Unfrozen

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)

85. Getting Unstuck from the Rut: Introducing IDC

Today’s uncanny AI renderings are just the tip of theiceberg. Architects are banding together to clean up their digital houses, master data literacy, collectively bargain for their needs with software monopolies, and ultimately, prevent technology rendering them irrelevant. Enter the Innovation Design Consortium, an elite corps of leaders and technologists of America’s 40 largest architecturefirms, who have banded together to battle the bots. Unfrozen interviews its Chair, Peter Devereaux, Founding Principal of HED.Among many other things, he says, “We have to get out of the business of selling our time by the hour for the production of two-dimensional construction documents.”--Intro/Outro: “I Still Wear the Uniform," by The Cooper Vane--Discussed:The Road to IDC: Writing guidelines for the use ofgenerative AI via the AIA Large Firm Roundtable (LFRT)See also: “The Future of Generative AI in Architecture, Design and Engineering,” Cornell TechKey players:-         Carole Wedge, Shepley Bulfinch-         Bob Packard, ZGF-         Brad Lukanic, Cannon DesignOther leading lights in the AI 4 AEC community:Phillip Bernstein, YaleChris Minerva, Thornton TomasettiGreg Schluesner,Executive Committee Secretary, IDC Director of Design Technology, HOKVolker Buscher, Chief Data Officer, Data LeadersFormer Chief Data Officer, ArupFish & Richardson -         IP Law, terms and conditions, “give to get”Is this the “anti-Autodesk”? What does “after Autodesk” look like?

86. Salty Urbanism

Salty Urbanism is a design manual to address sea level rise and climate change for urban areas in coastal zones. It is a concept that refers to the ways in which cities and urban areas will respond and adapt to rising sea levels and the accompanying increase in salinity of coastal and near-coastal land. This phenomenon is caused by a combination of factors, including global warming, sea-level rise, and human development along coastlines. Unfrozen interviews Jeffrey Huber, Principal, Brooks + Scarpa and Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Florida Atlantic University, about how the concept is applied in South Florida.--Intro/Outro: "I Still Wear the Uniform," by The Cooper Vane--

87. Glass Houses

Madeline Ashby is a freelance futurist and author of Glass Houses, a near-future sci-fi thriller about creepy tech, creepier tech bros, and the woman who dares challenge both. The first Unfrozen interview with a novelist takes us on a journey to desert islands, bland design-hotel furniture, evil architecture tropes, and much more.--Intro/Outro: "I Still Wear the Uniform," by The Cooper Vane--Show Notes:- Previous work: - Company Town - The Machine Dynasty series- Strategic Foresight and Innovation Program - OCAD University- The Old Dark House, 1932- Institute for the Future - Age of Networked Matter- Haunted Objects, Greg and Dana Newkirk- Major inspo: Michael Mann movies Heat Manhunter- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex- David Cronenberg's Brutalist Toronto- Toshiya Ueno and "Cultural Odorlessness" - Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross collaboration on Halsey's 2021 album "If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power."- The tendency of AI to generate from the baseline average of all things on the internet - usually porn, maybe hentai- "Domestic Violence," Madeline Ashby, Slate, 2018- Samantha Bee - "Excuse Me, Do You Have a Moment to Talk About Canada?"- Network states- Augmented Cities, Cornell Tech- The decline of dating apps and replacement by AI bot boyfriends and girlfriends / The fracking of human consciousness- DARVO- Movie version would almost certainly star Kristen Bell or Kristen Stewart

88. The Architecture of Urbanity

Vishaan Chakrabarti is the founder and creative director of the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), and the author of "The Architecture of Urbanity." He has worn many hats - in development, architecture, government and academia, and brings this experience to bear in his public advocacy work.--Intro/Outro: "I Still Wear the Uniform," by The Cooper VaneShow Notes:- The "Joy" Thing with Tim Walz- Obama > Biden Infrastructure Bill- Is it really Rural vs Urban, or Suburban vs Everyone Else? Is it Rurbanity?- UC Berkeley analysis of carbon footprints of cities vs rural vs suburban- The mortgage interest tax deduction- The Federal gas tax- Out-migration from expensive to affordable cities - not the suburbs- Railroad suburbs: Montclair and Maplewood NJ- Carbon pricing- Jane Jacobs' idea that cities formed around trade- James C. Scott- The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber & David Wengrow- Alternate civilizational origin stories at the Venice Biennale- The places we go on vacation all have lousy parking- The energy source powering cars is not really the issue - it's the degree to which we design our cities around cars - or not- Copenhagen - the urban planning Mecca - but where are the immigrants?- InterOculus, PAU, Columbus, Indiana- "Because they've been told their definition of excellence is to design spaceships to be built by slaves in the sand, that's what architects are off doing. And so of course they're not at the adult table influencing policy. We can't relegate ourselves to the kiddie table by talking about irrelevant things and then complain about the chicken nuggets."- "We don't help everyday people visualize the power of policy change as well as we could."- "I think we are at a moment where it is really, important for people who understand the physical world to sit down and be able to speak the language of government."- "Designing policy is a form of design."- New York Times collaboration with PAU = NYC = Not Your Car- Gov. Kathy Hochul's cancellation of congestion pricing- Robert Caro, The Power Broker - "The city's permanent government" - the "deep state" might actually be OK- "New York, New York, New York," by Tom Dyja- Accepting imperfection as a necessary democratic outcome - instead of going Roark on imperfection and blowing it up- Uber's hiring of Bradley Tusk, Bloomberg's third mayoral campaign manager- Alejandro Aravena - an architect literally being the architect of the new Chilean constitution- Norman Foster - adviser to the United Nations on rebuilding Ukraine- Book design by Michael Beirut and Britt Cobb at Pentagram

95. Cities4Forests

Scott Francisco is the founder and director of Pilot Projects, a systems thinking and design consultancy that co-creates sustainable solutions to complex challenges in global systems, cities and the natural environment. On this episode of Unfrozen, we discuss the Cities4Forests initiative, which aims to more closely align the environmental and economic goals of cities and the forested lands on which they depend.--Intro/Outro: "Elevator," by The Cooper Vane--Discussed:Wood @ Work, NYC, October 2015Cities4ForestsPartner Forest ProgramWorld Resources InstituteMass Timber Tipping Point ReportAlliance of Francophone MayorsNet zeroScope 1, 2 and 3 emissionsNordic StructuresMontreal Protocol 1987COP 15 Montreal, 2022COP 21 Paris Agreement, 2015COP 26 Glasgow, 2021COP 28 Dubai, 2023COP 30 Belem, Brazil:Design for activation: A Mass Timber, Conservation Timber Pavilion, Floating on the Amazon, with Hammocks!Declaration for Forests and CitiesAlec Fitala, DOM, rainforest products > Hearts of Palmpasta