Imagine a Place

Lakiesha Stanley spent 7 years as an ER Nurse… and now she’s designing hospital interiors. As Lakiesha moves about her career as a healthcare interior designer (currently with Gresham Smith ), she brings so much more than empathy from her time as a nurse… She brings over a mindset on how to prioritize and deal with tough situations. In today's episode, she lets us in on how we can "triage" any sit...

Today our guest is Mario Vasilescu , he's the CEO and Co-Founder of Readocracy and this episode just might revolutionize how you feed your brain.  Over the past 5 years, greater awareness and data have helped us understand the layers of our health and wellbeing in ways that we’ve never considered before. However,  there’s one very important layer, that is too often left out of the conversation - i...

Adam Stover is a Senior Principal at Kansas City’s Populous and has led the design for some of the most significant sports stadium renovations and new builds of the last decade: These include Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium, Gillette Stadium, and Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever….. which is exactly where we met Adam for this interview...

A well-designed hospitality experience transports you… and so does a great conversation.  But when you have a great conversation about well-designed hospitality experiences… well, that’s just going to a whole nother level. Today, we bring on Valentina Castellon , DLR ’s Principal and Sr. Interior Designer out of Minneapolis. She’s a leader in the hospitality space, and her love of story and experi...

Earth Day is a time to celebrate, learn, and maybe try something new,  So we’ve got a great conversation today and a couple of questions for you too, Today, we brought back two of our favorite podcast pals,   The hosts of Break Some Dishes , to boost your Earth Day morale. And what do we cover in this conversation, today? We’ll help you get your mind and your spirit prepped for Earth Day.   About...

Today, we speak with Wendy Rodgers , CEO of architecture and design firm LPA - and in this episode, she's going to encourage you to "raise your hand."   Since joining LPA as an intern in 1987, Wendy Rodgers ' journey has taken her all the way to CEO. How'd she do it? As Wendy explains, embracing an entrepreneurial spirit and taking on BIG initiatives can create momentum in your career - however, t...

Today, we host the developer and president of Prince Concepts , Philip Kafka - and we promise, this episode will feed your mind and your soul. Philip Kafka ’s bold but unconventional vision for reimagining urban spaces has earned him commercial, critical, and career success with acclaimed projects in Detroit.  In this episode, Philip explains the keys to personal growth, how to do GREAT work, and...

Have you ever heard the expression, "start with why?" Well, Rex Miller starts somewhere else. Here’s what's awesome about this episode… We are dropping this one before the launch of The Resilience Lab .  It’s an Imagine a Place Productions original that features Rex Miller interviewing experts who explore ways to build resilience into your work, life, and practice of design. Rex is a well-publishe...

Our guest today is one of the world’s leading experts in designing for a population that is too often overlooked and misunderstood. Jane Rohde believes in a global cultural shift toward de-institutionalized senior living communities.  As Principal as JSR Associates , she is putting people at the center of her practice – For Jane, this means more than just the senior living residents, but also the...

Today, we host Bolanle Williams-Olley , aka Bola. She’s the CFO for the New York design and architecture firm Mancini Duffy , and she’s going to help you Build Boldly. Build Boldly is the title of Bola’s recently published book. It’s a hybrid autobiography and self-help book that immerses you in her own journey and how those lessons can apply towards building your own career. B.O.L.D. is the acron...

Dianne Murata is the witty and enthusiastic founder of Kimiko Designs .  In today’s interview, she helps you think differently about furniture planning and specification. Dianne brings over 2 decades of experience in furniture planning and design and she doesn’t hold back in our conversation.  She shares how furniture doesn’t have to be the “F word”, why we’ll need to embrace our inner MacGyver as...

Over the last 10 years, Gensler's Todd Heiser has emerged as one of our industry's most creative and BIG thinking leaders in workplace design - and you're about to find out why. Todd Heiser is a Co-Managing Director of Gensler’s Chicago office. His leadership showcases more than 20 years of experience in next-generation design at the cutting edge of workplace strategies, and his commitment to conc...

We asked our previous guest, Kia Weatherspoon (episode 35 - May 3, 2021), for an intro to someone she’d want to hear from – The first name on her list: Jessica Caldwell . Jessica Caldwell is the founder of Folke Creative in Brooklyn NY, a boutique branding and design studio inspired by the stories of people, places, and things. She also runs the design blog: Design is Lit . Today, Jessica will let...

Ok, a few episodes back, we mentioned that we were cooking up some good stuff in the kitchen at Imagine a Place. Well today, we are proud to announce the launch of our own podcast network, Imagine a Place Productions ! The goal of Imagine a Place Productions is to further elevate the belief that the places we make and the ways we design them matter in our lives. Our new collection of podcasts gath...

There is just so much we want to say about our guest Mark Ostrom today - It’s just hard to fit that much goodness into one introduction though. Mark is the founder and executive director of Joy Collaborative , a nonprofit that you will love learning about. Joy Collaborative is a partnership of impassioned doers and givers –designers, architects, and builders; donors, volunteers, and sponsors – who...

In 2016, Amy Leigh Hufford stood on a stage in Chicago as she was handed the IIDA Interior Design Student of the Year Award. For those of us in the room for that moment, it would prove to be unforgettable … and you’re about to hear why. Amy’s an interior designer at Nelson Worldwide and to say she’s wise beyond her year would be a terrible understatement.   Through today’s conversation with Amy, y...

Christian Giordano is the president and co-owner of the New York design firm Mancini Duffy , and the host of the popular podcast - The Anti-Architect .  We hosted Christian Giordano right here on Imagine a Place in June of 2021. We brought Christian back on the show because after our first interview with him, we felt like he had a “secret sauce” at his firm… and we wanted to figure out what it was...

Shuli Steele is the Director of the Higher Education market at Planon , a global leader in smart building technologies.  She’s an author, a TEDx speaker , and a self-titled learner advocate. In this episode, Shuli shares how space planning at the campus is evolving.  We discuss campus and work/life culture and what we really crave from others when it comes to our time in the workplace.  Click here...

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day - And we want to bring you a conversation that honors the values and legacy that Dr. King left behind for this world…. and Mike Johnson II , well, he wants to bring you a whole building full of it. Mike Johnson is a senior associate at the architecture and design firm, Perkins&Will . He’s actively engaged in advancing the profession of design at both the com...

Lori Louis is the Sr. Director, Experiential Space Design & Concepting at JLL .  And Lori has built and runs a highly effective and efficient design team that is entirely remote. So… in this conversation, Lori is going to help us crack the code. How can we bring our remote or hybrid design game to a new level?  She also challenges the processes of today’s commercial design, procurement, and constr...

In this episode, Doug Shapiro shares his personal journey as a podcast host and what he has learned after nearly two years of conversation.  Get your FREE copy of the Imagine a Place journal :  Connect with Doug :  On Instagram : @Douglas_Shapiro On LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/doshapiro/  By Email : dshapiro@ofs.com Email Imagine a Place : imagineaplace@ofs.com Connect with Maria on Lin...

Rachel Bascombe is an architect in Los Angeles at the firm CO Architects and Rachel is number 412.  A number that will soon make sense to you and will probably surprise you. In today’s interview with Rachel, we’ll hear about a moment that changed her life path and how that moment helped to create a sense of purpose when it comes to place.  Rachel also shares how one project early in her career hel...

As the buyer’s journey becomes increasingly digital…so do our jobs, our communication, our processes.  As Abby Murray embraced this new digital lens, her motivation for starting Mortarr was built through a combination of frustration and opportunity. She saw the potential for a more inclusive, efficient, and greener way of doing business. Today, she is the CEO of Mortarr – A website built around co...

Today’s episode features two big thinkers when it comes to place and technology. Edward Wagoner is the CIO for the progressive-minded $17 billion,  global real estate firm, JLL . Will Cowell de Gruchy is the founder and CEO of Infogrid - a fast-growing startup aimed at making buildings smarter and the world healthier. These two are thinking about the intersection of real estate and technology at t...

Regan Donoghue is the energetic workforce strategist and co-founder of SimConsults .  For well over a decade, she’s been researching and rethinking the role of work in our lives. Today, we talk about gamification at work, the future role of place in office work, data in the workplace, and how we can build a culture that values the feedback of our employees. Regan co-founded SimConsults based on th...