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Artwork for The New School for City Builders

The New School for City Builders

Seth Zeren
Education
Urban Design
City Planning
Citymakers Collective
Urban Planning
Urban Form
Architecture Education
New Urbanism
City Management
City Building
Liberal Arts
Watertown, Massachusetts
Accreditation
Education/curriculum
Higher Education
Emerging New Urbanists
Intbau
Higher Education Reform
Strong Towns
Georgia Tech

Welcome to The New School for City Builders, a conversation about how we teach, train, and educate the people who build and steward our cities and towns. America is struggling: a housing crisis, climate change, forty thousand of our fellow citizens killed in car crashes each year, insolvent city budgets, sclerotic government, an epidemic of ugly buildings and streets and places not worth caring fo... more

PublishesWeeklyEpisodes15Founded4 months ago
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Society & CultureEducation

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Artwork for The New School for City Builders

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About this episode

What if the reason American streets keep getting built wrong isn’t that engineers are careless, but that a whole profession is missing from the room?

In this episode Seth Zeren talks with Steffen Berr, a civil engineer trained in... more

Seth Zeren talks with Will McCollum (architect, urbanist, and founder of Citymakers Collective) and Christine Franck (architect, educator, and author; first executive director of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art) about what it means to b... more

Summary

In this episode of The New School for City Builders, host Seth Zeren talks with George Proakis, city manager of Watertown, Massachusetts, about the winding educational path that shaped his career — from a civil engineering degree at Northeas... more

Show Notes

In this episode, Seth talks with Sheinya Joseph — architectural designer at Dover, Little Diversified Architectural Consulting and president of the Emerging New Urbanists (ENU) — about her path into architecture and urbanism, what her edu... more

About the guest

William Deresiewicz is an author, essayist, and literary critic. He taught English at Yale from 1998–2008 and was a graduate instructor at Columbia. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The New Republi... more

Show notes:

* Incremental Development Alliance

* Range Co.

Build the Next Right Thing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The following transcript has been lig... more

In this episode, Seth talks with Paul Knight, architect and planner at Historical Concepts, about the study of urban form and why it matters for anyone trying to build better cities. Paul’s thinking was shaped by legendary Georgia Tech professor Doug... more

Show Notes:

* College of St. Joseph the Worker

* Crabtree Group

* Jacob on the Bottom Up Revolution

Build the Next Right Thing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscrib... more

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Recent Guests

Will McCollum
Architect and urbanist, founder of Citymakers Collective and driver behind the Summer Studio
Citymakers Collective
Episode: You can just teach things: the origin of the Summer Studio
Christine Franck
Architect, educator, and author, instrumental in launching the summer school
Institute of Classical Architecture and Art (ICAA) / Intbau liaison
Episode: You can just teach things: the origin of the Summer Studio
George Proakis
City manager of Watertown, Massachusetts; former planning director in Somerville and Lowell; planning professor at Northeastern
Watertown, Massachusetts; Northeastern University (teaching)
Episode: City Manager as City Building Maestro
Sheinya Joseph
Architectural designer and president of Emerging New Urbanists
Little Diversified Architectural Consulting; Emerging New Urbanists
Episode: Sheinya Joseph on Rebuilding City-Builder Education
William Deresiewicz
Author, essayist, literary critic; contributor on liberal education and higher education reform
Author and critic
Episode: A Modest Proposal: Colleges Try Teaching
Allie Quinlan
Architect, landscape architect, and developer in Fayetteville, Arkansas; executive director of Incremental Development Alliance (IncDev)
Range; Incremental Development Alliance (IncDev)
Episode: Incremental Development at The New School for City Builders
Paul Knight
Architect and planner at Historical Concepts
Historical Concepts
Episode: Why the History of Urban Form is Foundational for City Builders
Jacob Hyman
Civil engineer, PE; works with Paul Crabtree on new urbanist civil engineering projects
Crabtree Engineering (Paul Crabtree's firm)
Episode: Engineering the New School for City Builders
Anne Gatling Haynes
City builder with experience in architecture, planning, real estate and economic development
Massachusetts/Multiple cities (TDI program)
Episode: Anne Haynes on the Hidden Curriculum of City Building

Host

Seth Zeren
Host focused on education, planning, and city-building pedagogy; positioned as a guiding voice exploring new pathways for city builders.

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This American LifeThis American Life
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Reaching OutFuturo Media
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Notes from the EdgeGamut Podcast Network
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Stuff You Should KnowiHeartPodcasts
The Ezra Klein Show
The Ezra Klein ShowNew York Times Opinion
Modern Wisdom
Modern WisdomChris Williamson

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

City Manager as City Building Maestro
Q: What's one of the best parts of your educational experience that informed your career the most?
He stresses the value of combining design-focused urban design studies with policy and management training, noting that the dual master's degrees gave him a broad toolkit for city-building and the importance of design in policy implementation.
City Manager as City Building Maestro
Q: How did you transition from staff planner to city manager, and what was most surprising about moving into that executive role?
The guest describes moving from Lowell to Somerville, then to Watertown as a planner-manager, emphasizing that leadership required managing budgets and personnel, not just technical planning. The most surprising part was how much team-building and cross-department collaboration shaped his success as a city manager.
City Manager as City Building Maestro
Q: So George, how did you become a planner in the first place? What was your educational journey?
He started in civil engineering, then shifted toward public administration and planning after discovering his interest lay in policy questions and social implications of transportation, leading him to pursue dual master's degrees in Public Administration and City Planning which laid the foundation for his later roles.
Sheinya Joseph on Rebuilding City-Builder Education
Q: Can you explain how ENU's mentorship and Urban Decode programs help bridge the gap between academia and practice?
They pair mentors with mentees for year-long guidance, run hands-on regional learnings and workshops, and provide spaces to learn from peers and experienced practitioners, helping emerging professionals build networks and leadership skills.
Sheinya Joseph on Rebuilding City-Builder Education
Q: What changes would you like to see in architecture education to better prepare students for interdisciplinary city-building?
Incorporate more cross-disciplinary collaboration, expose students to development and policy, and create long-form projects that simulate real-world partnerships across architecture, planning, engineering, and economics.

Audience Metrics

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Frequently Asked Questions About The New School for City Builders

What is The New School for City Builders about and what kind of topics does it cover?

This show centers on rethinking how cities are taught, planned, and built by focusing on practical, interdisciplinary city-building education. Across episodes, hosts and guests debate liberal arts' relevance to civic life, the value of hands-on training over theory-heavy curricula, and the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration among planners, engineers, architects, developers, and public leaders. Notable threads include incremental development, human-centered infrastructure, and the long-term pedagogy shifts required to cultivate capable, civic-minded practitioners who can shape affordable, livable places. A standout characteristic is the emphasis on real-world learning, regional programs, and insurgent educational models designed to em... more

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Which podcasts are similar to The New School for City Builders?

These podcasts share a similar audience with The New School for City Builders:

1. The Messy City Podcast
2. The Bottom-Up Revolution
3. Upzoned
4. The Strong Towns Podcast
5. Booked on Planning

How many episodes of The New School for City Builders are there?

The New School for City Builders launched 4 months ago and published 15 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on The New School for City Builders?

Recent guests on The New School for City Builders include:

1. Will McCollum
2. Christine Franck
3. George Proakis
4. Sheinya Joseph
5. William Deresiewicz
6. Allie Quinlan
7. Paul Knight
8. Jacob Hyman

To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.

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