundation in New Canaan CT,  we explore diplomacy through Modernist architecture with three guests: Dublin architect Cormac Murray gives a talk on John Johansen's US Embassy in Dublin; legendary photographer Norman McGrath, who shot that building soon after it opened, and architect Christen Johansen, son of John Johansen, discusses family legacy.  Laurence Lafforgue of the Onera Foundation hosts.

New York architect Tom Gluck of GLUCKplus, son of architect Peter Gluck, takes us behind the scenes of projects from prefab high-rises in Manhattan to his Tower House in upstate New York. Nick Ferrell brings the history of Modernist lighting design in Modeline of California: Pioneer of Modern Lighting, with lamps that have inspired designers for decades. And freshly-minted Pulitzer prize winner Mark Lamster updates the endangered IM Pei-designed City Hall in Dallas.  Later on, special musical guest, the Grammy-winning Miami singer Jon Secada. 

In Bakersfield CA, David Coffey preserves two houses one by Neutra, and one by Wright, but today we talk about his passion, Modernism in Uruguay.  In Los Angeles, Cindy Olnick stewards the Neutra Institute. Later on, jazz duo Lenore Raphael and Chris Hodgkins reunite for their joyful new album, Pennies From Heaven. 

We're talking about North Carolina, our home state.  Architect Phil Szostak has shaped some of the state's most prominent cultural spaces and houses.  Architect Ben Taylor's long career starting in the 1950's has left a lasting mark across North Carolina. Later, it's straight out of Birdland with musical guests Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. 

Imagine doing Modernist preservation – in a war zone.  Dmytro Soloviov documents Ukraine's modernist architecture.  Ben Wever cares for one of America's modernist treasures, the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. Hallie Swenson uncovers the stories of San Diego Modernism, and architect Robert Stone brings new desert Modernism to life. 

We dug into the podcast vault for one of the most successful and admired architects in the world, Bjarke Ingels of BIG. Later, we swoon over jazz vocalist Halie Loren.

Ready for a dose of music, design, and spectacle? Steve Young digs up wild, forgotten midcentury industrial musicals and somehow makes them catchy again. Megan Reilly turns WestEdge LA into a playground of design, ideas, and inspiration.  And Erik Stabnau keeps the venerable Glenn Miller Orchestra swinging, blowing the roof off of jazz clubs, arenas, coliseums, and amphitheaters after almost 100 years.