Unfrozen
Episodes
108. NORTH
16 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jesse M. Keenan is the Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning at the School of Architecture and the Built Environ...
107. Spectropolis
18 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Just in time for Halloween comes a spooky story of speculation and specters in the world of real estate. Joshua Comaroff, a professor at National Univ...
106. Insurrection
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Depending on how you look at it, it is either a great or rough time out there for speculative fiction, as reality continues to bite at the heels of ev...
105. The House of Dr. Koolhaas
04 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rem Koolhaas is nothing if not enigmatic, which makes him and his first major built work, the Villa dal’Alva, Paris (1990), an ideal first subject o...
104. Make Gaza GREAT Again
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dismayed by the destruction and death in Gaza? Fear not, the wizards at Boston Consulting Group have a plan – a 38-slide deck that will Make Gaza GR...
103. Going for Zero
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A former president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Carl Elefante has led the field in finding common ground between two things seemingl...
102. Revitalize | Resettle
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hillary Brown, Professor Emerita of Architecture at the City College of New York, joins Unfrozen to discuss her book Revitalize | Resettle, which expl...
101. The Wrigley Building: The Making of an Icon
06 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chicago’s Wrigley Building, constructed in 1921, is the “whited sepulcher” of Michigan Avenue, gleaming in terra cotta like the rows of teeth os...
100. Dancing About Architecture
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Unfrozen crew hit the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale with all the furious energy our 100th episode deserved. A rollicking roundup of robots, pa...
99. The Venetian Scheme
10 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Unfrozen squad descends on Venice to experience inperson the full blunt force of the Biennale. Special guests include: Carlo Ratti, the curator of...
98. Crisis & Criticism with Christopher Hawthorne
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our guest on this episode is Christopher Hawthorne, the Senior Critic at Yale University’s School of Architecture. His previous roles include archit...
97. Holding Space
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 B...
96. The Key to the City
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sara Bronin is an architect, attorney, policymaker, and professor at Cornell University. Born and raised in Houston, the only large US city without ...
78. Irreplaceable
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Kelley, a self-described “attention architect,” is aco-founding partner of design firm Shook Kelley and author of Irreplaceable: How to Crea...
79. Cities in the Sky
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 b...
80. To the Ends of the Earth
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 Urba...
81. Houser + Hytha = Highrises
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Hytha and Mark Houser are collaborators on Highrises: Art Deco, a multimedia series chronicling the great skyscraper edifices of the roaring ‘...
82. Designing the Forest
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“Either you’re growing your materials or not. You’re gettingthem from a forest or a mine.” Lindsey Wikstrom is the Founding Principal of Matta...
83. The City in the City
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
84. Movement
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“Every line on the road is a political choice.” Marco te Brömmelstroet, a.k.a. “The Cycling Professor,” is the chair of Urban Mobility Future...
85. Getting Unstuck from the Rut: Introducing IDC
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s uncanny AI renderings are just the tip of theiceberg. Architects are banding together to clean up their digital houses, master data literacy...
86. Salty Urbanism
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 wa...
87. Glass Houses
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
88. The Architecture of Urbanity
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Vishaan Chakrabarti is the founder and creative director of the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), and the author of "The Architecture of U...
95. Cities4Forests
19 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Francisco is the founder and director of Pilot Projects, a systems thinking and design consultancy that co-creates sustainable solutions to com...
94. Tales of Trilith
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tucked away in a hollow some 20 miles south of Atlanta, theTown of Trilith contains multitudes: possibly North America’s largest purpose-built film...
93. The Cities We Need
02 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past 20 years, Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani has taken the question, “what, and who is the city for?” directly to the streets of Prospect Heig...
92. The Hidden Globe
22 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Between, and sometimes within, the boundaries of nation-states are thousands of liminal zones which are neither here nor there, and their rules are di...
91. After the Fires, Will Prefab Sprout?
01 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amidst the unprecedented destruction wrought by the multiple fires that swept across Southern California in January 2025, there are opportunities, and...
90. MAGAlopolis
19 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The inauguration of the 47th president of the United States takes place on January 20. What are the implications of Trump 2.0 on the built environment...
89. That Was a Year, Wasn’t It?
07 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dan and Greg recap Unfrozen in 2024 and look ahead to 2025. -- Show Notes: Intro/Outro: “I Still Wear the Uniform,” by The Cooper Vane - Our Spoti...
73. On Balance: Architecture and Vertigo
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mankind’s quest for verticality has an underexplored dimension: the queasy feeling of vertigo many experience when close to the edge of a sheer drop...
44. ”Olive the Seal” - Unfrozen in 2022
18 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dan and Greg recap the highs and lows of the first full year of Unfrozen – 33 episodes – and look ahead to 2023. Did you know? You don’t have to...
43. Who is the City For?
26 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Pulitzer Prize–winning architecture critic Blair Kamin has long informed and delighted readers with his illuminating commentary. Kamin’s newest co...
41. Typological Drift
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cities that produce only underwear, blue jeans and extras in domestic films are among the fascinating objects of study in Typological Drift: Emerging ...
39. Seeking the Superfruit of Urbanism
02 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Eliason is an architect and founder of Larch Lab, a studio focused on prefabricated, decarbonized, climate-adaptive, low-energy buildings and ...
39. Towards a Non-Combustible Practice, Away from Mundane Endeavors of Indifference
24 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hanif Kara is a civil and structural engineer and professor in practice at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and the co-founder of AKT II...
37. The City is Here for You to Use
17 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Unfrozen interviews Peter Wynne Rees, Professor of Places and City Planning, The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, who was previ...
36. Big Time: Patrick MacLeamy
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick MacLeamy was the CEO of HOK from 2003 to 2017, capping off a 50-year career at the venerable firm responsible for the National Air and Space M...
35. Architecture of Normal
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Kaven is the author of Architecture of Normal: The Colonization of the American Landscape, a book that views the built environment through the ...
34. Chicago: Two Guides, One Cast
31 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chicago is a famed architecture town, but the road has not always been smooth. Hear from the editor and author, respectively, of two recently released...
33. Tallest Timber, Boutique Hotels, Pokemon NO! and more…
23 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dan’s recent consecration of the world’s tallest timber building; Greg’s new gigs, and hotels to stay at while making them happen; the third spa...
32. Future Storage: From Mineral Extraction to Data Forestry
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Marina Otero, head of the Social Design Masters Program at Design Academy Eindhoven, Netherlands, is the winner of the Harvard Graduate School of Desi...
31. Emergent Tokyo
25 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Think of Tokyo less as a “chaotic” than as an “emergent” city. This means spontaneous, self-organizing aspects create order from the bottom up...
30. True Lies
11 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For a truly philosophical take on the role of the architect in the post-truth era, Unfrozen interviews Richard Francis-Jones, author of Truth and Lies...
29. ”Al” in on Supertalls
04 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Unfrozen interviews Stefan Al, author, Supertall, founder, Stefan Al Architects, designer of Canton Tower, Guangzhou with Information Based Architectu...
28. Florida in Houston, ”Durbin Renewal” in Chicago, Metabolism Demo’ed in Tokyo
15 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Greg reports from Houston, where he and Richard Florida had some stage-sharing to do. Dan recounts a jaunt to the Canadian Riviera and Pacific Northwe...
27. A Skyscraper Superfan Aims High
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Meet Changsub Lee, a 14-year-old in South Korea who has been designing skyscrapers since he was eight. He's already a celebrity in the tall building w...
26. A Tale of Two Toy Cities
23 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two toy visions of Los Angeles describe two very different future visions: One vision wants you to play with its toys – and would be offended if y...
25. Metal Machine Musings
16 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Original story: Unfrozen 1.0, Sept. 3, 2012 A profile of two metallic sculptures by two design firms in Los Angeles: "A Loose Horizon," by LAYER, at t...
24. Growing Moss, Gathering Pace
09 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
22. The Engine Room, the City, and Color Commentary
19 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 f...
21. This is London: Rees Reminiscences
12 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
20. Hopeful Monsters, Strange Creatures and the Freedom of Choice
05 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Designers, urbanists, public policy advocates, and any others are who would join the Urban Technology Program at the University of Michigan are “hop...
19. Too-Late Modernism?
20 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
17. The Spell of Hot Desk
12 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Silicon Valley prides itself on "innovation" and "disruption," and its products are meant to drive "sharing" and "collaboration," but the architecture...
16. Games With New Frontiers, Alien Rococo, and Paper Money
05 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
15. Can You Say Velaslavasay?
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An interview with Sara Velas, founder, Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles. Intro / Outro: “Heartaches,” Al Bowlly, Sid Phillips & His Melodian...
14. Notes from Underground
23 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
13. What Fresh McMansion Hell is This?
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Unfrozen interviews Kate Wagner, creator and curator of McMansion Hell. Intro: "Suburbia," by Pet Shop Boys Discussed: - The special McMansion Hell th...
12. For Sale: Kindling $10.9 million (OBO)
15 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 Unfroz...
11. Are You Experienced? Join Team Insurgent!
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Interview with Daniel Meyers and Traci Sym of +&> (Plus and Greater Than), an exhibition design firm in Portland, Oregon. Intro / Outro: "Are Y...
10. Can the Dome Home Finally Find a Mass Audience?
03 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A certain subset of architects and futurists have long obsessed with mass-marketing domes, foam houses, spheres, and combinations thereof. Could their...
9. Ghost Grocers, Dark Stores, and Street Life
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Unfrozen interviews Lev Kushner, Partner, Department of Here, co-author of “The Dark Side of 15-Minute Grocery Delivery,” Bloomberg CityLab, Dec...
8. In Praise of Words and Letters, Union Shops, and the New Sincerity
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Greg and Dan host Eva Hagberg, author of “Dark Nostalgia,” “How to be Loved,” and the upcoming “When Eero Met His Match”. Intro: “The Le...
7. Architect, Designer, Lover, Spy: The Eero You Never Knew
19 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The complex (abridged) history of Eero Saarinen. From the Unfrozen 1.0 blog, an audio version of an article that originally ran on October 20, 2012 in...
6. Get Back to the Tunnel of Love: Marriage Dynamics in Design Firms, Why We Can’t Have Nice Things and a Lot of Other Things
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's a rambler, folks, but full of nuggets: Intro: "Tunnel of Love" by Dire Straits - Can BIG Transcend Bjarke? - Angry Foursomes, Unwieldy Threesome...
5. Going Mobile, Productizing Everything
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In which Greg and Dan discuss: CoMotion LA 2021, Conveyor-Belt Sushi, Sidewalk Labs' Mass Timber Factory, Carehaus at the CCA, Cold-Fusion Affordable ...
4. It’s Mark’s Mungerverse, We’re Just Living in It
06 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Considering: the Munger Nightmare Dorm at UCSB, the Metaverse, Pokemon Go, how BIM, CAD and CATIA can play the god game too, Planetary Computation, Re...
3. Turin-a-bout is Fair Play, Tracing Roots, Chasing Utopias
30 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Greg, Dan and special guest Alexandra Siebenthal, host of the Design in the City Podcast by RESITE, convene in Turin, Italy, to discuss their "redpill...
1. Deth in Venice
30 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Greg and Dan successfully make it to the 2020 > 2021 Venice Biennale, on their fourth attempt, only to find it is closed on Mondays. Fortunately, t...