Unfrozen

24. Growing Moss, Gathering Pace

Dan and Greg interview Matt Nardella, founder of Moss Design, a Chicago design-build firm with an array of residential and commercial projects, and a bent for nudging clients and neighbors toward sustainability in small, but meaningful increments.
Interviewee: Matt Nardella
Intro / Outro: “Highway Chile”, by the Jimi Hendrix Experience
Discussed:
- NewSchool of Architecture San Diego
- Architects as developers, contractors and multi-disciplinary designers
- In praise of not designing projects on a spreadsheet (and finding the gray zones of zoning)
- Credit due to:
o Ted Smith > The Red Office
o Jonathan Segal
- Architect, Know (and Sell) Thyself!
- The SCI-ARC Blowout
- Ending brute-force office culture > how to not “punch down”
- “We (architects) should be interviewing them (developers)”
- Monocultures of design making people sick and unhappy?
- Nightingale Housing, Melbourne - Jeremy McLeod and Maria Yanez
- You don’t need to spend more money to achieve sustainability – you just need to seriously undertake site analysis and translate that into a building, while thinking like a builder and the client – or being both, potentially.
- Want to build? Blog first!
- “Granny flats” are back in Chicago and the city is building 9,000 new units in the West Looop – will that help the housing crisis?
- On being a “bike warrior”
- Are people in happy countries just driving less?
- Vision Zero
- The best way to make an argument for bike commuting is to just do it
- Park(ing) Day

22. The Engine Room, the City, and Color Commentary

Building on the momentum of Episode 21, this special episode is a back-to-back Rees attack, with Greg and Dan both relaying their respective reports from the City of London’s raconteur-in-chief, from 2017 and 2013, respectively.
Intro: "In the Engine Room," by Mike Watt
The Engine Room
Intermission: "Talk Talk," by Talk Talk
The City and Color Commentary
Outro: "My Favourite Buildings," by Robyn Hitchcock

21. This is London: Rees Reminiscences

Greg, fresh from a trip to London, shares with Dan updates and reminiscences of the hale old town in the throes of ever-later capitalism, doffing hats to its raconteur-in-chief, Peter Wynne Rees.
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Intro: “Hairdresser on Fire,” by Morrissey
Discussed:
Peter Wynne Rees
The Square Mile (City of London)
Skygarden shitshow at the Walkie Talkie – 20 Fenchurch
Cities as information (gossip) machines
Jamaica Wine House
The George and Vulture
Bank of England – John Soane
The Royal Exchange – William Tite
The Cheesegrater (The Leadenhall Building) – Rogers, Stirk Harbour & Partners
The Lloyd’s Building – Richard Rogers
NewCities Podcast interview with Peter Rees
Heron (now Salesforce) Tower - KPF
The Standard London
St. Pancras Station
King’s Cross Station
The Blackfriar
Sir John Betjeman
Selhurst Park – Crystal Palace Club
Canary Wharf
22 Bishopsgate (“The Wedge”) – PLP Architecture; née the Pinnacle (“The Helter Skelter”) - KPF
Everything’s Iconic!
Coal Drops Yard
The Google “Landscraper” – Thomas Heatherwick and Bjarke Ingels Group
When is the Urban Redevelopment Vibe Shift coming?
Everyone wants a High Line
The Compression to Now vs Decades of Urban Accretion
Travel Challenge: the Stratford Olympic Site
Assemble – acupuncture revitalization – Granby Four Streets, Liverpool
Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics
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Outro: “In the City,” by the Jam

20. Hopeful Monsters, Strange Creatures and the Freedom of Choice

Designers, urbanists, public policy advocates, and any others are who would join the Urban Technology Program at the University of Michigan are “hopeful monsters” & “strange creatures.” Meet their leader.
Guest: Bryan Boyer, Director, Urban Technology Program, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan // Co-founder, Dash Marshall
Intro: “Hopeful Monsters,” by Charlie Nieland
Discussed:
· Architecture firms grow a spine (?) over Russia v. Ukraine: Is it a moral stand, or admission they won’t get paid? And yet, many are still working for the Saudis, on NEOM and such projects.
· Helsinki Design Lab
· Brickstarter
· The Most Important Mile
· Imagining Future Scenarios for Autonomous Vehicles
· People Party- Generating scale figures for renderings that look like their communities
· Brute-Force Architecture - “Look at all these things that we didn’t choose” >> Exhaust failure. If architecture labor was more expensive, would that be possible?
· George Gilder and the Early Cloud – “Conserve what is expensive, waste what is abundant.”
· Architechie
· REEF
· WSJ – REEF bought the wrong lots
· Renew Newcastle (Australia)
· Participatory City (London)
· Outro: “Freedom of Choice,” by Devo

19. Too-Late Modernism?

Brutalism has had a rough time over the past decade. Can it be redeemed before it’s too late?
Originally published in The Faster Times on October 8, 2012 and on Unfrozen 1.0 on November 22, 2012.
- Intro: “Creep,” by Radiohead
- A Teardown?
o  [“Alma Matters,” by Morrissey]
- Truthiness be Told
- Brutalism is the Prog-Rock of Architecture
o [“2112 – Overture,” by Rush]
o [“The Wives of Henry VIII,” by
o [“Aqualung,” Jethro Tull]
o [“Sailing,” by Christopher Cross]
- NU-Wave
o [“Atomic,” by Blondie]
- Dedicated Followers of Fashion
o [“Dedicated Followers of Fashion,” by The Kinks]
o [“Government Center,” by The Modern Lovers]
- …And When You Smile for the Camera…
o [“Peg,” by Steely Dan]
- Outro: “Aqualung,” by Jethro Tull

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