THE GRIMSHAW PODCAST

Ellen's work has centered on what happens when aging infrastructure, from shopping malls to office parks, no longer serves the communities around them. As co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia, she helped define a movement and a moment. The book documented how underperforming, car-dominated spaces could be reimagined into walkable, resilient, and socially connected environments. Over time, her research expanded into a growing database of more than 2,500 retrofit projects. These case studies explored how design can address public health, climate resilience, economic development, and equity, all through the lens of reuse rather than expansion. Her work, now seen as central to strategies for the sustainable reinvention of our cities, has made her one of the most influential international urbanists Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Global cities compete for investment. A key part of that competition involves bidding for and winning strategically important business events and conferences which attract market leaders and top talent in their specialist fields to spend time and money in your city. Beyond the immediate financial and employment benefits for local providers of hospitality and a wide range of services and sectors, the reputational gains for cities can also be significant. Long term, strategic investment can flow from such events and if the offer inside the event is reinforced by that outside it, attendees can often decide that this city is where they want personally to be and their enterprise to flourish. Success in business events tells us about the performance of the city itself and how it is seen by global markets. This is why we wanted to speak with someone promoting Australia's global city to the world, Amanda Lampe of BE Sydney. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Urbanist Richard Florida called Seth Kaplan’s book "essential and engaging ". Tim Williams talks about the book with Seth and also his latest initiative. Flourishing Neighborhoods. We learn what makes places ‘fragile’ and what practical steps local community leaders and social entrepreneurs have taken to fix, repair and restore them to health. Find out about some really powerful exemplars and people across the States and beyond who have succeeded in turning their communities around. Of interest and inspiration to anyone seeking to achieve urban transformation, anywhere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Coates is a recognised leader in infrastructure policy and digital transformation. In his role, Mark, with over three decades of experience in construction and global project delivery, collaborates with governments, policymakers, and industry leaders globally to champion the adoption of cutting-edge digital solutions, driving efficiency and innovation in infrastructure development. In this episode Mark talks about the work of IPA and the influential Transforming Infrastructure Performance (TIP) Summits he oversees, which bring together leaders in business and government across the globe to tackle shared challenges through innovation, sustainability, resilience, and inclusivity in infrastructure. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The housing crisis is an international one, though it can take different forms in different countries. What is shared is the need to protect and promote the interests of renters, tenants and others who may be vulnerable in our various housing systems. Two people doing great work in their own neck of the woods that is also, we believe, of international significance are the two leaders brought together for the first time for this Grimshaw Cities podcast: Richard Blakeway, England's Housing Ombudsman and Trina Jones, Rental Commissioner for New South Wales. It's an engaging but important global dialogue. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People acquire houses but they live in and come from neighbourhoods. In this timely conversation Andrew talks with Grimshaw's Head of Cities, Tim, about the state of British neighbourhoods and the interventions his Commission, chaired by the well-respected former minister Hillary Armstrong, recommends renewing them. Although the Commission has been focussed on neighbourhoods in the UK, the interventions it recommends are relevant well beyond the UK. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everyone talks about the housing crisis. Few talk about the systems producing it. In this special edition of the Grimshaw Podcast, Tim Williams sits down with economist Cameron Murray, author of The Great Housing Hijack, to unpack the political, economic, and urban forces reshaping housing in Australia and beyond. Not just a conversation about property. A conversation about how cities work, who they serve, and what happens when housing becomes detached from civic purpose. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI will transform how we work in the built environment, yet there are still more questions than answers, and many feel unprepared for what comes next. In this episode, Dr Tim Williams speaks with Tom Sanchez, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M University, and author of Artificial Intelligence for Urban Planning. He offers a clear and practical roadmap for urbanists navigating this shift. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

City centres everywhere are seeking renewal. In this episode Robbie Silver, President and CEO of Downtown SF Partnership, tells us what’s creating San Francisco’s new momentum at the city’s heart. Joining us in the conversation is Andrew Byrne, Grimshaw’s Managing Partner for our LA studio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Journalist, author and activist Elizabeth Farrelly, is the best known urbanist in Australia, with an international reputation. The title of her recent best-selling book, Killing Sydney: the Fight for a City’s Soul, speaks eloquently of her concerns but also of her independent spirit and determination to change the direction of the city she loves. A feisty and characterful conversation full of insights not just about Australia’s global city but cities in general and how communities need to be galvanised to ensure they still provide opportunities for all. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The international drive to increase housing supply is an opportunity to improve existing communities but also to design and deliver new high-amenity, higher density, low carbon, mixed use settlements. In this episode Tim Williams talks with Sara Waller – title, of Sovereign Network Group/SNG and Kirsten Lees, architect, masterplanner and Managing Partner, Paris for Grimshaw, about meeting this dual challenge. Though, much of the discussion focusses on the UK, where the government is targeting 1.5 million new homes over the next 5 years, many of them in next-generation New Towns, the discussion will be of interest to all those working internationally to make better, more sustainable and inclusive places. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first of two episodes on social and affordable housing , Tim Williams sits down with Mark Washer the CEO of Sovereign Network Group/SNG, one of the biggest providers in the UK, with an asset base of 85,000 homes, to talk about managing a massive business with a big social purpose: to provide good, affordable homes that are the foundation for a better life – with the aim of sustaining thriving communities, over generations. Joining them in the conversation is architect and master planner Kirsten Lees, Grimshaw’s Managing Partner in Paris and Sara Waller, SNG’s Head of Place, a role showing the significant emphasis SNG puts on supporting sustainable communities. In episode One we talk about the demands of running a big social housing provider and developer of affordable homes, under a new Government with housing as a priority. A specific focus is the role social housing providers can play in delivering the 1.5 million homes the UK Government wants to see built over the next 5 years, some of them in the exciting New Towns program. Episode two, has Sara and Kirsten further developing the focus on ‘housing in place’ and the need to design and deliver not just great housing but also great communities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim Parker has massive experience of successfully managing big urban infrastructure and development projects. In this episode, he shines a light on his unique insights from an impressive CV and speaks with both passion and clarity about leading his latest large-scale project: the Federal Government’s initiative to build high speed rail initially between Newcastle and Sydney on Australia’s east cost, with the ambition to build further on this link in future. This is a massive transport undertaking, promoting a low-carbon transition from car and air over to rail, and economic and housing development and community opportunity – a project of national, and we think international, significance of interest to listeners from a wide range of professional and policy backgrounds and countries. Big ambitions for a big country: seems about right to us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the latest Grimshaw Cities podcast, Dr Tim Williams interviews Syrian architect and best-selling author Marwa al Sabouni. Unable to practice her profession in her battle-ravaged city of Homs, as the buildings and the lives around her and across Syria were reduced to rubble, Marwa Al Sabouni turned her fierce intelligence to chronicling how her city and country were undone through decades of architectural mismanagement and mistakes. The result was The Battle for Home in 2016 and Building for Hope:Towards an Architecture of Belonging(2021). We talk about these important books, her architectural advocacy and the values Marwa believes that architecture needs to embody so as to promote greater civic harmony, humanity and yes beauty in a divided and often ugly world. A really important and challenging conversation about why, what and how we build with someone with a unique voice and standpoint not heard enough in the international discussions about the future of our cities: exactly what the Grimshaw cities podcasts were created to do. Joining Tim and Marwa on this occasion is Grimshaw architect and urbanist, Awkar Ruel, with his own special experience and contribution as an Iraqi-born Sydneysider. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim talks with international housing expert Professor Josh Ryan-Collins of UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim Williams talks with Austin Williams, director of Future Cities and author of China’s Urban Revolution: Understanding Chinese Eco-Cities. What can we learn, as environmentalists, planners and architects, from the eco-city initiative and overall from the Chinese process of urbanisation? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Aruna Sathanapally, CEO of Australia’s leading urban thinktank, the Grattan Institute, talks about the key policy priorities to make a more productive and inclusive nation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joel Kotkin, a fellow in urban studies at Chapman University in California, is the author of the best-selling book The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class . He is widely recognised as a leading international commentator on the future of cities and suburbs. In this episode, Joel joins Tim Williams for a passionate and insightful conversation about key urban trends. They explore Joel’s concern that declining home ownership and growing inequality are leading to a concentration of wealth and power reminiscent of pre-modern Europe. An important and thought-provoking discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode features Dr. Caroline Butler-Bowden, State Librarian for the State Library of New South Wales, alongside Dr. Tim Williams and Grimshaw Principal, Eduard Ross. Together, they explore the role of libraries and museums in shaping cities and their significance as dynamic public spaces. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today's episode, Dr. Tim Williams examines how America's largest city has grappled with the tensions between cars and public transit since the 1960s, with Nicole Gelinas, author of 'Movement: New York's Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car' and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. As a key part of this conversation, we also have Grimshaw Deputy Chairman and Partner, Vincent Chang sharing his insights. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.