Unfrozen

17. The Spell of Hot Desk

Silicon Valley prides itself on "innovation" and "disruption," and its products are meant to drive "sharing" and "collaboration," but the architecture it builds can be stunningly conservative and insular.
From the Unfrozen 1.0 post, May 28, 2013
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Intro: “I Know Where the Summer Goes,” by Belle and Sebastian
Too Much, the Magic Bus
[“Magic Bus,” by The Who]
Casual Collisions
[“Strangers When We Meet,” by David Bowie]
Will Code for Pizza
[“Pizza Butt,” by MC Chris]
Let’s Hang Out / Don’t Look at Me
Arrested Development
[“Arrested Development,” by David Schwartz]
I Want The Best – Whatever That Is
[“The Best,” by Tina Turner]
He’s The Guru of the City / No One Told the Councilor
[“I Know Where the Summer Goes,” by Belle and Sebastian]
Stand In the Place Where You Are
[“Stand,” by R.E.M.]
I Liked It So Much, I Bought the City
[“Viva Las Vegas,” by Elvis Presley]
Outro: “Back in the Box,” by David Byrne

16. Games With New Frontiers, Alien Rococo, and Paper Money

Greg and Dan, back at it again, talking about Olympics architecture and urbanism, the Housing Crisis 2.0, and the greatest hits from the 60s, 70s and 80s, come back to life as Zombie Capitalism.
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Intro: "Games Without Frontiers," by Peter Gabriel
Outro: "Paper Money," by Montrose
Discussed:
· Beijing Olympics
2008 and 2022 games looking very different architecturally – no international superstarchitects
The official attendees are largely debtor nations – and Russia
China joins WTO 2001 > Beijing 2008 games the manifestation of that
Beijing 2008 = Crystal Palace 1851 or Columbian Expo 1893 or maybe NYC 1939
Shuoguang Big Air by Team Minus
Koolhaas “Content 2004,” – pivot to China away from WTC rebuild competition
Skating oval by Populous
Where’s Ma?
· Other Olympic Riffs
Montreal 1976 > Quebec secession > L.A. 1984
The day Modernism died = Biosphere fire Montreal 1976
Paris 2024 – Urban Air Mobility
Los Angeles 2028 – The walkable games?
· Safe as Houses?
NAHB IBS Show
Single family rentals
Inflation
Rents up above core inflation
CBRE: wildcard scenario – multifamily asset class going from $7T to $37T
Rent to Own, or Rent Forever?
Mass-producing neighborhoods with fleet-level management of housing
Housing became CRE
Is this the point where we see 3D printing takes off?

ICON homes inks deal with Lennar and BIG
COBOD 3D live at World of Concrete


ETH Zurich > Alien Rococo
What is the future of the “starter home”?
Rent control – Spain and St. Paul > Capital strike
Tiger 21
· Greg’s book reccs:
“Adam Smith” – Peter Goodman: 
The Money Game, 
Super Money, 
Paper Money
Prefigured the 2008 financial crisis
Averting Penn Central becoming the Lehman Brothers of the ‘70s
OPEC and the oil crisis changed everything
Beginning of the idea of housing as an inflation hedge

15. Can You Say Velaslavasay?

An interview with Sara Velas, founder, Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles.
Intro / Outro: “Heartaches,” Al Bowlly, Sid Phillips & His Melodians
Discussed:
Robert Barker
Ruby Carlson
Mush to the Movies with LAFF
Magical Urbanism
Unrestored Restoration
Hauntology
The Union Square Florist Shop: A Case of Spectral Immersion
Luis Barragan
Thom Andersen
Mark Fisher
Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon, Oakland, CA
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA
Revolutionario Taco
Charles Hood

14. Notes from Underground

A tour of the abandoned Pacific Electric Subway Terminal in downtown Los Angeles. From Unfrozen 1.0, originally posted May 11, 2012.
Intro/Outro: "Do Not Feed the Oyster," by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
Midsection: "Judge Doom," by Alan Silvestri and the London Symphony Orchestra

13. What Fresh McMansion Hell is This?

Unfrozen interviews Kate Wagner, creator and curator of McMansion Hell.
Intro: "Suburbia," by Pet Shop Boys
Discussed:
- The special McMansion Hell that is Barrington, IL
- Why surprise-visiting teachers in their suburban homes is a bad idea
- The best the Metaverse can do is take us shopping at Wal-Mart and just browsing at H&M?
- Best places to see a McMansion in the Wild
- What it's like to be a critic during the media meltdown of the early 2020s
- I'd rather be biking
Outro: "Bicycle Race," by Queen

12. For Sale: Kindling $10.9 million (OBO)

The sordid tale of a totally avoidable fire in the Hollywood Hills: a McMansion used as a set for a reality TV show goes up in smoke.
From the Unfrozen 1.0 blog, Feb. 21, 2012
Intro/Outro: "On Fire," by Van Halen

11. Are You Experienced? Join Team Insurgent!

Interview with Daniel Meyers and Traci Sym of +&> (Plus and Greater Than), an exhibition design firm in Portland, Oregon.
Intro / Outro: "Are You Experienced?" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience
Cover Art: "Tubes" by +&> (Plus and Greater Than)
Discussed:
- Cambridge Seven
- High Museology versus Themed Entertainment
- Exhibition design is really “schmoopy”
- Encountering conflict is part of the training of performing artists, so it's good to have a theater person on your design team
- Starting with a narrative rather than a site
- Experiencing things that are not algorithmically selected for you
- ABOTI - Always Be on Team Insurgent
- The Real Dick Nixon, the Decemberists and Malkmus are all getting together on a Revolutionary War Memorial in South Carolina

10. Can the Dome Home Finally Find a Mass Audience?

A certain subset of architects and futurists have long obsessed with mass-marketing domes, foam houses, spheres, and combinations thereof. Could their time be nigh? From a story originally posted on Unfrozen 1.0, Sept. 3, 2012.
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Intro: "Xanadu," by Rush
1. All Yesterday's Tomorrows
2. An Architect to the Stars Dreams of Domed Domesticity
3. Sprung From the Foam [Musical interlude: "Xanadu," by ELO and Olivia Newton-John]
4. Domes as Doom Defense
Outro: "Ridin' the Storm Out," by REO Speedwagon

9. Ghost Grocers, Dark Stores, and Street Life

Unfrozen interviews Lev Kushner, Partner, Department of Here, co-author of “The Dark Side of 15-Minute Grocery Delivery,” Bloomberg CityLab, Dec. 7, 2021, with Greg Lindsay

8. In Praise of Words and Letters, Union Shops, and the New Sincerity

Greg and Dan host Eva Hagberg, author of “Dark Nostalgia,” “How to be Loved,” and the upcoming “When Eero Met His Match”.
Intro: “The Letter,” by The Box Tops
Topics:
· Eero and Aline: “They met and immediately started banging”… and launched the modern world of Architecture PR
· “Publicists make their jobs look a lot harder than they are”
· Don’t piss off OTTO and ESTO
· “I blew my entire advance on seven Iwaan Baan photos”
· A Union SHoP?
o Tyler Goss cut the cord
· Architecture Twitter vs Instagram
o Guest crit
o Kevin Rogan
o Michael “Freecondo”
o “They were all talking about Henri Lefebvre, which makes me feel like a Boomer”
o Dank Lloyd Wright
o Zoolander’s Center for Ants
o Boy’s Firm
o The Architecture Lobby
· The New Sincerity goes mainstream: Lesley Lokko curates Venice 2023
· Casting the “When Eero Met His Match” movie
· “Letters are sexting through the centuries.”
· Undoing the primacy of the image
Outro: “We Used to Wait,” by The Arcade Fire