Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Meet the 2020 Mod Squad! Click through the gallery to see what "modernism" means to them. Each week we'll be updating with their Instagram Takeovers, so follow along!
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Ashley Ropati, @lonny + @ashleyropati
Originally hailing from New Zealand, Ashley Ropati is Lonny's Home Editor, now based in San Francisco. Passionate about all things design, her role involves profiling beautiful and unique spaces and showcasing the personalities behind them. With experience as a food, entertainment, and beauty editor — she has a penchant for all things lifestyle. Her work has featured across a variety of brands, including Vogue Australia, Design Folio, The Denizen, Beauticate, and Dish Magazine.
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Ashley Ropati, @lonny + @ashleyropati
"Modernism, to me, is an unadulterated confidence with color and comprehension of space — as seen in this bold family home in Portland, Oregon. The ability to break the mold, stray from convention, and layer different textures and textiles in a thoughtful and uncomplicated way. It's the idea that color and clean lines can co-exist with no fuss."
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Ashley Ropati, @lonny + @ashleyropati
"A seamless blend of old and new, that's modernism. Disregarding the traditional rulebook in favor of a fresh, functional aesthetic. Vintage robots and a plaid lounger come together in spectacular style in this restored L.A. bungalow, anchored by a kitchen island and contemporary dining nook, complete with whitewashed floors and oversized abstract art."
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Ashley Ropati, @lonny + @ashleyropati
"Form follows function, first and foremost. True modernism is informed by an ease of living — rendered through contemporary lines and innovative new materials. This beachfront home in Malibu nails the desired brief — channelling modern living in an effortless and understated kind of way."
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Gregory Han, @typefiend + @designmilk
Gregory is a design and and technology writer for Design Milk. A former managing editor at Apartment Therapy, you can find his work at the New York Times’ Wirecutter, Tom’s Guide, Vice Munchies, and Metropolis. His most recent efforts include co-authorship of Poketo’s Creative Spaces, a book dedicated to people, homes and studios to inspire across the United States and beyond. He lives with his wife Emily and their two cats – Eames and Eero – in Mt. Washington, California.
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Gregory Han, @typefiend + @designmilk
"While modernism is often attributed merely an aesthetic value, its inherent optimism is what I find most appealing. Modernism at its best represents a radical departure from today for a utopian belief in tomorrow – one where we can do better. Thus designs erected even decades ago like Arcosanti retain an evocative vitality today even when its facade begins to weather away."
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Gregory Han, @typefiend + @designmilk
"People often ask where I'd like to live one day if I ever decide to leave Los Angeles, and without a beat I'll blurt out "The Sea Ranch!" with the enthusiasm of a lifelong crush. I love the community's idealism sewing architecture informed by the landscape, representing a principled lifestyle where the cohabitation of people and place was considered decades in advance."
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Gregory Han, @typefiend + @designmilk
"John Lautner's design is probably the sexiest residence I've ever walked into. With a pool reflecting the tropical landscape and the home's open angular facade overlooking the Hollywood Hills, the house is unabashedly an exhibitionist. Modernism represents an openness that tradition tends to hide away, whether it be the materials used or the lives lived within."
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Casey Gerber, @tastemadehome + @tastemadetravel
Casey Gerber is a Los Angeles-based content director and interiors stylist. Over the last decade, she has integrated herself into various stages of the creative process. From fashion merchandising and buying, to video production and programming, she draws inspiration from the balancing act between creative intuition and data. Whether she’s coming up with new content ideas or designing a space, she believes wholeheartedly that there’s no bigger payoff than taking a project from start to finish. Currently, Casey is the Director of Content at Tastemade, a global media company for modern consumers that inspires the taste of a generation. As the head of both Tastemade Home and Tastemade Travel, she lives to learn and support an active community of both Home & Design lovers, Explorers & Adventure Seekers.
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Casey Gerber, @tastemadehome + @tastemadetravel
"As a fan of all things home and travel, there's no question that Palm Springs is a design destination well worth the trek through the desert! #ModernismWeek is a truly special time of year when we come together to appreciate the new and the old, and celebrate the lasting impact that mid century modern design has on our lives. Follow along as we explore historic design gems and translate the principles to today. (Designed by @SCwoodburning for @tastemadehome)"
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Casey Gerber, @tastemadehome + @tastemadetravel
"At @Tastemade, we believe that good taste transcends borders and the best way to learn is to get out and do! This year, we look forward to experiencing all that #ModernismWeek has to offer. From the Premier Double Decker Architectural Bus Tour to the inspiring desert landscape, we're can't wait to highlight everything that makes Palm Springs the oasis that it is! (Designed by @jessweymouth_ for @tastemadehome)"
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Casey Gerber, @tastemadehome + @tastemadetravel
"This patio may be tiny, but it’s still a pretty big mess, if we do say so ourselves. This special episode of @Tastemadehome's #TinyHome is all about making miniature dreams come true through a heavy dose of mid century modern style. Let's just say that 1:12 scale has never looked fresher. Make sure to follow @tastemadehome and @tastemadetravel during #ModernismWeek as we check out #PalmSprings masterpieces!"
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Eve + Leonora Epstein, @hunkerhome
Eve and Leonora Epstein are sisters, writers, and editors at Hunker, an online platform dedicated to highlighting the architecture, design, and stories to inspire the space around you. With experience at Buzzfeed (Leonora) and DailyCandy (Eve), the Epstein sisters have also had their work featured in The Cut, Vanity Fair, Salon, and more. They are co-authors of X vs. Y: A Culture War, a Love Story (Abrams). Their shared loves include cane furnishings, weighted blankets, Clare V., cats, dogs, and their parents.
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Shane Reiner-Roth, @everyverything
Shane Reiner-Roth is a writer, curator and photographer. He has lectured on architecture, art, and design at several universities, including Yale University, the University of Manitoba, the University of Iowa, and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK). Reiner-Roth has published writing for publications including Log Journal, Mas Context, Thresholds, and is currently a journalist and critic for The Architect’s Newspaper. He also manages an instagram, @everyverything, that highlights the architecture and design of artificiality and simulation.
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Shane Reiner-Roth, @everyverything
"Having grown up in Los Angeles, my definition of modernism was first influenced by the city’s impressive collection of dingbat apartment buildings. Local artist Ed Ruscha once described these minimally-decorated buildings as “boxes with words on them,” but I came to see them as much more than that. More unabashedly than most other building types, dingbats built during the 1950s and 1960s expressed the tastes of their developers in a more playful way than we may be used to seeing in buildings of this era of modernism. Some call them kitschy or low-brow, but I would sooner call them expressionist."
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Shane Reiner-Roth, @everyverything
"Before I knew anything about architecture, my parents took me to the Eames House set on the hills of the Pacific Palisades. The warmth and hominess its two buildings exudes proved to me that modernist design can be just as charming and inviting as the more traditional styles we may often associate with those terms."
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Shane Reiner-Roth, @everyverything
"I recently took a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Barnsdall House in East Hollywood that made me reconsider the architect’s entire body of work. Wright claimed to design in contrast to the minimalist sensibilities common among his peers during the first half of the 20th century, yet the Barnsdall House is delightfully restrained in its ornamentation from several vantage points. Wright was influenced by Japanese design while designing the home, which may explain why he wished to explore the almost sensual material qualities concrete is capable of exuding when properly constructed."
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Natalie Myers, @nataliemyers
You may recognize our next #PSModSquadTakeover guest from our inaugural Summer Mod Squad! We're proud to welcome designer Natalie Myers back to Palm Springs as she joins the Modernism Week Mod Squad in February. Natalie Myers is an award-winning LA-based interior designer, who has perfected the California cool aesthetic in her residential and commercial work (she famously coined the term #ScandifornianStyle!). Since earning a BA in Interior Design from Cornell University, Natalie has been creating fresh and minimally luxe spaces that have been featured in Domino Magazine, Elle Decor, Lonny, Dwell and more.
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Takashi Yanai, @t_yanai
Takashi Yanai is a Partner at Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects. Takashi has been Residential Studio Director since 2004, and is also currently leading EYRC’s San Francisco Studio. Prior to practice, Takashi was a design journalist and editor at GA Houses in Tokyo where his work and travels provided the seeds for his design philosophy. Today his work is rooted in its contemplative relationship to landscape and is a continuation of the California Modernist ethos infused with reinterpretations of traditional Japanese elements. In 2017 he was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in recognition of his residential work, which articulates how architecture can “connect man and nature through masterful siting and exceptional craft.” Takashi serves on the SFMOMA Photography Accessions Committee and has also been appointed the Chair of the National AIA Committee on Design for 2021. His professional activities, travels and personal inspirations are well-documented and widely followed (50,000 followers) on his Instagram account @t_yanai.
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Takashi Yanai, @t_yanai
"The Spring Road residence locates one in space, in relation to the landscape. The connection between architecture and landscape is a theme in Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects' work. I'll be joining Steven Ehrlich to share more about this during "Outside In: New California Modernism" at the Palm Springs Art Museum's Annenberg Theater on Feb 16th (tickets here: https://tickets.modernismweek.com/f/mw20/outside)"
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Takashi Yanai, @t_yanai
"It provides an architectural frame or backdrop to measure the time of day, the time of year, and the seasons. Explore this narrative and how it was applied here and on other Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects projects at our "Outside In: New California Modernism" lecture on February 16."
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Megan McKean, @meganmckean
Megan McKean is a designer, travel writer, author, illustrator, and a #PSModSquad fave! Creating travel inspired pieces for McKean Studio and other companies, her work spans digital, print and 3D forms. Megan’s illustration work is characterised by the use of bright colour palettes, strong line work and surprising details hidden within each piece, encouraging the viewer to go back for another look to see what they may have missed. Having authored, designed and illustrated children’s books gives Megan a unique perspective in the design industry, with the ability to manage projects from conception through to the finished product. Her five titles ‘Hello, Sydney!‘ (2016), ‘Hello, Melbourne!‘ (2017), ‘Hello, Australia!’ (2018) ‘Hello, New Zealand!’ (2019) and ‘Hello, London!’ (2020) have been received with great success, and shortlisted for several awards, including an Australian Book Industry Award (Children’s Book of the Year), and the Australian Book Designers Association Award (Best Designed Children’s Series). The ‘Hello…!’ series is published in Australia by Thames & Hudson.
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Megan McKean, @meganmckean
"It was so fun to contribute my illustration work for Modernism Week last year — here is one of my designs in its natural habitat, rainbow bright at The Saguaro Palm Springs! I’ve been cooking up something special for 2020, and I can’t wait to share!"
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Megan McKean, @meganmckean
"The Moorten Botanical Garden is one of my favourite spots to visit when I’m in Palm Springs. It is such a special treasure, an oasis of amazing cacti and desert plants the you can’t see anywhere else. The patterns, colours and textures are something you have to see for yourself!"
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Hannah Martin, @_h_mart_ + @getclever
As Architectural Digest's senior design editor, New York-based Hannah Martin covers cutting edge creatives from the past and present. Each month in the magazine she profiles rising and established talents and pens a design history column called Object Lesson. She also shares design advice for real life at ArchDigest.com's Clever.
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Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Hannah Martin, @_h_mart_ + @getclever
"It's all in the materials. To me, a home that jives with its surroundings is ultra modern. At Alison and Jay Carroll's place in Joshua Tree (they're the couple behind Wonder Valley) they worked with a pretty limited palette—vertical-grain Douglas fir, warm white plaster, Sedona red flagstone, unlacquered brass, and burnt orange—to make their revived 1950s homestead blend seamlessly into that insane desert landscape."
Source: 📷: Tim Hirschmann
Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Hannah Martin, @_h_mart_ + @getclever
"Modernism is about modernizing. I love how interior designer Jess Cooney Interiors revived this lakeside 1980s Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome house in the Berkshires for a couple from Boston. Great architecture is the kind that can adapt over time."
Source: 📷: Lisa Vollmer⠀
Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Hannah Martin, @_h_mart_ + @getclever
"Modernism is thinking outside of the box. I'm obsessed with the geometric shelves DUSEN DUSEN founder Ellen van Dusen commissioned from her friend Sam Keene for her Brooklyn brownstone. What you don't see: Press a button and her TV emerges from the back."
Source: 📷: Max Burkhalter⠀
Meet the 2020 Mod Squad
Minh T, @thismintymoment
Minh T is a photographer and art director based in California. Trained in architecture, structural engineering and graphic design, his photographic style conjures up a world of timelessness, simplicity, nature, architecture, and escapism that has earned him a large following on social media. Through his Instagram account, @thismintymoment, Minh has managed to enchant audiences from across the globe, including notable publications, fashion houses and fellow photographers, translating his social media profile from casual hobby to an internationally acclaimed aesthetic. Minh’s work has been published and seen on many publications including Cereal, AD Singapore, Luxe, Adobe and West Elm. His Instagram account was awarded “Best Individual Instagram” by Surface Magazine in 2017.
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The Mod Squad is a group of inspiring (and modernist-loving) creatives, tasked with the mission of capturing Modernism Week through their eyes.
Each year, we look forward to discovering Modernism Week through the eyes of our Mod Squad. The diverse and dynamic mix of creatives always lend a unique, behind-the-scenes look at the hundreds of events in February, and we’re especially excited to see how they experience all the modernist fun in 2020!
Click through the gallery to see what “modernism” means to the 2020 Mod Squad.
Stay tuned as the #PSModSquad share more from behind the scenes at Modernism Week February 13-23, 2020!