American Building

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 projec...

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-squ...

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 le...

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...

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 wa...

"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 pro...

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,...

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, m...

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 mark...

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 s...

When's the last time a ping pong game determined whether you could close a $350,000 loan? For Jonathan Dodson, it happened during his first major development project after walking away from a banking career. His moral stand against workplace harassment led him to launch Pivot Project, an Oklahoma City-based development firm specializing in historic preservation and community revitalization. 

In this episode, we talk through Med...

Many architecture firm owners struggle with the same challenge: How do you build a sustainable business that can thrive beyond the founder? Joe Furey solved this problem by bringing his finance and technology background to Michael Graves Architecture & Design, one of America's most iconic firms.

As CEO and President, Joe has transformed the practice from a firm dependent on Michael Graves’ reputation into a diverse platform busi...

Stephen Ross had an uncompromising vision for a transformational park built over a highway as part of an ambitious Detroit master plan. The challenge was cost. Tina Ladd has built her career remaining determined in the face of challenges. Through her work on both the Detroit master plan and Hudson Yards, she honed her skills to turn the impossible into possible. Today, that same relentless, solutions-driven mindset defines her work...

SHVO's $400 million transformation of the Transamerica Pyramid required solving a fundamental problem: how do you renovate an iconic building without destroying what makes it unique? The building's original architect, William Pereira, created brilliant structural innovations but made unusual interior design decisions—hiding 17-foot ceilings behind nine-foot drops and resulting in what was for a long time a standoffish, brutalist en...

Michael Shvo, founder, chairman, and CEO of SHVO, has built a reputation for transforming iconic properties through hospitality-driven real estate development. From residential to commercial assets, his customer-first philosophy has created some of the most iconic properties across global markets.

In this episode, Michael shares the remarkable story behind his $650 million acquisition and transformation of San Francisco's Transameri...

When the construction numbers came back for Worrell Yeung’s artist studio design in Westerly, Rhode Island, everyone had to pause and recalibrate. The ground-up approach they'd developed was simply too expensive for the clients' needs and lifestyle. This moment led them back to the initial design prompt and sketches. 

Rather than seeing this as a setback, Jejon Yeung and Max Worrell, co-founders of Worrell Yeung, discovered tha...

When architect Michael Chen, principal of MKCA, got a call about designing a 600-square foot apartment, the project brief was straightforward enough: renovate a 2-bedroom summer vacation home with multifunctional furniture. However, this wasn’t East Hampton or Miami Beach. In fact, there wasn’t an address at allーthe apartment floats on a luxury residential yacht that spends 365 days a year at sea. 

Michael discovered that desig...

In the continuation of our conversation with architect Vishaan Chakrabarti, we dive deeper into the philosophy and challenges behind PAU's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame expansion. What emerges is a masterclass in honoring architectural legacy and a candid discussion about building a principled practice. 

Vishaan reveals PAU's "place needs connection" methodology—starting as archaeologists to unearth a site's hidden history, then b...

Four years ago, we sat down with architect and urbanist Vishaan Chakrabarti to explore his vision for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame expansion in Cleveland—then still on the drawing board. Today, that project is under construction, reshaping Cleveland’s lakefront with a bold new cultural landmark. As cranes rise and the tower takes form, our conversation with Vishaan feels more timely than ever: it’s a front-row seat to how great...