The Clayton Vance Podcast

Joe has spent years learning the history behind the homes most people just walk past. In this episode he and Clayton explore authenticity in architecture, the real reason mid-century through 80s construction felt so wrong, and why genuine excitement might be the most powerful tool in education. One of those conversations that quietly changes how you see the world around you.

I was a guest on the Heber Valley Life Podcast with Rachel Kaler, and this is Part 2 of our conversation about the hard questions shaping Heber Valley right now—growth, housing, and what it actually takes to build a place with long-term beauty and livability. We dig into the “missing middle,” why zoning often separates communities like “pizza ingredients,” and how historic towns mixed housing type...

I recently joined the Heber Valley Life Podcast to talk about something that affects all of us: why our valley looks the way it does—and what we can do about it. We discussed growth, affordability, city codes, and the tension between single-family living and higher density. I shared why “timeless” is really another word for beautiful, why trend-driven design fades fast, and how simple massing, nat...

Episode 3 of 3 in our Education Series In this final episode of my three-part conversation with Paul Monson, Director of Architecture at Utah Valley University, we turn to the practical question of how. How does a student become better prepared for the profession, and how can any of us become more attentive and informed observers of the built environment. We begin with Vitruvius and his descriptio...

Episode 2 of 3 in our Education Series In the second episode of this three-part conversation with Paul Monson, Director of Architecture at Utah Valley University, we move from the foundation of education to the deeper question of why traditional architecture matters at all. Paul and I talk about the origins of the UVU architecture program and why it was intentionally built around craft, practicali...

Episode 1 of 3 in our Education Series In this first episode of a three-part conversation with Paul Monson, Director of Architecture at Utah Valley University, we start at the foundation: what education is actually meant to do. Paul and I go back nearly twenty years to our time at the University of Notre Dame, and because of that shared background, this conversation is less about credentials and m...

In 1931, a book called Towards a New Architecture helped launch the modernist movement—and I believe we’re still living with its consequences today. In this episode, I look at the ideas behind that book, not as a book report, but as an exploration of how efficiency, mass production, and the idea of “the house as a machine” reshaped our homes, cities, and understanding of beauty. I walk through the...

Episode 3 of 3 in our Zoning Series In this final episode of our three-part deep dive with urban strategist Mike Hathorne , we shift from diagnosing the problems with zoning and density… to exploring the solutions . And the biggest solution is one most people misunderstand: mixed use. To explain it, we start with a simple metaphor—pizza. Modern zoning forces us to eat pizza one ingredient at a tim...

This is episode two of my three-part series with urban strategist Mike Hathorne , and we’re tackling the topic that sends entire towns to public hearings with pitchforks: density .Everyone’s heard it: “A high-density project is coming in…” And instantly, it’s kill the beast , shut it down, save the field next door. In this episode, Mike and I break down why density triggers such a visceral reactio...

What if the reason our cities feel chaotic, disconnected, or unsustainable has nothing to do with “bad developers” or “greedy politicians,” and everything to do with a hidden set of rules written over a century ago? In this episode — the first of a three-part series with Mike Hathorne — I sit down with Mike to explore how zoning became the invisible force shaping almost every part of American life...

I’m recording this just a mile from where Leonardo da Vinci died in France. His final words were: “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.” In this episode, I reflect on those words—on Leonardo’s pursuit of beauty, truth, and proportion, and how his study of Vitruvius led to the Vitruvian Man , uniting heaven and earth within a circle and square. W...

In 1666, London burned for four days. Thirteen thousand homes were lost, St. Paul’s Cathedral collapsed, and 80% of the medieval city was reduced to ashes. Out of this devastation came an extraordinary opportunity: the chance to rebuild a city from the ground up. Yet London was not remade in the image of Rome or Paris—it was rebuilt on the bones of its medieval streets, locked in place by property...

Clayton grew up in split-levels—the emblem of postwar American housing—and traces how that “efficient” template reshaped our built world. In 1940 the U.S. had ~40 million housing units; by 2020, ~140 million. Most of that growth followed a new ethic: economy, mass production, engineered materials, and “form follows function.” Before 1940, homes were guided by craft, proportion, natural materials,...

We’ve been chasing “sustainability” for centuries — from banning butchers in 14th-century London to today’s endless regulations and paper straws. But have we been asking the wrong questions all along? In this episode, Clayton Vance argues that true sustainability isn’t just about insulation, carbon footprints, or solar panels. It’s about building places people actually want to keep. From historic...

In this episode of The Clayton Vance Podcast , we trace the automobile’s transformation of architecture and urban life. From tree-lined streets where porches and people took center stage to the rise of front-loaded garages dominating suburban facades, the car forever altered the way we build and live. Clayton explores how carriage houses were tucked away in alleys, why Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie H...

Roger Jackson has shaped skylines, restored sacred places, and quietly mentored a generation of architects. In this special episode, Clayton sits down with the former president of FFKR Architects—Utah’s largest architectural firm—for a deeply personal and profound conversation about a life in architecture. From childhood memories of blueprint ammonia to the award-winning restoration of the Salt La...

Questions shape everything—cities, policies, lives. But what happens when we’re chasing the wrong question, even if we’ve found the right answer? In this premiere episode, architect Clayton Vance dives into a powerful metaphor: the Kudzu effect —how a well-intentioned answer to a crisis in the American South spiraled into ecological disaster. From there, he traces how that same principle explains...