American Building

We’ve officially reached 100 episodes of American Building, and to mark the milestone, I’m joined by Austin Crowley, Senior Associate, and Robert Blaser, Principal, of Michael Graves Architecture. We center the conversation on one of Austin and Robert’s current projects: Cutler Bay Legacy Park, a civic project that addresses how a Florida community can engage with its government and waterfront. Th...

Hundreds of real estate conferences happen every year, but very few address the tactical realities of small scale development.  In 2012, Jim Heid, in conjunction with the Urban Land Institute, launched the first Small Scale Developers Forum (SSDF) with 20 people in San Francisco. What started as an "Island of Misfit Toys” now sells out within a week of registration and draws in 100+ participa...

When most universities build research facilities for data science and AI, they create sleek, futuristic spaces that showcase technology. The University of Pennsylvanias School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) took the opposite approach with Amy Gutmann Hall. The six-story building uses mass timber construction to bring natural warmth and a sense of openness to technical progra...

Danny Fishman co-founded GAIA Real Estate in 2009 when the financial crisis created distressed opportunities across multifamily markets. His approach centers on hands-on management rather than passive ownership. When evaluating properties, Danny and his team spend weekends on-site observing tenant behavior, testing neighborhood walkability, and understanding what drives the local rental market. Th...

Disney's New York operations were scattered across the Upper West Side in aging facilities, including a former horse stable that housed ABC News broadcast sets. When the company set out to bring ABC, ESPN, Marvel, and its other divisions under one roof, the design prompt required upgrades for the next generation of broadcast technology and adherence to New York's Local Law 97 emissions requirement...

There's a piece of conventional wisdom in real estate that almost every developer accepts: retail follows rooftops. Build the housing first, then the storefronts will follow. Tesho Akindele and the team at Camp North End did the opposite—and it’s paying off in a major way.  Camp North End is a 76-acre adaptive reuse project in Charlotte, North Carolina. Formerly a Ford manufacturing plant tur...

"I'll plan anything a man wants, from a cathedral to a chicken coop," architect H.H. Richardson famously said. Stephen Cassell has done exactly that—designing a chicken coop, a synagogue, and now comes full circle with a cemetery welcome and education center in Brooklyn. Green-Wood Cemetery is transforming from an active burial ground into a cultural institution. With art installations, concerts i...

There are over 2,000 different building codes across the United States, including 340 in Colorado alone. This fragmentation is one of the biggest barriers preventing modular housing from addressing America's affordability crisis. Wayne Norbeck and Jordan Rogove, co-founders of DXA Studio and Liv-Connected, are working to change that through their design work and their efforts on Capitol Hill. In t...

When the Lahaina wildfires devastated Maui in 2023, Hawaiʻi's governor did something unprecedented: he rejected FEMA trailers. The reason was simple一those trailers were designed to last three seasons but routinely became permanent housing for 10-plus years, bringing mold, formaldehyde, and health problems with them. Hawaiʻi wanted something better.  Jordan Rogove and Wayne Norbeck, co-founde...

Most developers assume the housing crisis is about supply. Jesse Russell and Ryan Andrews of Hiatus Homes see it differently: it's about designing for households that most developers overlook. One to two-person households represent the largest and fastest-growing demographic in America, yet they're the least served by new construction. Based in Bend, Oregon, Hiatus Homes builds 500-1,200 square fo...

The return-to-office policies have settled, but the real challenge has just begun. As companies bring employees back to their desks, the question isn't whether people will return—it's whether they'll want to stay. The office buildings succeeding in this new era aren't necessarily those with the best locations or lowest rents, but rather those who approach office spaces with a hospitality mindset....

When's the last time a ping pong game determined whether you could close a $350,000 loan? For Jonathan Dodson, it happened during his first major development project after walking away from a banking career. His moral stand against workplace harassment led him to launch Pivot Project, an Oklahoma City-based development firm specializing in historic preservation and community revitalization. ...

Many architecture firm owners struggle with the same challenge: How do you build a sustainable business that can thrive beyond the founder? Joe Furey solved this problem by bringing his finance and technology background to Michael Graves Architecture & Design, one of America's most iconic firms. As CEO and President, Joe has transformed the practice from a firm dependent on Michael Graves’ rep...

Stephen Ross had an uncompromising vision for a transformational park built over a highway as part of an ambitious Detroit master plan. The challenge was cost. Tina Ladd has built her career remaining determined in the face of challenges. Through her work on both the Detroit master plan and Hudson Yards, she honed her skills to turn the impossible into possible. Today, that same relentless, soluti...

SHVO's $400 million transformation of the Transamerica Pyramid required solving a fundamental problem: how do you renovate an iconic building without destroying what makes it unique? The building's original architect, William Pereira, created brilliant structural innovations but made unusual interior design decisions—hiding 17-foot ceilings behind nine-foot drops and resulting in what was for a lo...

Michael Shvo, founder, chairman, and CEO of SHVO, has built a reputation for transforming iconic properties through hospitality-driven real estate development. From residential to commercial assets, his customer-first philosophy has created some of the most iconic properties across global markets. In this episode, Michael shares the remarkable story behind his $650 million acquisition and transfor...

When the construction numbers came back for Worrell Yeung’s artist studio design in Westerly, Rhode Island, everyone had to pause and recalibrate. The ground-up approach they'd developed was simply too expensive for the clients' needs and lifestyle. This moment led them back to the initial design prompt and sketches.  Rather than seeing this as a setback, Jejon Yeung and Max Worrell, co-found...

When architect Michael Chen, principal of MKCA, got a call about designing a 600-square foot apartment, the project brief was straightforward enough: renovate a 2-bedroom summer vacation home with multifunctional furniture. However, this wasn’t East Hampton or Miami Beach. In fact, there wasn’t an address at allーthe apartment floats on a luxury residential yacht that spends 365 days a year at sea...

In the continuation of our conversation with architect Vishaan Chakrabarti, we dive deeper into the philosophy and challenges behind PAU's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame expansion. What emerges is a masterclass in honoring architectural legacy and a candid discussion about building a principled practice.  Vishaan reveals PAU's "place needs connection" methodology—starting as archaeologists to une...

Four years ago, we sat down with architect and urbanist Vishaan Chakrabarti to explore his vision for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame expansion in Cleveland—then still on the drawing board. Today, that project is under construction, reshaping Cleveland’s lakefront with a bold new cultural landmark. As cranes rise and the tower takes form, our conversation with Vishaan feels more timely than ever:...

When Jim Somoza first walked through Chelsea Market in 1994, he was blown away by the adaptive reuse concept. Years later, through a series of real estate transactions, Jim met Irwin Cohen, the visionary behind the project. He spent four years as president there, and is now applying those lessons at Industry City, turning 16 abandoned waterfront buildings into Brooklyn's largest mixed-use campus....

When visitors walk into the Pottery Barn at 619 Ponce, they often ask about the amazing candle scent filling the space. But the smell isn't a candle at all—it's the building itself. The four-story mass timber structure is built from Southern Yellow Pine that developer Jamestown sourced from their own timber holdings. As Director of Innovation and Sustainability at Jamestown, Carrie Denning Jackson...

What if the biggest barrier to carbon-neutral development isn't the technology or the materials, but actually the industry's resistance to change? Most developers know sustainable construction is the future, but translating those ideals into financially viable projects feels impossible when you're faced with premium construction costs and market-rate rents. Nate Helbach believes that large-scale,...

When's the last time you knocked on a stranger's door to ask for something? For most people, the answer is probably never—or at least not since Halloween as a kid. But Cecily King is building Kipling Development this way, sourcing deals by networking in underserved communities and connecting with retiring landlords.  Kipling bridges the gap between subsidized low-income housing and luxury mar...

Ben Weinberg and Michael Weiss, childhood friends turned business partners, are threading the needle between nostalgia and innovation with their hospitality ventures Castle Peak Holdings and Trailborn. From the beaches of Wrightsville, North Carolina to the foothills of Rocky Mountain National Park, they’re transforming three-star properties into four-star resort experiences that honor local charm...