SEPTEMBER 2023
Sept. 13, 3-5 pm. Walking tour! Architecture + The City Festival, AIA SF, San Francisco, CA. “Footsteps & Facades: Hitchcock’s Vertigo & SF’s Historic Buildings.” Buy Tickets Here. Step into the intriguing worlds of Alfred Hitchcock and San Francisco architecture on “Footsteps & Facades: Hitchcock’s Vertigo and San Francisco’s Historic Buildings.” Led by historian Christine Madrid French, author of The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock, this riveting two-hour tour weaves a spellbinding narrative that joins the cinematic landscape of Vertigo with the city’s iconic historic buildings. Starting at the cinematic Grace Cathedral in Nob Hill and concluding in bustling Union Square, we’ll stroll by pivotal locations such as the Brocklebank Apartments, the legendary Fairmont Hotel, and the atmospheric Hotel Empire. Navigate a steep descent to Sutter Street and then saunter through more level terrain, ultimately arriving at the architectural masterpiece designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on Maiden Lane. As Executive Director of Napa County Landmarks, French brings her unique expertise to enrich this multidimensional tour, blending film analysis, architectural insights, and vivid storytelling.
Sept. 13, 5:30-7:30 pm. Book Talk! Author’s Showcase, Architecture + The City Festival, AIA SF, San Francisco, CA. “The Architecture of Suspense.” Buy Tickets Here.This cross-over exploration of film & architecture is the first book to look at buildings as a character in Hitchcock’s most popular movies. I’ll be selling and signing books after the tour and presentation in the historic Hallidie Building in downtown San Francisco.
FEBRUARY 2023
Feb. 15, Modernism Week, Palm Springs, CA. https://modernismweek.com/
OCTOBER 2022
Oct. 1, HitchCon ’22: International Alfred Hitchcock Conference, Online. Join authors, filmmakers, artists, fans, and the world’s greatest Hitchcock experts for a weekend of inspiration, idea-sharing and networking. Author and pre-eminent Hitchcock historian Walter Raubicheck (from Pace University…he is also an authority on the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald and the songs of Bob Dylan!) and I will be having a conversation on Saturday, Oct. 1 from 4:15 to 4:40. See you then. Register Online.
Oct. 2, Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter. Join me to learn all of the secrets of The Architecture of Suspense. I’ll share stories from the archives and new Hitchcockian discoveries. Only $5 and you can support your favorite historians! 1-2 pm Pacific. Register Online.
Oct. 15, Modernism Week Fall Preview, Palm Springs, CA. Book signing with author Alan Hess at the Palm Springs Modernism Show. More Information. https://modernismweek.com/
Oct. 29, Docomomo Hawaii, online presentation, 10 pm Eastern/7 pm Pacific/4 pm Hawaii
Oct. 31, Halloween Special at the School of Architecture, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. Presentation and book signing at noon, Campbell Hall 158. FREE for the public. More Information.
NOVEMBER 2022
Nov. 6, Chicago on the Silver Screen: North by Northwest, 4:30 pm, Music Box Theater, Chicago, IL.
Co-Presented by Chicago Architecture Center. Featuring an Introduction by Author Christine Madrid French. The only Hitchcock film to pass through Chicago—the Ambassador East Hotel makes a prominent cameo—this classic from the Master of Suspense follows ad man Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) on a manic cross-country journey after he is wrongly accused of being a government agent. Joined along the way by enigmatic traveler Eve Kendell (Eva Marie Saint), Thornhill travels from the U.N. Headquarters in New York City to a modernistic villain’s lair in the Black Hills of South Dakota – with the nefarious spy Phillip Vandamm (George Mason) never far behind.
Buy Tickets: https://musicboxtheatre.com/events/chicago-on-the-silver-screen-north-by-northwest
Nov. 7, Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E. Wacker Dr., Chicago, IL. Presentation and book signing at noon. https://www.architecture.org/
Nov. 12, Enzian Theater, 1300 S. Orlando Avenue, Maitland, FL. Book signing and showing of North by Northwest starting at 11: am. Buy Tickets: https://enzian.org/film/north-by-northwest/
DECEMBER 2022
Dec. 3, Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, FL. Hitchcock Weekend with Christine Madrid French and Christina Lane, presentations in conjunction with the current exhibit “Art of the Hollywood Backdrop: Cinema’s Creative Legacy.” https://bocamuseum.org/art/art-hollywood-backdrop
2021
HitchCon 2021. International Alfred Hitchcock Conference. https://www.hitchcon.org/line-up
2019
California Preservation Foundation, “Film and Architecture,” with Douglas Cunningham, Annual Conference, Palm Springs, CA. May 9, 2019.
2018
Sarasota Architectural Foundation, “American Modern Architecture: Frame + Character in Hitchcock’s Cinematic Spaces.” Ringling College of Art + Design’s Alfred Goldstein Library, Sarasota, FL. March 29, 2018. A visually rich presentation focusing on Hitchcock’s penchant for filming suspenseful chase scenes, heart-stopping moments and romantic interludes against the backdrop of American modernist architecture.
2017
American Institute of Architects, “Sunshine State Modernism,” National Conference on Architecture, Orlando, FL, 2017.
Sarasota Architectural Foundation. “The Midcentury Modern (MCM) Phenomenon,” uncovering the fundamentals of MCM and its relevance and appeal in contemporary times. Moderator of a professional panel including Carl Abbott, FAIA; Pat Ball; Michael Epstein, AIA; Joyce Owens, RIBA, AIA. November 11, 2017.
2016
Orlando Public Library, “Celebrating Concrete: The Orlando Public Library & Brutalism,” August 20, 2016. Historian Christine Madrid French explores the history of the all-concrete Orlando Public Library, designed by John Johansen in 1966 with a 1986 addition by local architect Nils Schweizer. The library is one of Florida’s foremost examples of Brutalism, a fortress-like architectural style marked by the use of rough concrete. Learn more about this controversial style and how our own library fits within the international collection of these landmark 20th Century buildings. Watch the presentation on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSNPitJIMbQ
“American Modern Architecture: Frame + Character in Hitchcock’s Cinematic Spaces.” Presented at:
- Palm Springs Modernism Week (CA)
- Tucson Modernism Week (AZ)
- University of Virginia School of Architecture (VA)
2015
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, May 21. “Saving the Modern Century,” advocating for the use of dynamic techniques and approaches for the preservation and re-use of buildings and structures from the 1900s, especially American Modernism and architect-designed buildings that are not yet recognized as historic. This event was held as part of the museum’s ongoing Third Thursday series and offered in partnership with Tulsa Foundation for Architecture and Modern Tulsa.
2014
Palm Springs Modernism Week, Palm Springs, CA, February 2014. “Hidden Stories of Modernism: Tales from America’s Mid-Century Closet.”
2013
Kansas State Historic Preservation Conference: Art, Autos and Architecture, Salina, Kansas, 19 September 2013. Keynote speech: “Saving the Modern Century: Future Visions for Historic Preservation.”
Modern Architecture of St. Louis Public Meeting, 1520 Market Street, St. Louis, MO, 11 February 2013, 5:30 p.m.
Southern Modern: Second Annual Preservation Conference, Keynote Speaker for the Historic Preservation Student and Alumni Organization, to be held at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 15-17 February 2013.
The Future of Civil War History: Looking Beyond the 150th, Panelist, “Debating Battlefield Rehabilitation,” to be held at the Civil War Institute, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA, 14-16 March 2013.
DOCOMOMO-US National Symposium “Modern Matters,” Featured Speaker and panelist, Sarasota, FL, 18-20 April 2013.
2012
Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation (Missouri Preservation) “Missouri Statewide Preservation Conference: Preservation = Character.” Keynote Speaker: “The Next Fifty Years in Historic Preservation,” St. Louis, MO, 24-26 October 2012.
Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, Featured Speaker, “The Future of the Recent Past!” at the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation Annual Conference “Preserving Florida in the 21st Century: Preservation Through Education.” Session organized and moderated by Jeanne Lambin of the University of Florida World Heritage Center for Research and Stewardship, with Frank Spencer (principal of Kedge, a foresight, innovation, and strategic design consultancy). Gainesville, FL, 17-19 May 2012.
San Antonio Conservation Society, Keynote Speaker, “Mid-Century Modern: It’s About Time (1930-1970).” As part of National Preservation Month, the San Antonio Conservation Society convened a half-day seminar, with bus and walking tour, to heighten awareness of this dynamic period in San Antonio’s architectural history. The goal: “to weave the history of mid-twentieth century design into the tapestry of San Antonio’s past as well as its future.” San Antonio, TX, 4 May 2012.
Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum, Featured Speaker, “James Gamble Rogers II Colloquium on Historic Preservation: Back to the Future.” Sponsored by the Friends of Casa Feliz, lectures and home tour focusing on the appreciation for and protection of mid-century modern architecture, also featuring Jeanne Lambin of the University of Florida and local architect Richard Reep of Rollins College. Winter Park, FL, 21 April 2012.
University of Florida, Historic Preservation Program, Panelist, “Advocacy + the Future of the Recent Past + Modernism Panel Discussion: A Super Skype Participatory Panel with Input from Around the Globe.” Panel guests included Adrian Scott Fine, Director of Advocacy for the LA Conservancy, and Dr. Johannes Widodo, mAAN (modern Asian Architecture Network). Gainesville, FL, 2 April 2012.
Sarasota Architectural Foundation, Panelist, “Looking Forward…Preserving the Rudolph Legacy” as part of “Sarasota High School: Paul Rudolph’s Sarasota Legacy.” Sponsored by the SAF, Ringling College of Art + Design and the AIA Gulf Coast. With fellow panelists Morris Hylton, III, Joyce Owens, AIA RIBA, Richard Shieldhouse, Cynthia L. Peterson, and moderator Dan Snyder, SAF. Sarasota, FL, 14 March 2012.
Historic Hawaii Foundation, “Born Modern: The Next Preservation Generation.” Keynote Speaker, “Hawai‘i Modernism: A Symposium on Identification, Evaluation & Preservation of Our Recent Past.” Presentations, discussions, and celebrations of Hawaii’s significant architecture, planning and engineering achievements from the middle of the 20th century. Honolulu, HI, 21 January 2012.
