Buildings On Air

This episode of Buildings on Air we chat with organizer, writer, and attorney Ramsin Canon to talk about zoning and land use. We cover the basics of zoning, hear the legal perspective on land use, and discuss why it matters to activists. If you found our conversation interesting check out Ramsin’s presentation on zoning to the 33rd Ward Working Families organization here.

We are still off our regular format, but in this episode we revisit the classic Buildings on Air “Mailbag” with Nicholas Cecchi and Emily Handley. We talk air changes, bidets, and more!Look out this summer/fall for the show to return to its usual two hour format, with interviews and hopefully a return to our regular, regular segments!

This episode of Buildings on Air we chat architectural internships with New York based architectural worker Jesse McCormick, a co-author of a recent report on the subject (link here). We chat about precarious employment conditions and dive deep into the legalities of unpaid internships, as well as the misclassification of employees as independent contractors.

What is the impact of a landmark district on gentrification? In this episode of Buildings on Air we answer that question and more with Chicago Democratic Socialists of America member and community organizer Diego Morales. We talk about the the debate surrounding the proposed Pilsen Landmark District here in Chicago, and why/how the community is pushing back.If you want to get involved with and stay up to date about the push back against the landmark district check out Pilsen Alliance on Facebook and Twitter.

This episode of Buildings on Air marks our triumphant return after a hiatus. We talk with Will Orr and Ricardo Ruivo, teachers at the Architectural Association (AA) in London. The AA has recently been embroiled in controversy on the vote of no-confidence and subsequent dismissal of director Eva Franch I Gilabert. Will and Ric tell us about what went down at the AA, discuss how it is symptomatic of the architectural education industry in the age of neoliberalism, and talk through where we go from here. Read their open letter.

This episode of Buildings on Air we we chat with Sean Estelle and Sveta Stoytcheva of Democratic Socialists of America about the campaign to municipalize Chicago’s electric grid.We are still under stay-at-home orders in Illinois which means the Lumpen Radio studios are closed so we are departing from our usual format to bring you prerecorded interviews.We are collecting remembrances of Michael Sorkin for possible broadcast - please send in audio clips or writing to buildingsonair@gmail.com._More info on the campaign to democratize ComEd can be found at http://www.demcomed.orgMore information on the Democratize ComEd General Membership meeting can be found here: https://www.chicagodsa.org/event/democratize-comed-march-general-membership-meetingAnd lastly if you are a dues paying DSA member you can follow this link to get involved with the national level Ecosocialist working group: http://bit.ly/ecosocialist

This episode of Buildings on Air is not an episode of Buildings on Air at all! Rather it is an episode of the Failed Architecture podcast. Subscribe to their feed here and check out some of their amazing writing at https://failedarchitecture.com.Big thank you to Charlie Clemoes and the rest of the Failed Architecture team for letting us share this episode with you.Buildings on Air Announcements:We are switching our regular time slot in March. Tune into Chicago’s WLPN-LP Lumpen Radio 105.5FM at 2pm central on THIRD Saturdays to hear our show live. The podcast version will follow shortly after. Send pitches and suggestions to buildingsonair@gmail.comFailed Architecture Episode 11 - Architects Unionise!:We tend to think of architects as professionals rather than workers. Architects design, create, delegate, follow a special calling, but they’re not often seen as “working for a living”, and they’re certainly not much like the workers who actually construct or extract the resources for the buildings they design. And yet, architectural work in the twenty first century has become ever more precarious. As with other white collar workers, architects are becoming increasingly accustomed to short-term contracts, overtime without pay and other traditional hallmarks of exploited labour.In light of this new reality, for this episode we’ll be talking to architectural workers from the UK, the USA, and Brazil, about the role a labour union could play in the contemporary architectural profession. We’ll discuss the difficulties, limits and challenges of organizing architectural workers and speculate as to why architects have, until recently, been relatively absent from the history of the labour movement. We’ll also consider how unionisation could give ordinary architectural workers greater control over the buildings and spaces they design as well as over the wider spatial production sector.Keefer Dunn is an architect based in Chicago and a former national organiser for the Architecture LobbyFernanda Simon Cardoso is an architect based in São Paulo and a former Director for the FNA (Federação Nacional dos Arquitetos e Urbanistas)Sam and Alex are architectural workers based in the UK and organisers for Workers Inquiry: ArchitectureThis episode was directed by Charlie Clemoes/Jake Soule/The Failed Architecture Team

This episode of Buildings on Air we sit down with members of Extinction Rebellion for a discussion about the strategies and tactics that will win us climate justice. Then we open up the mailbag with Ann Lui and Craig Reschke and answer your listener questions about buildings. Lastly, in our regular segment about the architecture discourse, Fun and Angry with Anjulie Rao, we read Patrick Sisson's recent article in Curbed that asks: who exactly is buying all these downtown luxury condos anyway?! Read more here: https://www.curbed.com/2019/11/12/20944374/apartment-downtown-empty-nester-baby-boomer

In this special episode of Buildings on Air we turn to the Chicago River, asking our guests about the past, present, and future of our cities waterways. This episode was recorded from the Michigan Avenue Bridgehouse in the heart of downtown, and produced in collaboration with the Tender House Project. It originally aired on WLPN-LP Lumpen Radio on October 5th, 2019.Guests on today's program include Patrick McBriarty of Chicago Maritime Arts, Ward Miller of Preservation Chicago, Mejay Gula of Tender House Project, Joanne So Young Dill and John Quail of Friends of the Chicago River, and Chloe Gurin-Sands of Metropolitan Planning Council.

This episode of Buildings on Air! First, we invite writer and activist Keith Rosenthal on the show to discuss capitalism, disability, and the ADA. Check out Keith’s website here: https://joanofmark.blogspot.com/.Second, Anjulie and Keefer offer up some cool takes on the discourse in our regular segment “Fun and Angry.” First, we will do our best to unpack a truly baffling article on parametric architecture from Forbes.And last! We open up our mailbag with Ann and Craig of Future Firm! Send in your listener questions for a chance to have them answered on air!

On this episode of Buildings on Air we talk about buildings codes & public access, why the libertarian solution to the housing crisis is not the right one, and then answer your listener questions about buildings in our mailbag segment! Full line-up below:First up! We chat with Scott Reynolds of @upcodes about why public access to the law is important, how it impacts the built environment, and why the standards developing organizations are pushing back.Then! We head to Critics Corner (is this the episode where the segment gets renamed?!) with Anjulie Rao to discuss @Richard_Florida’s recent CityLab article apprising readers of the recent scholarship lambasting libertarian solutions to the housing crisis.And lastly! We answer your listener questions in our favorite mailbag segment with Ann Lui and Craig Reschke of Future Firm! If you got a building question tag us @bldgsonair or email buildingsonair@gmail.com and we will answer it live on air!

On this episode we introduce a new segment featuring the inimitable Anjulie Rao. Anjulie and Keefer discuss the piece “Refusal After Refusal” by Adjustments Agency, which appeared in Harvard Design Magazine as well as the article “The “B” Word: How a More Universal Concept of Beauty Can Reshape Architecture” by Mark Alan Hewitt in Common Edge.Next Keefer opens up the mailbag with Ann Lui and Craig Reschke of Future Firm. Send in your listener questions to buildingsonair@gmail.com for us to answer!Lastly, we interview Yonah Freemark to discuss his research on upzoning which set the urbanist discourse alight!