We’ve officially reached 100 episodes of American Building, and to mark the milestone, I’m joined by Austin Crowley, Senior Associate, and Robert Blaser, Principal, of Michael Graves Architecture.

We center the conversation on one of Austin and Robert’s current projects: Cutler Bay Legacy Park, a civic project that addresses how a Florida community can engage with its government and waterfront. The project brings together municipal facilities, public programming, and coastal resilience in a site that had been degraded by years of industrial use and contamination.

We explore the technical challenges of building in South Florida's climate, material choices inspired by the historic Old Cutler Trail, and maintenance strategies for long-term durability. Through extensive community input and environmental remediation, the design team created a destination that will serve both daily civic functions and large community gatherings.

Beyond the project, we take a step back to look at the current architectural landscape. With the recent passing of industry titans Frank Gehry and Robert A.M. Stern, the architectural world is reflecting on the mark they left. Robert offers his perspective on where Michael Graves fits into that era of design and discusses his own role in carrying Graves’ humanist philosophy forward. Austin, speaking from his decade of experience with the team, highlights how Michael Graves Architecture draws inspiration from Gehry’s approach to technology, emphasizing that the future of the firm lies in thoughtful integration and strategic acquisitions.

Episode Outline

(01:52) Austin and Robert's paths into architecture and Michael Graves Architecture

(09:28) Winning the Cutler Bay Legacy Park RFP through narrative-driven design strategy

(13:37) Managing community input without compromising the project vision

(18:10) Navigating environmental remediation constraints and budget implications

(21:48) Building with flood zones, hurricane codes, and material costs in mind

(27:29) The vision for the visitor experience: moving through community and civic spaces

(39:06) Evolving Michael Graves’ design legacy beyond stylistic replication

(49:03) Geographic expansion and entering new markets through acquisition

(58:15) AI integration in design and business operations

Additional Resources

This episode of American Building is brought to you by New Blueprint Partners — making industrial real estate accessible to the everyday investor. They provide a simple, hassle-free, and transparent path to owning industrial properties, backed by experienced operators. You may remember founders Ron Schinik and Marc Esrig from our episode on the Vancouver Innovation Center, where they shared how collaboration and communication shape successful projects. Learn how you can build your industrial real estate portfolio at newblueprintpartners.com.

Episode 43: Austin Crowley of Michael Graves Architecture & Design | Next Gen Interview

Episode 2: Samer Hanini of Hanini Group | Peoples Bank Building in Passaic, NJ | Preserving History

Episode 60: Sean Pichon of PGN Architects and Omar Karim of Banneker Ventures | 2220 MLK Avenue in Washington, D.C. | So, There is a Housing Crisis

Saltz Michelson Architects

EDSA

Parallax Team

Kollin Altomare Architects

PGN Architects

Jose Carballo Architectural Group (JCAG)

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Hundreds of real estate conferences happen every year, but very few address the tactical realities of small scale development. 

In 2012, Jim Heid, in conjunction with the Urban Land Institute, launched the first Small Scale Developers Forum (SSDF) with 20 people in San Francisco. What started as an "Island of Misfit Toys” now sells out within a week of registration and draws in 100+ participants per event. Attendees tour projects, workshop development challenges, and connect with peers facing similar obstacles in other cities.

The success of SSDF revealed a deeper need: Developers wanted more than twice-yearly gatherings. They needed ongoing support, access to proven templates, and connections that lasted between events. Jim's book "Building Small" captured a decade of knowledge from 150+ projects, and now the Building Small platform expands that foundation into a membership program with coaching workshops, online project critiques, and resources organized around each stage of the development process.

Our conversation also addresses the practical barriers facing small scale development today, from local regulatory cultures to national capital structures. Plus, we discuss how small scale development can address housing diversity and affordability. 

Episode Outline

(04:57) Jim’s early projects and formative development experiences 

(14:41) How the SSDF format grew from single-day programming to immersive multi-day events

(31:50) The three pillars of Building Small: community, bridging the gap, and championing great design

(39:46) How small scale development responds to today’s housing challenges

(42:10) Working through industry barriers and scaling sustainably 

(46:03) The distinction between mentoring and coaching

(56:55) How to get involved with Building Small 

Additional Resources

This episode of American Building is brought to you by New Blueprint Partners — making industrial real estate accessible to the everyday investor. They provide a simple, hassle-free, and transparent path to owning industrial properties, backed by experienced operators. You may remember founders Ron Schinik and Marc Esrig from our episode on the Vancouver Innovation Center, where they shared how collaboration and communication shape successful projects. Learn how you can build your industrial real estate portfolio at newblueprintpartners.com.  

Connect with Jim 

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Learn more about Building Small 

Join Building Small the Network

Building Small: A Toolkit for Real Estate Entrepreneurs, Civic Leaders, and Great Communities by Jim Heid 

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When most universities build research facilities for data science and AI, they create sleek, futuristic spaces that showcase technology. The University of Pennsylvanias School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) took the opposite approach with Amy Gutmann Hall. The six-story building uses mass timber construction to bring natural warmth and a sense of openness to technical programs. Walking through the 116,000-square-foot structure, the exposed wood columns, beams, and ceiling decks contrast with a fresh color palette rarely seen in institutional environments.

Andrew Herdeg, Partner at Lake Flato Architects, leads projects that connect people to the natural environment through warm, contextual architecture. Lake Flato's work spans from private residences to complex university facilities, always designing within an environmental context. David Meaney serves as Solomon R. Pollack Professor of Bioengineering and Vice Provost for Research at Penn where he guides planning and facilities decisions for a campus that values collaboration, sustainability, and financial stewardship. 

This conversation explores why Penn Engineering selected mass timber for a major academic building, how the design team front-loaded procurement to reduce risk, and the outcome of incorporating hospitality-like experiences into research environments. From union negotiations to CLT panel optimization, the discussion reveals both the philosophy and practical realities of building Philadelphia's first large-scale urban mass timber structure.

Episode Outline

(01:56) How Andrew's firm brings residential design principles to institutional projects

(11:14) The eight-year planning process for a data science building in a doubling-data world

(15:43) Eight competing design visions and Lake Flato's winning pitch 

(21:55) Designing for deep focus work while encouraging spontaneous collaboration

(30:09) Running cost analysis: mass timber versus conventional steel and concrete construction

(34:29) Achieving 52-70% embodied carbon reduction through integrated structural systems

(38:31) Shifting procurement left: how early contractor engagement de-risked the project

(48:31) Experiencing exposed timber, natural daylight, and the southern campus vista

Additional Resources

This episode of American Building is brought to you by New Blueprint Partners — making industrial real estate accessible to the everyday investor. They provide a simple, hassle-free, and transparent path to owning industrial properties, backed by experienced operators. You may remember founders Ron Schinik and Marc Esrig from our episode on the Vancouver Innovation Center, where they shared how collaboration and communication shape successful projects. Learn how you can build your industrial real estate portfolio at newblueprintpartners.com.  

Learn more about Amy Gutmann Hall 

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Danny Fishman co-founded GAIA Real Estate in 2009 when the financial crisis created distressed opportunities across multifamily markets. His approach centers on hands-on management rather than passive ownership. When evaluating properties, Danny and his team spend weekends on-site observing tenant behavior, testing neighborhood walkability, and understanding what drives the local rental market. This boots-on-the-ground mentality led to their biggest early win: winning the bid for a 10,000-unit Lehman Brothers portfolio in bankruptcy court.

The Carillon in Nashville's Germantown neighborhood demonstrates how GAIA converts distress into value through operator-led repositioning. Rather than installing trendy amenities, they studied actual tenant needs at the 300-unit property. They discovered 70% of residents had dogs, but lacked quality outdoor space, and remote workers were competing for the conference room space while the gaming room sat empty. The solution was simple: convert unused rooftop parking into a dog park and replace the gaming room to a co-working hub. This tenant-focused strategy helped the property consistently outperform projections.

Danny's investment philosophy challenges conventional underwriting. When other investors were modeling aggressive rent growth in 2021, GAIA sold their entire 20,000-unit portfolio because the math didn't work. Now, with interest rates dropping from 6.5% to around 5% and distress returning to the Sun Belt, Danny sees opportunity in South Florida neighborhoods where hands-on property developers can drive transformation through targeted volume acquisitions.

Episode Outline

(04:53) Lessons learned from the New York market and expanding into Sun Belt multifamily

(09:36) Why treating real estate as a consumer product shapes every investment decision

(11:10) Discovering Nashville's Germantown neighborhood 

(13:22) The Carillon acquisition strategy and initial value-creation opportunities

(19:54) Performance results and the decision to hold through market volatility

(26:03) Red tape and regulatory challenges that make Northeast investing difficult

(34:03) Opportunities in 2026 as oversupply gets absorbed and financing improves

Additional Resources

This episode of American Building is brought to you by New Blueprint Partners — making industrial real estate accessible to the everyday investor. They provide a simple, hassle-free, and transparent path to owning industrial properties, backed by experienced operators. You may remember founders Ron Schinik and Marc Esrig from our episode on the Vancouver Innovation Center, where they shared how collaboration and communication shape successful projects. Learn how you can build your industrial real estate portfolio at newblueprintpartners.com.  

Learn more about The Carillon in Nashville

Connect with Danny Fishman

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Disney's New York operations were scattered across the Upper West Side in aging facilities, including a former horse stable that housed ABC News broadcast sets. When the company set out to bring ABC, ESPN, Marvel, and its other divisions under one roof, the design prompt required upgrades for the next generation of broadcast technology and adherence to New York's Local Law 97 emissions requirements. The result is the Robert A. Iger Building at 7 Hudson Square, a 1.2 million-square-foot vertical campus that's fully electric and LEED Platinum certified.

Joseph Chase, Principal at Skidmore Owings & Merrill, and Maxwell Hatfield-Biondo, Director of HVAC at Jaros, Baum & Bolles led the technical design, drawing on decades of collaboration between their firms on projects like Manhattan West and 35 Hudson Yards. Their approach to electrification starts with a question most developers skip: what do you actually need? 

Rather than sizing systems for hypothetical worst-case scenarios, they used Disney's utility data from existing facilities to right-size equipment. Then they designed mechanical systems to recover heat that would otherwise be rejected to the outdoors. Only after reducing and recovering did they electrify the remaining loads. 

Following this sequence is the difference between a building that struggles to heat itself in winter and one where the heating systems barely turn on because there's so much recoverable heat from production equipment and people.

The conversation also gets into specifics of how condenser water source heat pumps work alongside air source heat pumps to create redundancy, why the terracotta facade was essential for both thermal performance and construction speed, and the acoustic strategies required when you're building broadcast studios next to a subway line and the Holland Tunnel entrance. 

Episode Outline

01:39) Joe and Max's backgrounds and the long SOM-JB&B collaboration history

(06:52) Disney's motivation to bring multiple companies into one Hudson Square campus

(13:25) Why Hudson Square's zoning enables large floor plates for media and tech tenants

(17:17) Local Law 97 requirements and the reduce-recover-electrify approach to compliance

(27:20) Air source heat pumps, condenser water systems, and dual-source heating strategy

(35:43) How the high-performance terracotta facade enables low-temperature heating

(44:46) Box-in-box construction and sound isolation mats for below-grade production studios

(52:41) The business case for electrification: efficiency gains and increased leasable area

Additional Resources

Check out The Mira Shoppe. American Building Podcast listeners get a complimentary gift with their first purchase! Email [email protected] to receive your exclusive code and treat yourself to a piece you’ll cherish, while supporting a brand that gives back.

Learn more about The Robert A. Iger Building 

LEED project tools and resources 

NYSERDA programs 

Local Law 97  

Connect with Joseph Chase

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There's a piece of conventional wisdom in real estate that almost every developer accepts: retail follows rooftops. Build the housing first, then the storefronts will follow. Tesho Akindele and the team at Camp North End did the opposite—and it’s paying off in a major way. 

Camp North End is a 76-acre adaptive reuse project in Charlotte, North Carolina. Formerly a Ford manufacturing plant turned Army facility turned Rite Aid warehouse, ATCO Properties acquired the site in 2017. For decades, the entire campus was disconnected from the eight surrounding residential neighborhoods, completely paved over, and zoned industrial. Today, it's one of the most vibrant developments in the Southeast: 400,000 square feet of office, 75,000 square feet of retail, 300 apartments, and 1.1 million visitors this past year alone. 

This conversation unpacks the mechanics behind large-scale adaptive reuse: how to structure opportunity zone financing across multiple phases, ways to optimize brownfield remediation, and strategies for building community buy-in every step of the way. Tesho also walks through the three buckets of development work—project management, financial analysis, and capital raising—and shares how small teams can rise to the challenge of complex projects. 

Episode Outline

(02:06) Tesho’s career as a professional soccer player and the leadership lessons he learned along the way

(08:28) Tesho's transition from soccer to real estate, his passion for housing advocacy, and joining ATCO

(13:05) Walking through Camp North End's site and the long-term vision for the neighborhood

(23:42) Rezoning industrial land and negotiating over rail easements

(31:23) What "legalize housing" means and why single-family-only zoning hurts cities 

(36:38) Affordable housing solutions that meet diverse community needs

(39:16) Why opportunity zones encourage long-term thinking and better design choices

(44:05) Building an internal team with community managers, placemakers, and 24/7 security

(49:52) Practical advice for mixed-use developers 

Additional Resources

Check out The Mira Shoppe. American Building Podcast listeners get a complimentary gift with their first purchase! Email [email protected] to receive your exclusive code and treat yourself to a piece you’ll cherish, while supporting a brand that gives back.

Access resources from my panel discussion on Opportunity Zones at the Yale AREA Conference

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"I'll plan anything a man wants, from a cathedral to a chicken coop," architect H.H. Richardson famously said. Stephen Cassell has done exactly that—designing a chicken coop, a synagogue, and now comes full circle with a cemetery welcome and education center in Brooklyn.

Green-Wood Cemetery is transforming from an active burial ground into a cultural institution. With art installations, concerts in the catacombs, and educational programming, the cemetery is preparing for a future when burial plots run out. Stephen Cassell and his team at Architecture Research Office (ARO) designed the Education & Welcome Center to support that transition.

The project sits adjacent to a delicate 1890s greenhouse made of cast-iron and glass. ARO chose a deep burgundy terracotta with fine-grained baguette patterns, resulting in vertical fins that catch light differently depending on their angle. The design serves as an elegant backdrop, allowing the Weir Greenhouse to remain the focal point while providing exhibition space, classrooms, and offices for the cemetery's expanding cultural programming.

This conversation explores the strategic decisions behind designing within a landmark, from research in Green-Wood's archives to collaboration with landscape architects. Stephen also reflects on lessons from his years at Steven Holl Architects, ARO's research-driven approach to practice, and how constraints can actually lead to better design solutions.

Episode Outline

(02:01) Early lessons from Steven Holl on craft and materiality

(03:14) Meeting Adam Yarinsky at Princeton and starting ARO in the early 1990s

(12:21) Green-Wood Cemetery's history, landscape, and transformation into a cultural institution

(18:07) The Green-Wood RFP process and interview 

(22:40) Design details that tie into the historic greenhouse and cemetery grounds 

(31:17) When to contrast with historic context versus when to serve as backdrop

(33:15) Navigating Landmarks Preservation Commission regulations 

Additional Resources

Check out The Mira Shoppe. American Building Podcast listeners get a complimentary gift with their first purchase! Email [email protected] to receive your exclusive code and treat yourself to a piece you’ll cherish, while supporting a brand that gives back.

Kim Yao of Architecture Research Office | Milgard Hall in Tacoma | A School for Everyone

The Green-Wood Cemetery Education and Welcome Center

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc 

Green-Wood Cemetery T-Shirt

Connect with Stephen

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There are over 2,000 different building codes across the United States, including 340 in Colorado alone. This fragmentation is one of the biggest barriers preventing modular housing from addressing America's affordability crisis. Wayne Norbeck and Jordan Rogove, co-founders of DXA Studio and Liv-Connected, are working to change that through their design work and their efforts on Capitol Hill.

In this second part of our conversation, Wayne and Jordan explain the technical strategy behind the Lahaina project. By engineering components to fit on standard flatbed trucks rather than expensive wide-load transport, they reduced shipping costs from $18 per mile to $2-3 per mile. Each unit arrives complete and can be installed in four hours, with finishes that include pre-finished birch plywood interiors and peaked roofs—features manufacturers repeatedly tried to eliminate, but made a huge difference for tenants. 

The conversation also explores how regional code standardization could save 30 cents on every housing dollar and current progress with bipartisan support for legislation extending HUD's manufactured housing authority. This would cut approval times from months to weeks while maintaining quality standards, potentially transforming how America responds to natural disasters and housing affordability. 

Episode Outline

(01:01) Volumetric versus hybrid modular systems and the economics of shipping costs

(04:31) Material choices that avoid institutional aesthetics and support permanent housing

(11:05) Navigating FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers, and Maui County building approvals

(14:37) Where modular housing can have the highest impact beyond disaster relief

(17:45) The case for regional building codes to unlock affordable housing at scale

(21:30) Legislative solutions and bipartisan Congressional support for modular expansion

(29:25) Connecting with state officials, nonprofits, and the UCLA cityLAB initiative

Additional Resources

Check out The Mira Shoppe. American Building Podcast listeners get a complimentary gift with their first purchase! Email [email protected] to receive your exclusive code and treat yourself to a piece you’ll cherish, while supporting a brand that gives back.

Learn more about Liv-Connected

Learn more about DXA Studio 

The Modular Construction Landscape by Atif Z. Qadir

cityLAB - UCLA

Modular Building Institute

Sen. Tim Scott's ROAD to Housing Act

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Homes for All Act   

A New Take on Disaster Housing in Hawaiʻi (Part 1)

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When the Lahaina wildfires devastated Maui in 2023, Hawaiʻi's governor did something unprecedented: he rejected FEMA trailers. The reason was simple一those trailers were designed to last three seasons but routinely became permanent housing for 10-plus years, bringing mold, formaldehyde, and health problems with them. Hawaiʻi wanted something better. 

Jordan Rogove and Wayne Norbeck, co-founders of DXA Studio and Liv-Connected, manufactured and delivered 109 homes to the Maui community in under two months. Their solution challenged conventional wisdom about disaster housing, demonstrating that speed and dignity can coexist. 

Their work on the Lahaina project reveals the tensions in disaster response: federal bureaucracy versus innovation, volumetric versus flat-pack construction, and how to maintain design integrity under tight deadlines.

This conversation also traces their journey from Virginia Tech classmates to established architects running a New York City practice. Along the way, they discovered that adaptive reuse and architecture-as-activism weren't just design philosophies, but rather catalysts for creating Liv-Connected, their modular housing initiative focused on integrating health technology into factory-built homes.

Episode Outline

(02:17) Meeting at Virginia Tech and collaborating on design competitions post-grad

(10:24) The Haiti competition approach: team building and community engagement 

(16:04) The inspiration behind integrating health technology into modular housing

(18:46) Getting FEMA's attention through the Texas General Land Office RFP

(24:09) Why Hawaiʻi rejected FEMA trailers and sought out permanent housing solutions

(26:39) Design trade-offs for manufacturing at scale  

(29:56) Navigating FEMA's seven-layer decision-making structure

Additional Resources

Check out The Mira Shoppe. American Building Podcast listeners get a complimentary gift with their first purchase! Email [email protected] to receive your exclusive code and treat yourself to a piece you’ll cherish, while supporting a brand that gives back.

Learn more about Liv-Connected

Learn more about DXA Studio 

The New York Times article: In Lahaina, ‘Dignified’ Havens for Wildfire Survivors

Episode 81 with Vishaan Chakrabarti 

Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama

Connect with Jordan Rogove

Connect on LinkedIn 

Connect with Wayne Norbeck

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Grab the exclusive guide: How Eight Developers & Designers Are Responding to The Housing Crisis  

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Most developers assume the housing crisis is about supply. Jesse Russell and Ryan Andrews of Hiatus Homes see it differently: it's about designing for households that most developers overlook. One to two-person households represent the largest and fastest-growing demographic in America, yet they're the least served by new construction. Based in Bend, Oregon, Hiatus Homes builds 500-1,200 square foot homes specifically for this market, and since 2020, they've raised $8M from 60 local investors. 

Their Hiatus Ninth project demonstrates how small-scale infill development works in practice. On a half-acre lot that once held a single home, they subdivided the property into nine lots and built "twinhomes"—a main unit with an attached ADU that functions as both a primary residence and rental property. This approach allows middle-income buyers (80-120% AMI) to afford homeownership while generating rental income, using financing structures that treat the combined units as a primary residence rather than an investment property.

This conversation also explores the policy changes enabling this housing type, the three-stage capitalization strategy they use, the construction process with guaranteed-price builders, and the barriers still preventing small-scale development from scaling nationally. Jesse and Ryan offer practical advice for developers navigating zoning codes, engaging local government, and creating housing that serves workforce needs while remaining financially viable.

Episode Outline

(03:59) Capital raising through the JOBS Act and community-based investors

(08:52) Defining small-scale development and the housing types that qualify

(13:49) Hiatus Ninth project overview: subdividing one lot into nine twin homes

(21:06) Design and construction process with guaranteed-price builders

(23:44) Pricing strategy and the importance of getting buyers into the physical space

(27:50) Three-stage financing structures and end-user mortgages

(33:23) How Freddie Mac allows rental income to offset mortgage qualification

(39:47) Inventory challenges and building permit slowdowns

(43:29) Barriers to scaling small-scale developments

(53:50) How developers can engage local government and advocate for zoning reform

Additional Resources

Check out The Mira Shoppe. American Building Podcast listeners get a complimentary gift with their first purchase! Email [email protected] to receive your exclusive code and treat yourself to a piece you’ll cherish, while supporting a brand that gives back.

Hiatus Homes

General Contractor: Simplicity Homes 

Private Lender: Builders Capital 

Freddie Mac

Tour of Homes 2025 Winners 

Abundance By Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson

Rep. Ilhan Omar's Housing for All Act (2022)

Road to Housing Act (2025) sponsored by Sen. Tim Scott and Sen. Elizabeth Warren

Connect with Jesse Russell and Ryan Andrews

Follow Hiatus Homes on LinkedIn

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The return-to-office policies have settled, but the real challenge has just begun. As companies bring employees back to their desks, the question isn't whether people will return—it's whether they'll want to stay. The office buildings succeeding in this new era aren't necessarily those with the best locations or lowest rents, but rather those who approach office spaces with a hospitality mindset. Michael Kirchmann understood this shift before most developers even recognized the opportunity.

As co-founder and CEO of GDSNY, Michael transformed the Met Tower from 20% to 84% leased in 15 months. His strategy includes offering a premium experience at $85-90 per square foot (versus $220+ for new Plaza District towers), hiring former Four Seasons concierges as building staff, and creating amenities like members-only clubs. This approach recognizes that employers now use office environments as recruitment and retention tools, making design quality a competitive necessity rather than a luxury.

Beyond development, GDSNY operates GDS Brightstar, a lending platform that combines their construction and leasing expertise, creating unique opportunities to underwrite office deals that traditional lenders avoid. As both borrower and lender, they can identify promising assets and provide rescue capital, construction finance, and workout solutions. Their hands-on approach has saved borrowers tens of millions in construction costs by leveraging existing contractor relationships, making them valuable partners when deals need creative restructuring.

Episode Outline

(01:54) Growing up in a real estate family and the path from architecture to development

(03:31) European development experience with SOM and Howard Ronson 

(09:15) GDSNY's mission of creating exceptional real estate through design differentiation

(14:40) Assessment of Met Tower's condition and repositioning potential

(19:12) Creating hospitality-inspired office experiences and targeting new tenant types

(27:37) Walking through the transformed tenant experience from street to suite

(31:02) Real estate debt market opportunities and GDSNY's lending platform

(38:17) Key elements of successful loan workouts and preventing problems through relationships

Additional Resources

Check out The Mira Shoppe. American Building Podcast listeners get a complimentary gift with their first purchase! Email [email protected] to receive your exclusive code and treat yourself to a piece you’ll cherish, while supporting a brand that gives back.

Learn more about Met Tower

Fogarty Finger Architecture 

Ace Hotel Kyoto 

Kengo Kuma & Associates

Commune Design  

Connect with Michael 

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Email: [email protected] 

More From American Building 

Grab the exclusive guide: How Eight Developers & Designers Are Responding to The Housing Crisis  

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Learn more about Michael Graves Architecture & Design 

Watch this episode on YouTube