When Serenbe was first conceived, Steve Nygren had the opportunity to rethink almost everything from the ground up. But most of the places where people live don’t have that luxury. They’re already built, and in many cases, they’re struggling.

That’s where our guest today, Ellen Dunham-Jones, comes in. An architect, urban designer, and longtime professor at Georgia Tech, Ellen has spent more than two decades exploring how existing suburbs can evolve.

In this conversation, Steve and Ellen explore everything from transforming abandoned malls and creating more third places to stormwater parks, autonomous transportation, climate migration, and what the suburbs might look like twenty years from now.

If Serenbe is an example of what can happen when you start with a blank slate, Ellen’s work asks an equally important question: What should we do with the places we’ve already built?

Show Notes:

• Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson
• Case Studies in Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Strategies for Urgent Challenges by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson
• Ellen Dunham-Jones: Retrofitting suburbia (TED)
• Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU)
• DPZ CoDesign (Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk)
• Nygren Placemaking
• Serenbe

Are you interested in communities where people, nature, and businesses thrive together? Whether you’re a developer, urban planner, or simply curious about how thoughtful design can create lasting value and resilience, join us in Serenbe – September 28th through 30th – for the annual Nygren Placemaking Conference.

Are You Ready For Radical Common Sense? Visionary placemaker Steve Nygren chronicles the rise of Serenbe, a pioneering model of biophilic living outside Atlanta, and charts a path for others wishing to challenge the status quo, embrace optimism, and reinvent their communities…and themselves.

Order the book today.

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