Devon Zuegel: Building a People-First Town From Scratch with Esmeralda & Rethinking How We Live #14
Devon Zuegel is planning a bold, people-centered town from scratch. She has a background in software engineering and has worked at some of the big firms in Silicon Valley. She discovered a passion for urbanism and housing while living in San Francisco when she started looking into why there wasn’t more housing, and she draws a lot of inspiration from her childhood experiences at Chautauqua, a small town in Western New York.
We discuss the need for more beautiful and community-oriented neighborhoods and the challenges of current housing policies and regulations. Devon also explains her vision for Esmeralda, a town that combines the principles of traditional neighborhood development (TND) and the community-oriented programming of Chautauqua.
We explore the concept of experimentation and flexibility in urban planning and development, and brainstorm the importance of allowing for iteration and adaptation in building communities, the limitations of traditional planning processes and the need for more creative and responsive approaches.
We talk about how the tech MVP model (Minimum Viable Product) can be applied to neighborhoods (Minimum Viable Place) through temporary structures, such as food trucks and airstreams, in testing ideas and activating spaces.
While we discuss problems, it’s a fundamentally optimistic conversation! We discuss the need for individuals to take more agency and responsibility in shaping their built environment.
Devon was an amazing guest, lot’s of energy, nuanced thinking and positive vibes-can’t wait for y'all to hear!
TAKEAWAYS
Devon Zuegel is working on building a new people-first town called Esmeralda that combines the principles of traditional neighborhood development (TND) and the community-oriented programming of Chautauqua.
She believes that current housing policies and regulations make it difficult to build beautiful and community-oriented neighborhoods, and there is a need for more options that prioritize both housing and community.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of remote work have created an opportunity to rethink the way we live and build communities, allowing people to choose based on the community they want to be a part of.
Devon emphasizes the importance of building places that are beloved and can turn opponents into supporters, creating a positive impact on the community.
She envisions Esmeralda as a place where people can live full-time, with a focus on creating shared moments and a sense of belonging, similar to the experience of living on a college campus. Experimentation and flexibility are crucial in urban planning and development.
Temporary structures, like food trucks and airstreams, can be valuable in testing ideas and activating spaces.
Traditional planning processes often limit creativity and hinder adaptation to local conditions.
Individuals should take more agency and responsibility in shaping their built environment. Esmeralda is a real estate project that aims to create a new town focused on community and sustainability.
The project is inspired by Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) principles and aims to create a walkable, mixed-use community.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction and Background
07:12 The Need for Building Better Places
11:52 Chautauqua: A Model for Community and Learning
15:10 The Challenges of Building Beautiful and Functional Places
24:35 Creating a New Town: The Vision for Esmeralda
31:16 Building for the Long Term: Evolving and Adapting
32:13 Challenges of Planning and Permission
37:53 The Cost of Locking In Decisions
42:48 The Negative Impact of Excessive Process
47:10 The Importance of Truth and Being Wrong
51:17 Hyper-Specialization and Loss of Agency
01:01:09 Capital and the Vision for the New Town
01:04:54 The Appeal of Esmeralda
01:05:49 Back-Weighted Returns
01:06:27 Investor Preferences
01:07:41 The Long-Term Value of TNDs
01:08:38 The Importance of Aligned Capital
01:09:30 Appreciating Wealth and Capital
01:09:59 The Impact of Wealthy Individuals
01:11:42 The Zero-Sum Mindset
01:13:16 The Infinite Potential of Wealth
01:14:13 Creating Value and Making the Pie Bigger
01:15:10 The Role of Wealth in Society
01:17:19 Building Relationships and Community
01:19:56 Funding through Pre-Sales
01:22:03 The Inspiration behind Esmeralda's Name
01:23:23 The Concept of Edge Esmeralda
01:32:05 Podcast - Outro w Music.mp4
CONNECT WITH DEVON & RESOURCES
Blog: devonzuegel.com/
Twitter: / devonzuegel
Summer Event: www.edgeesmeralda.com/
CONNECT WITH AUSTIN TUNNELL
Newsletter: playbook.buildingculture.com/
/ austintunnell
/ austin-tunnell-2a41894a
/ austintunnell
CONNECT WITH BUILDING CULTURE
www.buildingculture.com/
/ buildingculture
/ build_culture
/ buildculture
Пікірлер: 11
Alejandro Aravena's incremental architecture is an exciting approach to risk taking and uncertainty in the building process.
Great pod! Implementing tents and itinerant tension structure to test "living centers" is fascinating to me too
@BuildingCulture
2 ай бұрын
Thank you!
Coming from an architect, there are quite a few communities that have that quality of life. Also, co-housing developments embrace a lot of those values and layout. I do agree, there isn’t enough places like that. They are the exception. I think a huge component of this is a lack of knowledge or experiences from clients and/or architects. You only build what you know. Sharing a wide array of lifestyles can only help
@Juanro_7
3 ай бұрын
One of the main components that can bring people together is the landscape architecture. People want to be in beautiful places and mingle with people Most urban l.a. is bare bones.
@BuildingCulture
Ай бұрын
Completely agree. Thats our experience: lack of knowledge. Some great neighborhoods in cities built pre war, but most of the mid west and what’s been built over past 80 years is really not good. Most. Exceptions of course!
Less government is better, but perhaps having federal incentive programs and tax breaks for builders to build in the historic vernacular of the region would help. This could be a way to bring back American culture and pride. Architects trained in classical style and planners trained in new urbanism could be contracted and paid through the “American revival program” to be a resource available for developers to cut up front cost in the planning phase. This could also include specifying materials that are non plastic and proven by our old cities to be more long lasting and beautiful. I think the trick is making it more attractive for sprawl builders to shift to these styles, long as they stay within the perimeters and standards of the revival program. The more we can bring shame to sprawl the better, I think it has a lot to do with the general attitude and lifestyle of the society.
I`m listening to this from Europe and I can`t help but think how capitalism ruined the quality of people's living spaces in the States. In most of Europe, we live in cities and towns that were built hundreds of years ago with the intention of building communities and providing all the necessary means for a comfortable yet humble life. Living spaces don`t need to be luxurious or modern to provide quality living. I rather live on a small farm, connected with nature and my neighbors than in a massive house surrounded by fences or even worse a skyscraper.
@BuildingCulture
2 ай бұрын
Totally! Have been inspired by many places in Europe. But in the US the degradation of the built environment didn’t start with capitalism, but the beginning of restrictive zoning, parking minimums, and messed-up financial incentives-all government led fields.
@Pholoxo
14 күн бұрын
@@BuildingCulture I really dislike the big push on highways and roads from the automobile industry.
@benjaminledford6111
9 күн бұрын
It's auto-oriented development rather than capitalism. The birthplace of capitalism is the Netherlands, which has some of the best urbanism in the world, and countries with no capitalism (China, or former soviet countries) have built some of the worst quality environments in the world. Most European cities have some awful auto-oriented development at the edges, but the difference is the cities are older and were already built in pre-automobile and pre-industrial patterns. The United States, on the other hand, has been developed mostly after the automobile, and we didn't have lovely historic cities already in place.