Unfrozen

98. Crisis & Criticism with Christopher Hawthorne

Our guest on this episode is Christopher Hawthorne, the Senior Critic at Yale University’s School of Architecture. His previous roles include architecture critic of the Los Angeles Times, and Chief Design Officer of the City of Los Angeles. His current mission is to assemble the Speaker’s Corner at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. Unfrozen hears his unique perspective as both critic and exhibitor.--Intro/Outro: “Elevator,” by The Cooper Vane--Discussed:2025 Venice Architecture Biennale: “Inteligens: Natural, Artificial, Collective” – Carlo RattiSpeakers’ Corner / Re-staging Criticism series, part of the GENS Public Program-         Florencia Rodriguez, Director, School of Architecture, University of Illinois Chicago-         Mark Lee, Sharon Johnston of Johnston Marklee-         Inspiration: “Vincent Scully: Architecture, Urbanism, and a Life in Search of Community,” by A. Krista Sykes-         9 May: “Exhibition as Critical Vessel”o   Florencia Rodriguez, Moderatoro  Lesley Lokko, 2023 Biennale curatoro  Aric Cheno  Pancho Diazo  Sarah Herdao  Michael Meredith (MOS) > Building with Writing-         10 May: Conversation on L.A. Fireso   Michael Maltzano   Alejandro Haiek Collo  Florencia Rodriguez11 May:o  Kate Wagnero  Samuel Medinao  Sam Jacobo  Shumi Bose1980 Venice Architecture Biennale – The Presence of the Past - Paolo Portoghesi-         Strada Novissima, feat. Rem Koolhaas, Frank Gehry, Arati Isozaki, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown-         Teatro del Mundo, Aldo Rossi-         Critic’s Corner, feat. Vincent Scully, Charles Jencks, Kenneth Frampton & Christian Norberg-SchulzWhy “The Brutalist” Isn’t Really About ArchitectureKazuyo SejimaWriting About Architecture - Alexandra LangeCaught practicing without a license: Frank Lloyd Wright and Thomas JeffersonInternational Committee of Architecture CriticsSalon de MobileAda Louise HuxtableYou Have to Pay for the Public Life, by Charles MooreComplexity and Contradiction in Architecture, Robert VenturiCharles Jencks Foundation

97. Holding Space

A quick one before we’re away. Dan and Greg sum up theirsprings and get ready for spritzes and socializing with smart people in at the 2025 Venice Biennale.--Intro/Outro: “Bounder of Adventure,” by The Cooper Vane--Discussed:Going Underground -> The Space Below w/ James Parakh·        Toronto PATH·        Montreal RESO·        Chicago Pedway·        Minneapolis Skyway·        Houston Tunnels·        Oklahoma City Underground·        Hong Kong Central Elevated WalkwayZohran Mamdami –Make the Subway Great AgainSmart City Expo, New York CityBusiness Facilities Live eXchange, New OrleansCurbivore, Los AngelesJonah BlissJoshua Harris, Fordham UniversityMarchetti’s constantZiplineAustin Baker Tilly ConferenceCosMc’sNational Association of Realtors surveyWaymoRoboCopSidewalk TorontoDownstate IL secession movementSnow Crash – Neal Stephenson, feat. Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong KongPaul RomerCharter CitiesThe Voluntary City - David T. Beto, Peter Gordon and Alexander TabarrokHow to Run the World - Parag KhannaHell on Earth – The 30 Years’ War Podcast The Network State - Balaji SrinivasanGlobal Parliament of Mayors / Ben BarberPolarization of reality > revenge of sovereigntyPraxis: Med Charter City > Greenland feat. Steven HarperThe evermore-relevant Hidden Globe episodeExit, Voice and Loyalty - Albert O. HirschmanPatri FriedmanThe lost art of imagining the future“My Brain Finally Broke,” - Jia Tolentino in The New YorkerBruce Sterling – Atemporality

96. The Key to the City

Sara Bronin is an architect, attorney, policymaker, and professor at Cornell University. Born and raised in Houston, the only large US city without zoning, previously served as the Chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission of Hartford, Connecticut. Her book is called Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World, and she joins Unfrozen to demystify the why and wherefore of what you can, cannot, and “must” build in cities all over the US.--Intro/Outro: “Elevator,” by The Cooper Vane--Discussed:-         How large-lot mandates contribute to the epidemic of loneliness-         YIMBY prevails in Arlington and Alexandria, VA-         Re-zoning in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, OR, and Hartford-         Supreme Court ruling on Shelley vs Kraemer, 1948, outlawing racially restrictive covenants-         Houston’s affordability comes at the cost of flood zones and unpleasant adjacencies-         Gulfton neighborhood-         El Principe Azul nightclub-         Effects of Parking Provision on Automobile Use in Cities: Inferring Causality-         Albany Avenue rezoning and corridor improvements, Hartford-         Denise Best-         Form-based code-         Washington Commanders’ new DC stadium-         Code overhauls in Hartford, Charlottesville VA, and Boston-         Bronin trashes Boston’s zoning code-         Pittsburgh spends $5.8 million on zoning consultant

78. Irreplaceable

Kevin Kelley, a self-described “attention architect,” is aco-founding partner of design firm Shook Kelley and author of Irreplaceable: How to Create Extraordinary Places That Bring People Together. In our digitized world of ghost commerce, he believes there is still a place for real places, and that it is incumbent on architects to stop looking down their nosesat retail, the essential lubricant of urban life, and start designing places that matter. --Intro/Outro: “24 Hour Limes" by The Cooper Vane--Discussed:Bass Pro Shops at the Memphis PyramidAgainst 15-Minute Delivery“The Bonfire Effect,” courtesy Loxahatchie, FloridaParticipation mystique, as per Jung, as per Lucien Levy-Bruhl“TheAnxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt“Harvard Guide to Shopping” by Rem Koolhaas et. al.Prior Unfrozen commentary on the replacement for the Orange County Government Center by Paul RudolphRobert Venturi on Las VegasMaslow's hierarchy of needsYaromir Steiner and Easton Town Center, ColumbusVictor GruenCountry Club Plaza, Kansas CityThe Grove, Los AngelesThe Farmer’s Market, Los AngelesLarchmont, Los AngelesHollywood and Highland (now Ovation), Los AngelesHarley-Davidson dealerships’ Parts BarMercado Gonzalez, Costa Mesa, CA

79. Cities in the Sky

Jason Barr is a professor of economics at Rutgers University Newark and one of the world's foremost experts on the economics of skyscrapers. His new book, out May 14, 2024, is Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers. In it, Barr takes a global view of why the quest to build up is as fierce as ever, and why skyscrapers remain so controversial. Join the Unfrozen interview with Barr, in which some record-breaking myths get busted.--Intro/Outro: “Altitude Blues,” by Ladytron--Discussed:Mythbusting the Home Insurance BuildingFirst Skyscrapers | Skyscraper Firsts ForumLeRoy Buffington’s skyscraper patentMythbusting The Skyscraper IndexThe LineJeddah TowerJoel Garreau’s Edge CityEmaar’s real estate play at Burj Khalifa: Downtown DubaiLegends Tower, Oklahoma CityEmpire State BuildingChina’s “build it” economy“Zero Gravity Living”Nashville and OracleDetroit and Dan GilbertNewark renaissanceCenter City District (Philadelphia) study: DowntownsReboundKaren Seto(Yale)'s studies on tall building height canopies

80. To the Ends of the Earth

In To the Ends of the Earth: A Grand Tour for the 21st Century, Richard Weller, Professor Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism & Ecology at the University of Pennsylvania, has condensed a sprawling subject into a compact field guide to 120 of the most significant 21st century objects, from bulldozers to Biosphere II. Call it dystopian, call it optimistic. Just don’t call it “anthroporn.” --Intro/Outro: “I Still Wear the Uniform," by The Cooper Vane--Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World, by Timothy MortonUtopias (and Utopia’s Evil Twins)                  Welwyn Garden City                  Chandigarh                  Burning Man                  EPCOT                  Pruitt-Igoe                  WalmartSupercenterMachines:Bulldozers + polymetric nodulesFish farmsSolar arraysSand motor + littoral driftTree-planting dronesMonsters:                  Geo-engineeringThe World Park Project / UN Convention on Biological DiversityY2YBanff Wildlife Crossings ProjectThe Atlas for the End of the World

81. Houser + Hytha = Highrises

Chris Hytha and Mark Houser are collaborators on Highrises: Art Deco, a multimedia series chronicling the great skyscraper edifices of the roaring ‘20s. Photographed by drones and meticulously measured and researched, the series – a book, prints, website, mobile phone wallpaper and exhibition -- reveals fascinating details and stories of these distinctly American icons. Catch the in-person book talk on July 18 and the exhibition from May 31 to August 26 at the Chicago Architecture Center.----Intro/Outro: “I Still Wear the Uniform," by The Cooper Vane--Discussed: MultiStories: 55 Antique Skyscrapers and the Business Tycoons Who Built ThemThe DJI Air 2S DroneHighrises Art Deco: 100 Spectacular Skyscrapers from the Roaring ‘20s to the Great DepressionHenry W. Oliver Building, Pittsburgh, D.H. Burnham, 1910Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln, Bertram Goodhue, 1932Public Market > Modern Spirits Liquor Store, Tulsa, Gaylord Noftsger, 1930Monadnock Building, Chicago, Burnham & Root, Holabird & Roche, 1891-1893Eastern Columbia Building, Los Angeles, Claud Beelman, 1930Mather Tower > Club Quarters Hotel, Chicago, Herbert Riddle, 1928Union & Peoples National Bank > Jackson County Tower, Jackson, MI, Albert Kahn, 1929Frick Building, Pittsburgh, D.H. Burnham, 1902The Woolworth Building, New York, Cass Gilbert, 1913Price Tower, Bartlesville, OK, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1956Sterick Building, Memphis, Wyatt C Hendrick & Co, 1930Industrial Trust Building, Providence, George Frederick Hall, Walker & Gillette, 1927Guardian Building, Detroit, Donaldson & Meier; Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, 1929Fisher Building, Detroit, Albert Kahn Associates; Graven & Mayger, 1928Carbide & Carbon Building, Chicago, Burnham Brothers, 1929Foshay Tower, Minneapolis, Hooper & Janusch; Magney & Tusler, 1929Rand Tower, Minneapolis, Holabird & Root, 1929Kansas City Power & Light Building, Kansas City, Hoit, Price & Barnes, 1931

82. Designing the Forest

“Either you’re growing your materials or not. You’re gettingthem from a forest or a mine.”Lindsey Wikstrom is the Founding Principal of Mattaformaand an Adjunct Assistant Professor at ColumbiaGraduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Her debut book, Designing the Forest and Other Mass Timber Futures, argues that to overcome obstacles to wide adoption of mass timber as a building material, we need to think differently about our relationship to trees, buildings, and each other. Intro/Outro: “I Still Wear the Uniform,” by The Cooper Vane

83. The City in the City

In The City in the City, Amy Thomas offersthe first in-depth architectural and urban history of London's financial district, the City of London, from the period of rebuilding after World War II to the explosive climax of financial deregulation in the 1980s and its long aftermath. From the Big Tie to the Big Bang, it’s a heavy-hitting episode of Unfrozen.--Intro/Outro: “I Still Wear the Uniform," by The Cooper Vane--Discussed:-             Peter Wynne Reeso  This is London: Rees Remembranceso  The City is Here for You to Use-             St Paul’s Cathedral-             The Bank of England-             The BigTie, by Brian Griffin-             Broadgate-             Top hatters-             The Domesday Book-             Corporation of London-             Jamaica Wine House-             The George and Vulture-             Lloyds and the Lloyds Building-             Eva Jiricna: Kenzo > Interiors at Lloyds-             Spitting Image Richard Rogers episode-             “Where Ideas Come From,” by Steven Johnson-             Paul Romer’s “spillover effect”-             The Big Bang, 1986-             National Provincial Bank-             If it’s bad in the City, it’s worse at Canary Wharf and Stamford-             Bishopsgate bombing, 1993 & the Ring of Steel-             The Barbican Estate-             Paternoster Square & Prince Charles-             London Wall-             London County Council vs. the City of London Corporation-             No. 1 Poultry, by James Stirling-             One Exchange Square-             Frank Duffy-             “Edge of Empire,” by Jane Margaret Jacobs -             The British financial archipelago, e.g., Bermuda and the Cayman Islands

84. Movement

“Every line on the road is a political choice.”Marco te Brömmelstroet, a.k.a. “The Cycling Professor,” is the chair of Urban Mobility Futures at the University of Amsterdam. His book Movement, with Thalia Verkade, takes a stance against myths and received wisdoms that surround popular thinking about the rights and place of cyclists and pedestrians, urban design, and traffic engineering. Parallel to the critique, he presents new ways of thinking about how, and why we move through the world, and at what speed.--Intro/Outro: “I Still Wear the Uniform," by The Cooper Vane--Discussed:-             Urban Cycling Institute-             Woonerf-             Chicane-             Chip Cone-             Cauliflower neighborhood, a.k.a. Bloemkoolwijk-             Fighting Traffic, by Peter Norton-             RoadDanger.org-             Stafford Beer-             Rollback of congestion pricing in New York City-             The bicycle at the bed-in, Amsterdam 1969-             The Royal Dutch Touring Club, AWNB vs the EWNB-             School streets, Paris-             Provo – Dutch nonviolent protest group + The White Bicycle Plan-             Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig-             Bicycle Highways-             Anne Hidalgo + Carlos Moreno = 170,000 trees-             Groningen car ban, 1980-             Nieuwmarkt riots, Amsterdam, 1975-             Janette Sadiq-Khan and the Times Square pedestrianization-             Bike Bus – Sam Balto-             NYC Municipal Vehicle Active Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) / Speed Geofencing-             Valerie Plante, Mayor of Montreal, BIXI bikes (non-profitbike-sharing program)-             Swapfliets (Swap Bike)