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Utilizing Augmented Reality as a Tool for Creative Placemaking  with Ben Switzer – Ep. 61About the GuestCan’t wait to share this next conversation with all of you. Today on the show I have Ben Switzer, Co-Founder and CGO of EXAR Studios. After working in sales consulting in the medical field, Ben created the first flexible cognitive enhancement program in Canada. His city-wide engagement toward innovation in mental health led to his coordination of multi-disciplinary teams to develop gamified neurotechnology. His experience with AR and the solutions it can provide propelled him to become Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of EXAR Studios. In this episode, we learn about the role of Augmented Reality (AR) in placemaking specifically, the science behind AR, special uses in which EXAR studios has provided a solution during this time of social distancing and limited travel, and the future of AR at least as it relates to the travel and tourist industry. There is tons of great information in this episode and I greatly appreciated Ben for taking the time out of her very busy schedule to discuss this topic of Utilizing AR As A Tool For Creative Placemaking with me. As always, if you have enjoyed the show, please subscribe to the show and share with your friends in the industry. There will be more exciting conversations on the shows to come. So without further ado, let’s start the show!

Show Notes

Matt (00:00):Hey, welcome to show Ben.Ben (00:02):Really glad to be here.Matt (00:04):Glad to have you on here. This is this is a topic that I'm pretty interested in and to be honest, I wish I knew more about, so this is great to have you on the show just to begin with let's, let's go over kind of your background, Ben, and then we'll transition to where you're at EXAR and, and go from there.Ben (00:25):Sounds great. Yeah, I have a, a bit of an interesting backstory. It's one of those cases where I became an entrepreneur because I had problems in my life that I had to address and there weren't really existing solutions for my particular problem. And my interest began actually in mental health. I had a brain injury and as a young person in my twenties, I was diagnosed with PTs D and I really struggled throughout my teens as well. and, you know, I, I'm kind of at that like perfect millennial age where you know, I remember I experienced depression in high school, but I had never heard the word depression at that point. Sure. So, at that time, I didn't have any frame of reference for the sensations and feelings that were happening to me at that time. And things had kind of changed a little bit, which I'm really glad about in terms of stigma and the conversation opening up mm-hmm .Ben (01:26):So I became very interested in psychology and neuroscience as I was having these problems and interfacing with the medical system and going through psychiatric and all that stuff, wasn't really working for me to the same extent. And so I had to make some adjustments. So I actually started, excuse me, one sec, no problem. In the, in the neuro rehabilitation space. And I was looking at different technologies that people were using to enhance their brain function or to deal with stroke or other neurodegenerative diseases. So I was looking at everything from, you know, and I was shocking my brain with electricity. I was meditating for long periods, taking all kinds of supplements, and I put this all together in a program and applied it to my own life and my own problem. And I was able to have success and restore my function so I could be healthy.Ben (02:26):I wow. And, and it was, that was kind of what sparked the entrepreneurial journey. And I,

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Utilizing Small-Scale Manufacturing to Boost Local Economies with Ilana Preuss – Ep. 60About the GuestCan’t wait to share this next conversation with all of you. Today on the show I have Ilana Preuss, Founder & CEO of Recast City. She is the author of Recast Your City, co-author of Discovering Your Maker Economy and Made in PLACE: Small-scale manufacturing & neighborhood revitalization, and a chapter author for Creative Placemaking and Sustainable Nation. She is a TEDx speaker on, “The Economic Power of Great Places,” and a featured keynote speaker.​In this episode, we learn about the importance of small-scale manufacturing on the local economy, some examples of where this method and focus for stimulating economies has worked, and the five-step method for "recasting" your own City with small-scale manufacturing. There is tons of great information in this episode and I greatly appreciated Ilana for taking the time out of her very busy schedule to discuss this topic of Small-Scale Manufacturing and Boosting Local Economies.As always, if you have enjoyed the show, please subscribe to the show and share with your friends in the industry. There will be more exciting conversations on the shows to come. So without further ado, let’s start the show!

Show Notes

Matt (00:00):Hey, welcome to the show.Ilana (00:02):My pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.Matt (00:04):Glad to have you on if you would just give us a little bit more about yourself to begin with, and then we'll kind of take that forward and, so kind of give us a Genesis of your professional background, and then we'll trail that into the book and your mission.Ilana (00:24):My pleasure. So my name is Ilana Preuss a city planner by training and I got into all of this work because I love places. I love downtowns. I love walking through places and it breaks my heart when I'm in a place that is clear not that it's unloved, but that people don't necessarily see the worth. And when I say people, it's not even necessarily people who live there, but it's the people who make the policy decisions or the investment decisions about that place. And for years, I worked in smart growth and community redevelopment, investing in downtowns and housing and transportation options. And over the years, I realized that we kept talking about jobs, housing balance, or, you know, mixed-use, but we never talked about what kind of businesses, what kind of jobs. And about 10 years ago, I went down a rabbit hole to try to figure out what kind of small businesses really do make.Ilana (01:19):The biggest difference for our neighborhoods really do make the biggest is difference for our economic resilience and really make the biggest difference for creating more equitable outcomes for more people both in neighborhoods, in bigger cities that have been historically excluded or neglected as well as rural smaller cities and towns that have been neglected in different ways. And I came aim to product businesses and these are, I call them small scale manufacturing. They're any business that creates a tangible product that you can replicate or package my shorthand for it is hot sauce, handbags, or hardware. The other one that occurred to me more recently is artisans to advance manufacturing. Okay. So it's really anybody who makes a, it can be food, it can be wood, it can be high tech, but it's, it's the product side of it because they can sell in person, they can sell online. And there is a very different kind of business for where we are right now with technology. But they're also accessible. People have a heritage of making things from every different part of our population. And so they're a, a really important part of our future economic development strategy.

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Creating Walkable, Urban Communities Through Missing Middle Housing with Dan Parolek – Ep. 59About the GuestCan’t wait to share this next conversation with all of you. Today on the show I have Dan Parolek, Founder of Opticos Design. Dan inspired a new movement for housing choice in 2010 when he coined the term “Missing Middle Housing,” a transformative concept that highlights a time-proven and beloved way to provide more housing and more housing choices in sustainable, walkable places. Opticos Design is driving a radical paradigm shift, urging cities, elected officials, urban planners, architects and builders to fundamentally rethink the way they design, locate, regulate, and develop homes. Americans want and need more diverse housing choices in walkable neighborhoods; homes that are attainable, sustainable, and beautifully designed.In this episode, we look at the definition of Missing Middle Housing and how it fits into various neighborhoods and schemes, the keys to success that he’s found in this type of development, and the biggest barriers to achieving true Missing Middle Housing options. There is tons of great information in this episode and I greatly appreciated Dan for taking the time out of his extremely busy schedule to discuss this topic of Creating Walkable, Urban Communities through Missing Middle Housing.As always, if you have enjoyed the show, please subscribe to the show and share it with your friends in the industry. There will be more exciting conversations on the shows to come. So without further ado, let’s start the show!

Show Notes

Matt (00:00):Hey welcome the show, Dan.Dan (00:02):Thanks for having me, Matt.Matt (00:04):Glad to have you on this show. You're, you're quite the celebrity in the development real estate development rings with your introduction of missing middle housing and what you're doing with Opticos. I'd like to kind of just start off here by getting to learn a little bit more about you and where you started out and, and then we will, we'll kind of transition that to Opticos and, and missing middle housing and, and we'll just go from there.Dan (00:39):Sure. Well just a little brief. I I'm trained as an architect. I have an undergraduate degree in architecture from Notre Dame and I practiced architecture in New York City for a number of years before deciding that I really wanted to work at the block, the neighborhood, and even the sort of city and regional scale. So I moved out to Berkeley, to go to UC Berkeley's master of urban design program. And it was just, a perfect fit for indoctrinating me into the world of urban design and how to get projects implemented and, and really just good how to get good urbanism to happen and how to root those barriers. And so actually upon my, my graduate thesis won a design competition called housing, the next 10 million which was ha ways that the California central valley could grow thoughtfully and accommodate the growth without compromising its character and the agricultural economy.Dan (01:44):And so that, that, that launched Opticos just, just a little over 20 years ago. Now we had a 20th-anniversary CEL, well celebration. We didn't really celebrate much last year due to COVID, but we we've re reached the 20-year threshold last year. Congratulations. Yeah. And one of the other reasons I started the company is because I did want to work on both architecture scale building scale projects, as well as those, that neighborhood and city scale that I mentioned earlier. And there was really no opportunity to do that even here in the bay area. And so, I decided I was just going to, I was just going to do it with my own company.Matt (02:26):Yeah. Awesome. I've got several questions from just that,

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Designing Vibrant Urban Infill Multifamily Development in the Twin Cities with Sean Sweeney – Ep. 58

About the Guest

Hello and welcome to Episode #58 of the Placemaking Podcast!

Can’t wait to share this next conversation with all of you. Today on the show I have Sean Sweeney, co-founder of Hall Sweeney Properties, an apartment developer that focuses on urban infill development. Sean focuses his efforts currently in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sean has an eye towards details and design in his projects and focuses on bringing great housing options for those in the Twin Cities. His projects have won several awards for design and thoughtfulness in and around the Twin-Cities area. Sean is very active on Twitter and has been seen as an authority on the subject of urban infill multifamily development. He’s well worth a follow if you’re interested in the topic.

​In this episode, we look at how Sean started in real estate development, his definition of Placemaking and how it can be created great design and the keys to success that he’s found in urban infill multifamily development. There is tons of great information in this episode and I greatly appreciated Sean for taking the time out of his extremely busy schedule to discuss this topic of Creating Memorable Urban Infill Multifamily with me.

As always, if you have enjoyed the show, please subscribe to the show and share with your friends in the industry. There will be more exciting conversations on the shows to come.

Show Notes

Matt (00:00:00):

Hey, welcome to the show, Sean.

Sean (00:00:02):

Hey, thanks for having me really appreciate it.

Matt (00:00:04):

Yeah. Glad to have you on here. You know, I follow you on Twitter as, as many of your followers do and enjoy all the discussions that you bring up. And you've got quite the following over the last couple of years. So I'm really excited for this conversation because you're doing something that I envy and it's, something that I'm hoping to try to reproduce myself in you know, initially a smaller scale, but worked my way up. SoI can't wait to get into this conversation first off. Let's just get a little bit more about your background where you started out and basically the Genesis of Sean Sweeney.

Sean (00:00:52):

Oh, no problem. So my, my career started in the early two thousands. I graduated from college in 2000, had a brief, but a unsuccessful stint as an actor in Chicago for a couple of years. I always tell people, I, I have some great stories and I met some really famous, interesting people during that time, but it wasn't a good long-term plan. I didn't want to be poor when I was 50 and live on people's couches and all that. Just wait, waiting for my big break. So made a transition ended up being my girlfriend at the time. Who's now my wife had gotten into grad school in California. I actually applied to law school as a kind of, you know, typical liberal arts major didn't know what the heck I wanted to do. It was like, oh, I'll go to law school.

Sean (00:01:39):

That's probably a smart move. Spent a few months in Chicago, working at a law firm, and quickly realized that would probably not be a good fit for me. But my girlfriend had already planned to move and I wanted to come along. So I went for the ride. We ended up in the San Francisco bay area and I just, I took some time I was working a sales job, but I, that was just kind of a placeholder while I tried to figure out, excuse me, what, you know, what I really want to do. And I have an uncle who I talked to a bunch of different people in a bunch of different industries. Cause I didn't, I didn't grow up in a business house. So they, and grow up with, you know, that kind of talk around the dinner table. But what I, what I learned quickly was, you know, business is a, is a pretty great way to make a living.

Sean (00:02:23):

You know, you can do all kinds of really interesting things at the ...

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Creating Heavy Value-Add Development OpportunitiesWhere People Can Flourish with Bobby Fijan – Ep. 57About the GuestCan’t wait to share this next conversation with all of you. Today on the show I have Bobby Fijan, Partner of Form Developers. Bobby has been involved in startup companies for nearly his entire career. He left graduate school to start his previous company, Cross Properties, with 3 other partners in the basement of a seminary in 2011. He's worn every hat in real estate from finance, capital markets, fundraising, leasing, late-night maintenance, and semi-professional architect. At Cross, he was the Partner in charge of the Development and Design team and was responsible for every project from an empty lot to the stabilized building. In 2019, he left day-to-day operations at Cross to co-found Tailorbird, a construction technology company, and Form Developers. Through Form, he has invested in half a dozen real estate deals and real estate technology startups and has advised many younger developers.Form’s core belief is that real estate investments are best made through patient capital with aligned interests. Their strategic focus is on multifamily and mixed-use development in two categories:1) Ground-up or heavy value-add development opportunities in urban core and high barrier to entry suburban markets.2) Holding, and re-developing, suburban retail shopping located near major arterial roads and transportation hubs.Historically, multifamily has been the least volatile asset class during downturns. Additionally, as technology advances, they believe that land located near major arterial roads will become the new “transit-oriented” parcels that are more in demand for residents and investors.In this episode, we look at the ways Bobby is able to balance the risk/reward ratio on tough projects, his definition of Placemaking and how it can be created through floor plan curation, and the keys to identifying a great floor plan mix on your next multifamily development. There is loads of great information in this episode and I greatly appreciated Bobby for taking the time out of his extremely busy schedule to discuss this topic of Creating Heavy Value-Add Development Opportunities with me.

Show Notes

Matt (00:00:58):Hey, welcome to the show, Bobby!Bobby (00:01:11):Great to be here, Matt. Thank you so much for having me.Matt (00:01:15):I'm honored to have you on the show! I know you've been on a couple other shows. I know Chris powers, a friend of mine that has been on this show before, but I want to take a slightly different twist and if you're ready, I'd like to just jump right in.Bobby (00:01:30):That sounds great.Matt (00:01:31):So let's, let's get a little bit about your background starting out Bobby and then we'll kind of transition that into Form and we'll just keep going from there.Bobby (00:01:43):Okay. Perfect. Well okay. Where to begin? Well I was born in Boston and my dad was a mechanical engineering professor and we moved around the country every two to four years. So he was at MIT and then Michigan, and then I moved to the bay area, Phoenix for a bit south Jersey and, and, and a few other spots, but I grew up moving all around the country. I was actually homeschooled K through 12. Actually, that's not true. I went to kindergarten, went to public kindergarten. I was homeschooled from first grade through 12th grade. And initially, then I initially went to school at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where I studied history and film because I had the good fortune to get a scholarship. So I thought, yeah, I could study whatever I wanted.Bobby (00:02:34):And I went into an intro to film class and it sounded fun. So I thought, great.

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Understanding the Pathway to Net-Zero Carbon Emissions with Breana Wheeler – Ep. 56About the GuestHello and welcome to Episode #56 of the Placemaking Podcast!Can’t wait to share this next conversation with all of you. Today on the show I have Breana Wheeler, Director of Operations for BREEAM USA. Breana Wheeler became the Director of Operations - US for BRE in May 2016 with a mission to provide a credible, rigorous, science-based option for existing buildings to understand their sustainability performance, set a pathway to improvement and to certify performance where there is value in doing so. Breana organizes and oversees the daily operations of the business, including the development and maintenance of the BREEAM USA technical standards. Prior to joining BRE, Breana worked for nearly ten years as an internal advisor on environmental and sustainability risk management for large, multinational corporations and was based in London, England.BREEAM is the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for masterplanning projects, infrastructure and buildings. It recognizes and reflects the value in higher performing assets across the built environment lifecycle, from new construction to in-use and refurbishment. BREEAM does this through third party certification of the assessment of an asset’s environmental, social and economic sustainability performance, using standards developed by BRE. This means BREEAM rated developments are more sustainable environments that enhance the well-being of the people who live and work in them, help protect natural resources and make for more attractive property investments.

​In this episode, we look at Breana’s top strategy for achieving net-zero carbon emissions in construction, common myths about sustainability certifications that need to be debunked, and how BREEAM is different than some of the other sustainability certifications out there currently. There is loads of great information in this episode and I greatly appreciated Breana for taking the time out of her crazy-busy schedule to discuss this topic of Understanding the Pathway to Net-Zero Carbon Emissions with me.As always, if you have enjoyed the show, please subscribe to the show and share with your friends in the industry. There will be more exciting conversations on the shows to come.So without further ado, let’s start the show!

Show Notes

Matt (00:00:02):Hey, welcome to the show, Breana,Breana (00:00:45):Thank you very much for having me.Matt (00:00:47):I'm glad to have you on the show. I've read a lot about your background and some of the main initiatives of your group and thought it'd be fun to kind of dig in a little deeper. So I guess to start off, can you give us a little bit about your background and where you started in this, in this journey, and then we'll take it from there?Breana (00:01:12):Sure. So I started actually in the sustainability field around 2007. I was looking at environmental sustainability for big corporations. I worked for a couple of design and engineering firms, very internally focused. And I was living in London. I spent 10 years in London initially, and then I moved back to the United States and started looking at real estate and sustainability very specifically in the built environment. And in 2016 I became the director of operations for each year in the USMatt (00:01:47):Well, just curious, why London?Breana (00:01:52):My partner is British, so yeah, so I moved there initially, for love as one does. So yeah, it was a great move. And actually at that time sustainability in the UK was really consolidating a proper profession. There's a lot of, there are organizations that support professional development in a really fundamental way.

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Utilizing Curation and Implementation to Create Vibrant Places  with Rob Spanier – Ep. 55About the GuestI am extremely excited to share this next conversation with all of you. Today on the show I have Rob Spanier, President of the Spanier Group. Rob is a seasoned real estate professional specializing in mixed-use development and placemaking. With 20 plus years of hands-on experience, Rob has brought to life more than 80 legacy projects throughout North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. Rob is an international real estate development advisor dedicated to creating innovative, next-gen destinations and places, with expertise in creating thriving communities with uniquely curated specialty retail experiences. By playing an integral role on multi-disciplinary project teams, Rob commits his extensive knowledge in large-scale mixed-use development, master planning, specialty leasing, and deal-making as well as programming and activation in order to create vibrant and prosperous communities.The Spanier Group provides real estate development and advisory services dedicated to the creation of vibrant next-generation destinations. With over 20 years of experience in strategic mixed-use development and placemaking around the world, Spanier Group specializes in leading iconic large-scale projects and supporting multi-disciplinary teams to ensure the successful creation of thriving places and communities. Their team specializes in mixed-use developments, placemaking, deal-making, community involvement, and much more.​In this episode, we take a look at Rob’s top tip for creating memorable spaces, the keys to success in mixed-use developments, and we discussed what is truly important when trying to curate a specific sense of place. There is tons of great information in this episode and I greatly appreciated Rob for taking the time out of his extremely busy schedule to discuss this topic of Utilizing Curation and Implementation to Create Vibrant Places.

Show Notes

Matt (00:05):Hey, welcome to the show, Rob!Rob (00:15):Nice to meet you and nice to see you.Matt (00:17):Yeah, I'm glad you could join me today. I've heard a lot about what you guys are doing there, Spanier group, and I thought it'd be interesting to kind of dig into that a little bit and kind of unravel what you guys are working on. So to begin, I want to get a little bit more about your background in real estate, where it kind of all began the Genesis of Rob and real estate, and then we'll kind of carry it through to where you're at Spanier.Rob (00:47):Sure. Sounds good. And thank you for having me on the show. Really appreciate the opportunity to just sort of connect and chat a bit. So my background is not a traditional one. I went to school in Canada and studied McGill University and had this incredible opportunity to join a company called Intrawest corporation Intrawest resorts, which in the mid to late nineties was the preeminent resort developer that was doing some incredible stuff around the world, Canada, the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean. And when I joined them at the ripe age of 22, I knew very little about real estate, much less so about commercial real estate and even less so about retail. But I grew up in Montreal and Montreal is probably one of the greatest cities in the world that has its foundations and its bones that are, that come from the European design of cities.Rob (01:41):And so everything is so close. So where I grew up in the neighborhood of NDG, at the corner of my street was the fire station and the bakery and the fruit store and the bank, and then the larger grocery store and the tailor and all of those services. And so growing up for me, I lived in a world of mixed-use.

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Designing Buildings as Frames of Experience for the Public Realm with Marlon Blackwell, FAIA – Ep. 54About the GuestI am extremely excited to share this next conversation with all of you. Today on the show I have Marlon Blackwell, FAIA. Marlon is a practicing architect in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and serves as the E. Fay Jones Distinguished Professor at the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design at the University of Arkansas. Marlon is integrally involved in every phase of the design process, from programming through construction administration, for every project Marlon Blackwell Architects pursues. He is involved on a daily basis, working to establish the design direction and works directly with client leadership on critical issues, ensuring a successful outcome and meaningful relationship. Since 1992, Marlon Blackwell Architects has designed for its clients award-winning, environmentally responsive projects. Their belief that architecture can happen anywhere, at any scale, at any budget - for anyone - drives them to quite literally challenge the conventions and models that often obscure other possibilities. They use an economy of means to deliver a maximum of meaning in places where architecture is often not expected to be found. In every instance, they strive to express the richness of the places they work and the ideals of the people and institutions they so proudly serve.In this episode, we take a look at the importance of establishing a vocabulary in architecture, we dig into the elements of design that bring the most impact to the building’s surroundings, and we discussed the most important attributes of a successful project when taken in the context of framing the public realm. There is tons of great information in this episode and I greatly appreciated Marlon for taking the time out of his extremely busy schedule to discuss this topic of designing buildings as frames of experience for the public realm with me.

Show Notes

Matt (00:07):

Hey, welcome to the show Marlon. Glad to have you on here.

Marlon (00:19):

Thanks Matt! Good to be here.

Matt (00:21):

Yeah, it's an honor to have you on here. You're a pretty big name in architecture and I think it's going to be a fun discussion. So without further ado, you want to just jump right in.

Marlon (00:32):

Sure. Hit, hit me with your, your best shot.

Matt (00:37):

Well, let's, let's start off and learn a little bit more about you and your background basically where you started, where the story of Marlon began and then we'll, we'll kind of take it from there.

Marlon (00:53):

Okay. how I began in architecture, right. How far did we go back? So, well, I mean, I think it's something that the realization that architecture's something I wanted to pursue or study really came out of, you know, pursuit of other things initially. I mean, I when I was growing up, I grew up near the near the Everglades actually well I'm south Florida, so I had a, and I had a real love for nature I had developed. And of course, if you're in your, the Everglades, there's a lot of things that can eat you. So, a real fear of nature is a good thing too. So, but I had had this desire to be a paleontologist and you know, love to put in skeletons and bones together and pieces. And, you know, I was very interested in, you know, what you don't see in nature in history and then that sort of evolved into desire to right, to be a journalist or creative writer. Because I love to tell stories. I love stories. And then you know, then it starts to evolve again, I all through my junior high and high school and even part of college, I cartoon like drew had a real passion for developing my own characters against stories and, and reductive figures. I love the comics.

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Resurrecting Place and Redeeming Cities Through Redemptification with John Marsh – Ep. 53

About the Guest

I am extremely excited to share this next conversation with all of you. Today on the show I have John Marsh. John is the Co-Founder of Marsh Collective and host of the Redemptification Podcast, serial entrepreneur, a consultant helping steward over $1b in redemptive real estate in 9 small towns (with populations of 800-180k) around America, with love for building things that are beautiful and meaningful.  

Over the last 25 years, John and Ashely have guided over 40 startup businesses in various industries, such as Construction, Real Estate Investing, Advertising, and also multiple Restaurants. John and his wife have renovated 220+ buildings within 10 blocks of downtown Opelika to help save their city. Today, John’s current focus is on helping others make generational differences in their communities and companies by helping patrons bridge the gap between redeeming vision and execution.

Marsh Collective is a collective of entrepreneurs who empower businesses and leaders to make an impact in their companies and communities. They help others to reach their goals through redemptive vision consulting. They believe in creating Emotional Architecture, where stories are considered before structures, where people are truly aligned with profits. They provide consultation services for clients from small towns to mid-size towns all over the United States. 

In this episode, we take a look at the importance of establishing a “Sandbox” in your own town, understand that people love things that are loved, and the importance of establishing a vision for you and your developments going forward. There is loads of great information in this episode and I greatly appreciated John for taking the time out of his extremely busy schedule to discuss this topic of redemptification with me.

As always, if you have enjoyed the show, please subscribe to the show and share it with your friends in the industry. There will be more exciting conversations on the shows to come.

Main Take-Away’s From This Show

This episode was so much fun to record. John was an absolute pleasure to interview. He brought so much wisdom with a big dash of humility. We dove into the method behind his work in great detail throughout the episode. He showed us that this type of work could really be done anywhere and at any starting point. His love for his town and the structures that he works on show through with each new project. There were so many great talking points that Todd made throughout the discussion, so it is hard to just pick three for my main take-away’s this week. The following main topics of the show come from an understanding of placemaking and redemptive real estate that he possesses.

People Love things that are Loved

Work Hard on your Vision

Pick a Sandbox and Stick with it

As always, I will dig into each of these “take-away’s” every week on the blog. So, without further a due, here we go!

People Love things that are Loved

What I loved about this discussion with John is that all of the principles we discussed were simple but extremely impactful. He understood the basic principles that make development and redevelopment in a town very successful. All of these principles or doctrines can be implemented in your strategy with real estate development going forward. They aren’t necessarily hard to implement but do take initiative to make happen. This is what sets apart developers working within the same town.

One of the principles discussed is the one listed above; People love things that are loved. People can identify “love” in a place just by simply looking at the structure and surrounding ...

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Utilizing Modern Construction Methods to Create Memorable Places with Todd Smith – Ep. 52

About the Guest

I am extremely excited to share this next conversation with all of you. Today on the show I have Todd Smith of 356 out of Toronto, Ontario. What started as a (surprisingly plausible) model of a passive solar chalet for a Grade 4 science fair, culminated over many years as the creative work of developing places where people flourish. Today, through his development firm 356, Todd creates places where people love to live and are proud to call home. Humanizing, beautiful places in characterful, green neighborhoods that encourage health and wellbeing.

While the role of a developer takes shape in literal built environments, Todd has learned that a developer's core value lies in holding a vision for what could be, then gathering, directing, supporting, and challenging talented people to be imaginative, solve problems, and work together to create something exceptional. This is what drew him to modular construction for a purpose-built rental enclave the company is developing which overlooks a 10-acre conservation area in an exurban community near Toronto, Canada. 

Todd and 356 are making places for people who want something different, something more responsible, something that inspires and enables.  They're doing the same for purpose-driven place makers, aligned developers, and investors who share the vision of renewing people and places, while multiplying their capital resources, stewardship and impact. 356 doesn’t try to mimic the past. It doesn't aim for mass appeal. Instead, the company creates spaces for the many lifestyles that don’t mesh with the majority of homes being built.  Design-forward spaces in architecturally engaging buildings that both respect and strengthen communities.

In this episode, we take a look at how modular is being used in this setting, what advantages it affords, some myths surrounding prefabrication, and why it's important to plan for contingencies no matter what the construction method. There is loads of great information in this episode and I greatly appreciated Todd for taking the time out of his extremely busy schedule to discuss this topic of modular construction in development with me.

As always, if you have enjoyed the show, please subscribe to the show and share it with your friends in the industry. There will be more exciting conversations on the shows to come.

Main Take-Away’s From This Show

This was another really fun episode to record. I enjoyed hearing about Todd’s intro into real estate development from his fourth-grade science project all the way up to the interesting work he’s doing now. His insights into the psychology of creating great places were truly eye-opening. As you’ll hear in this discussion, his experience with modular construction could potentially help you avoid pitfalls with your next project. There were so many great talking points that Todd made throughout the discussion, so it is hard to just pick three for my main take-away’s this week. The following main topics of the show come from an understanding of placemaking and modular construction that he possesses.

There Can Many Reasons Why Someone Would be Interested in Going Modular

Common Myths for Modular Construction Busted

You Can Learn Things from Everyone No-Matter Where they are in the Process

As always, I will dig into each of these “take-away’s” every week on the blog. So, without further a due, here we go!

There Can Many Reasons Why Someone Would be Interested in Going Modular

So, before we really dive deep into this topic, let us define modular construction. Who better to describe modular construction than the Modular Building I...