Explore every episode of the podcast Future of the American City

Sierra Bainbridge is the founder and principal of Model of Architecture Serving Society (MASS.) where she directs the Landscape Studio and Abundant Futures Lab. Sierra joins our host, Charles Waldheim, to discuss MASS.’s work, ethos, and new book Seeking Abundance: Design, Ecology and a Flourishing Planet.

Ashley Simone is a New York–based editor, writer, and educator whose work explores the intersections of architecture, art, and culture. She is the Editorial Director of Architectural Design Magazine and Axiomatic Editions, where she steers books and journals from concept through production. Simone joins our host, Charles Waldheim, to discuss her role at Architectural Design.

Claire Martin, Executive Director, and Wendell T. Joseph, Design Studio Manager, of Envision Resilience join our host, Charles Waldheim, to discuss their work to advance planning and design for climate change through student and community partnerships. 

Pamela Conrad is a landscape architect and climate advocate with 20 years of experience improving the social and ecological impacts of the exterior built environment. She is Faculty Lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Architecture 2030 Senior Fellow. Conrad joins our host, Charles Waldheim, to discuss her research and design firm Climate Positive Design.

Alexander Gorlin is the principal and founder of Alexander Gorlin Architects and fellow

of the American Institute of Architects. Victoria Newhouse is an architectural historian

and founder of the Architectural History Foundation. Gorlin and Newhouse join our host,

Charles Waldheim, to discuss “Housing the Nation: Social Equity, Architecture, and the

Future of Affordable Housing,” 2024.

Jerold S. Kayden is an urban planner and lawyer serving as the Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His teaching and scholarship address issues of land use and environmental law, public and private development in cities, public space, urban disasters, and climate change. Kayden joins our host, Charles Waldheim, to discuss his role as the founding director of the new Master in Real Estate Program at the GSD.

Gary Hilderbrand is the founding principal of Reed Hilderbrand LLC, Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. James Nozar is a real estate development executive who served as Chief Development Officer at Method Co. and founding CEO of Strategic Property Partners before his current appointment as President of Development at KETTLER. Hilderbrand and Nozar join our host, Charles Waldheim, to discuss their collaboration on Water Street Tampa.

Ximena Caminos is a curator and cultural entrepreneur whose work integrates public art

with marine conservation and sustainable urban development. Caminos joins our host,

Charles Waldheim, to discuss her vision for the Miami Reef Line.

Stephen Goldsmith is the Derek Bok Professor of Urban Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and director of the Bloomberg Center for Cities’ Data-Smart Cities Solutions. His work focuses on improving government-citizen relationships. Goldsmith joins our host, Charles Waldheim, to discuss data analytics and community input.

Jha D Amazi is a principal at MASS Design Group, a nonprofit organization focusing on social justice and public space. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her work as head of MASS’s Public Memory and Memorials Lab.

Mark Lamster is an award-winning architecture critic and author. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss Dallas architecture and his role as architecture critic at the Dallas Morning News, his writing on Philip Johnson, and the state of contemporary architectural criticism.

Elisa Iturbe is an architectural designer, writer, and educator. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her research on “carbon form,” an urban and architectural paradigm unique to the carbon age.

Joel Sanders is an architect and educator and the founder of JSA/MIXdesign. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his work in inclusive design.

Rosetta Elkin is a landscape architect and author. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her new book Landscapes of Retreat.

Future of the American City is a project of the Office for Urbanization at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. It is produced by Charlie Gaillard, Olani Ewunnet, Aziz Barbar, Jeffrey S. Nesbit, and Mercedes Peralta.

Designer, historian, and theorist David Gissen joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his new book The Architecture of Disability.

Future of the American City is a project of the Office for Urbanization at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. It is produced by Charlie Gaillard, Olani Ewunnet, Aziz Barbar, Jeffrey S. Nesbit, and Mercedes Peralta.

Architects Paul Lewis and Marc Tsurumaki, principals of the New York-based practice LTL Architects, join Charles Waldheim to discuss their recent book Manual of Biogenic House Sections.

Author and publisher Nicolas Kemper and architectural historian and critic Phillip Denny join Charles Waldheim to discuss the publication New York Review of Architecture.

Jeff Hou is an author, advocate, and educator. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his research on urban resistance and popular protest movements in the public realm.

Shannon Mattern is a media theorist and design anthropologist. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her new book A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences.

Ed Wall is a landscape architect and urbanist. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his new book Contesting Public Spaces: Social Lives of Urban Redevelopment in London.

Architect Jennifer Bonner and structural engineer Hanif Kara join Charles Waldheim to discuss their new book Blank: Speculations on CLT.

Architects Peggy Deamer and Quilian Riano join Charles Waldheim to discuss their advocacy for architecture as a form of labor and their various roles in The Architecture Lobby.

Abby Spinak is an environmental historian and planning scholar whose work focuses on energy histories and the politics of infrastructure. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her research on rural electric cooperatives in the United States.

Sam Stein is a geographer and housing policy analyst. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his new book Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State.

Laurie Olin is a landscape architect, author, and founding partner of the landscape architecture and urban design firm OLIN. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his new book Essays on Landscape.

Marshall Brown is an architect and urbanist and the principal of Marshall Brown Projects. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his new book Recurrent Visions.

Signe Nielsen is a landscape architect and principal of MNLA. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss Little Island, her role on the New York City Public Design Commission, and her career on the New York waterfront.

Eric Rodenbeck is the founder and Creative Director of Stamen, a data visualization and cartography studio based in the Bay Area. Eric joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his work with the Getty Research Institute and their acquisition of Ed Ruscha’s Streets of Los Angeles archive.

Sara Zewde is a landscape architect and founding principal of Studio Zewde, a landscape, urban design, and public art practice based in New York City. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her recent work as well as her research following Frederick Law Olmsted’s reporting in the antebellum South.

Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi are principals and founders of Weiss / Manfredi Architecture / Landscape / Urbanism. They join Charles Waldheim to discuss their practice and their work on the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles.

David Gissen is a designer, author, and educator. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his interest in architecture and the bodies it imagines.

Charlotte Malterre-Barthes is an urban designer and educator. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her proposal for a global moratorium on new construction.

Jorge Otero-Pailos is an artist, architect, and educator whose work is concerned with the future meaning of the past. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his recent practice.

Grahame Shane is an architect, urbanist, and educator. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his career in urban design.

Lisa Servon is Penn Presidential Professor and Chair of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss the unbanked and underbanked and the financial divide in America’s retail banking system.

Alex Krieger is an architect, urbanist, and author. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his new book, City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present.

Amale Andraos is co-founder and principal of the architecture firm WORKac. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her recent work.

Fritz Steiner is Dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his work in ecological planning and his new book, Megaregions and America’s Future.

Vishaan Chakrabarti is an architect, urbanist, and founder of the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU). He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his recent work and practice.

Billy Fleming is an urban planner and Director of the McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his work, research, and advocacy around design and the Green New Deal.

Kate Orff is a landscape architect and founding principal of SCAPE. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her recent work on the future of the American City.

Maurice Cox is the Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his career in public service and recent work in Chicago.

Danielle Aubert is a graphic designer interested in the history of design and labor. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her work in Detroit, including research on Fredy Perlman and the Detroit Printing Co-Op as well as Mies van der Rohe’s Lafayette Park.

Rip Rapson is the President and CEO of the Kresge Foundation. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss the Foundation’s work in Detroit.

Anya Sirota is an architectural designer interested in the intersection of social enterprise and cultural production. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her ongoing work in Detroit.

Anika Goss is the Executive Director of Detroit Future City. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss the organization’s role in the recent history of Detroit.

Lorcan O’Herlihy is an architect whose practice embraces architecture as a catalyst for social change. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his work in Detroit and Los Angeles.

Melissa Dittmer is Chief Design Officer at Bedrock Detroit. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss Bedrock’s work developing Detroit’s downtown.

Mark Wallace is President and CEO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. He joins Charles Waldheim to discuss his work overseeing the transformation of Detroit’s riverfront.

Ceara O’Leary is an architect and planner who works at the intersection of design and policy. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her work at the Detroit Collaborative Design Center.