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THE GRIMSHAW PODCAST
CITIES OF OPPORTUNITY
Visionary American developer Jonathan Rose, author of The Well-Tempered City, offers us his vision for the ‘City of Opportunity’ in the wake of Covid-19 and the practical approach he applies to creating developments which embody that vision. Full of wit and wisdom, Jonathan describes the inclusive values he seeks to promote in the affordable housing communities from The Rose Companies, where good homes are located near to mass transit and close to jobs – often comprising educational and health facilities. One such project is Via Verde, his first collaboration with Grimshaw, on a brownfield site in the Bronx. When it opened, NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg described it as “one of the most environmentally advanced affordable housing developments in the nation”. The famous architectural critic, Michael Kimmelman chose Via Verde as the subject of his front page New York Times debut, writing that the development “makes as good an argument as any new building in the City for the cultural and civic value of architecture”. Jonathan’s enlightening conversation with Tim Williams ends with an excerpt from “Summertime” by Jog Blues, Rose’s excellent band that fuses Jazz, Blues and Indian Classical Music, a rare treat.
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10. VISIONS OF THE CITY
54:06In this edition, Tim Williams interviews Professor Alex Krieger of the influential Harvard School of Design about his recent book City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present. Visions drive city-making and in this podcast we learn about the diverse visions that have shaped US cities.
9. GOVERNING INNOVATION
01:04:35In this episode of the Building the City series, Julie Wagner, President of The Global Institute on Innovation Districts, discusses her new report on the seven key factors in designing effective governance of innovation districts – crucial new foundations of the next stage of the urban economy. Listen to Episode 9 Governing Innovation with your host, Tim Williams.
8. FINANCING THE GREEN CITY
54:04In the latest episode of the Building the City series for the Grimshaw Cities podcast, Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas, a global leader in green finance tells us "Box-ticking and greenwashing won’t achieve the scale of the transformation required to meet the challenges of the climate emergency. Cross-sector collaboration and the focused application of the creativity, innovation and skills of the financial services industry to finance the global transition will". Listen to Episode 8: Financing the Green City with your host Tim Williams.
7. HOMES AND CITIES FOR ALL
01:01:36This is the seventh episode in the Building the City podcast series. Hear from your host Tim Williams in conversation with Kate Davies CBE who ran one of the largest and most dynamic Community Housing Providers in Europe, with over 60,000 properties in its portfolio by 2022. In this podcast, she describes the impact of Notting Hill Genesis Housing Association and how to deliver ‘homes for all in the city for all’.
6. THE NET ZERO CITY
50:22The Net Zero City is the sixth episode in the Building the City podcast series. In this episode, your host Tim Williams interviews Peter Newman AO, Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. Peter has written 20 books and 300 papers on sustainable cities and is well known for creating the term "automobile dependence". As a key author on transport on the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Peter is a global leader at the interface of urban policy and transport on the journey to the net zero city.
5. ASIA AND THE URBAN FUTURE
53:54Asia and the Urban Future is the fifth episode in the Building the City podcast series. In this episode, Professor Richard Hu of Canberra University and author of Reinventing the Chinese City (2023) and Smart Design (2021) gives us an impressive overview of key city trends in Asia and indeed across the world.
4. CITIES BY DESIGN
47:16Cities by Design is the fourth episode in the Building the City podcast series. In this episode, your host Tim Williams interviews David Hutton, Group Head of Development with global firm Lendlease. Based in Singapore David has worked on major city-shaping projects all over the world and oversees the company's Urbanisation Practice, focused on sharing best practice in design and development across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.
3. REGENERATING CITIES
01:00:20Regenerating Cities is the third episode in the Building the City podcast series. Your Grimshaw host, Tim Williams, discusses urban regeneration and planning with Dame Alison Nimmo DBE who has a distinguished career in the field of UK cities and urbanism. She spent eight years helping to win and subsequently deliver the London 2012 Summer Olympics as a Director in the Olympic Delivery Authority and has led major city centre regeneration projects in Manchester and Sheffield. Listen to Tim Williams and Alison Nimmo DBE’s conversation on regenerating cities.
2. BUILDING PLACES FOR PEOPLE
55:26As cities grow, affordable housing options need to be made available for all communities. In Episode 2 of the Building the City podcast series, Grimshaw talks to an internationally acknowledged expert in social and affordable housing who is the former Group Chief Executive of Places for People Group, one of the largest social and affordable housing providers in the world. If anyone knows the way forward for affordable housing, it’s David Cowans. Listen to David and Grimshaw’s Tim Williams, himself a former UK government advisor on housing, discussing the future of building more inclusive and affordable cities.