Blair Kamin, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, has had a tempestuous relationship with Donald Trump for years. As a developer working in Chicago, Trump's buildings have been critiqued by Kamin, and as often happens when Trump is criticized, he does not shy away from firing back personal attacks—calling him "dopey" and "a lightweight" when Kamin decried the developer's decision to slap a 20-foot-tall "TRUMP" sign on his downtown Chicago hotel. But instances like the "sign feud" aside, Kamin has also experienced Trump's kinder side, and can attest to the complex (to say the least) personality of the business man both before and after his profoundly strange pivot onto the national political stage.
We invited Kamin on the podcast to discuss his relationship with the developer-candidate, how it's impacted his role as a critic, and how the 2016 campaign has invoked issues related to the built environment (or not).
Listen to episode 86 of Archinect Sessions, "A Friend in Deed":
Shownotes:
More News pieces on Kamin and Trump:
"Signfeud" sketch on The Daily Show:
The New York Times piece on the 2016 campaign’s effects on Trump’s reputation
Ezra Stoller's photography
Emily Badger's piece for the New York Times on "inner cities"
What Blair's reading: The Catcher in the Rye and When the Emperor Was Divine
"A Face in the Crowd" Trump supercut (1957)
2 Comments
#maga
This was a good discussion. It does reveal that Trump is *not just* a cartoon character evil narcissist, even though the current election narrative is trying to paint both candidates as being that shallow.
Humans are complex.
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