American Building
Media Kit
Summary
American Building (to be renamed Building America) is a weekly recorded podcast that opens the door to what we build in America and why we do it. An architect turned developer and startup founder, host Atif Z. Qadir, AIA, explores urgent issues related to design & development and what they can teach us about ourselves and our country. Profound, surprising, and hilarious, this show is for real estate industry and anyone curious about it. Take a trip across the country and into the construction sites that show us the range of buildings and builders in America.
In 2023, in Season 3, we are uncovering what “home” means to all types of Americans. In Season 4, we are exploring the problems Americans face in getting the home they want for themselves and their families. In both seasons, we’ll take a roadtrip across the country, visiting urban centers with deepening imbalances of housing supply and demand, resort towns that boomed in the pandemic, industrial regions dealing with dwindling tax bases and rural areas losing population. We’ll find out how federal & state policy, local entitlements, design & construction processes, access to capital and distribution & ownership are making it hard, not easy, to house Americans. We’ll get to the heart of these confusing topics and personalize them through a new generation of American builders and their work.
Getting Involved
Why do guests and sponsors find value in American Building?
Diversity - We are focused on equity and inclusion. The host and many of the guests are Brown and Black, adding new voices to the rapidly changing conversation of what gets built in America.
Social Impact - Our episodes highlight building projects with a positive impact across a wide geography in the US. In particular, for 2023, we focus on housing, which is one of the biggest challenges for our country.
Community - We have a growing network of industry leaders in development, design, policy, government, investment, financing, and related fields as our guests. They reflect a new generation of decision-makers in our industry and together, their interviews are a resource for those starting their careers.
Awards & Press Features
The show was a finalist in the 2022 People’s Choice Podcast Awards, a national podcast awards program. It also was ranked in the Top 25 in the Design Category on Apple Podcasts in 6 different countries.
The show has been featured in the press:
Episodes
In 2023, episodes are done in an “edutainment” style that combines deep research, empathetic journalism, and entertainment. They run 35-40 minutes, opening with an explainer of the topic of the week by the host and then moving to the interview with the guest. Episodes include relevant news, the perspectives of additional guests, and archival audio to complement the topic. Across the season, we use the narrative of the American road trip to help with our goal of uncovering the common roots of complex problems in housing across the country. Episodes are released in both audio and video formats on multiple content platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Prominent Guests
Guests in our early seasons highlighted buildings with a positive impact across the US and talked about financing and the role it plays in the development process. They included such industry leaders as:
MaryAnne Gilmartin is the Founder and CEO of MAG Partners, a real estate development company, and an Advisor to Assembly OSM, a cutting-edge modular construction company. Formerly, she was the Board Chair and Interim CEO of Mack-Cali Realty and the President and CEO of Forest City Ratner. She has led some of the most iconic development projects in American history, like Atlantic Yards.
Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA, is the Founder of the design firm Practice for Architecture and Urbanism. Previously, he was a Partner at SHoP Architects and a President at Related Companies. He recently served as the Dean of the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley and founded Columbia University’s Center for Urban Real Estate.
Melissa Román Burch is the COO of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, where she oversees public-private developments involving city-owned property and manages a portfolio spanning 64M SF. She was the former Executive GM of Lendlease Development and an EVP at Forest City Ratner.
Rob Menendez, Esq is the US Representative from New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District. He previously was a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where he worked on the transformational redevelopment of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. He started his career as a Counsel at Lowenstein Sandler.
Rafael Pelli, FAIA is a Partner at Pelli Clarke & Partners, the firm founded by his iconic father, architect César Pelli. He launched the New York office and has led the design of major high-rise projects, including 475 Park Avenue South, 15 Penn Plaza, and Brookfield Place.
Listeners & Notable Stats
The listener base is educated, informed and growing. It reaches deeply and widely in the intertwined real estate, financial services, design, tech, government & public policy, and nonprofits & philanthropy sectors.
15,000 all-time downloads
10,000 followers on host’s LinkedIn page
10,000 to 100,000 impressions per post on host’s posts on his LinkedIn page
6,000 real estate industry experts on our mailing list
An estimated 93% of podcast audiences listen to most or all of an episode, which makes a podcast like this one especially powerful for reaching an industry-specific audience.
About Atif Z. Qadir, AIA
Host Atif Z. Qadir, AIA is the Co-founder & Chief Impact Officer of Commonplace, a market network at the intersection of real estate and capital markets. He is a Registered Architect and LEED Accredited Professional turned entrepreneur with a particular interest in housing and impact. His strengths are observing, asking, analyzing, and using the power of narrative to uncover, share, teach, support, advocate and champion. He is a builder at heart, who is comfortable in different scales and settings - from small workforce housing units to multi-billion dollar redevelopments, from podcasts and panels to public service, from nonprofits and academia to private equity & venture capital backed companies, and from design to finance to public policy.
Atif is also a Founder & Partner at Amanat Properties and serves on the Planning Commission in the City of Hoboken, the Advisory Council of Provident Bank and on the Board of Trustees of The Hudson School. He previously worked at Extell Development and Turner Construction. He began his career at Rafael Viñoly Architects and Boston Housing Authority. He studied at MIT, where he received dual bachelor's degrees in Architecture and in Urban Planning, and at Columbia Business School, where he received a MBA focusing in Finance.
His work has been covered by MIT Technology Review, Commercial Observer, Propmodo, and The Real Deal. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National Diversity & Inclusion Forum, Yale Alumni in Real Estate Association Conference, the Columbia Real Estate Symposium, NYC Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
Learn more about him here.
About Commonplace
Commonplace sponsors American Building. The company is building the technology infrastructure enabling and accelerating the impactful development and funding of commercial real estate. It is funded by Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management and New York Ventures and is based in New York City.
About Michael Graves Architecture & Design
Michael Graves Architecture & Design also sponsors American Building. The company is one of the leading design practices in the world, offering services in architecture, product design, interior design, master planning, graphic design and branding. It is based in Princeton with offices around the country.
About The Wave Podcasting
The Wave Podcasting produces American Building. It is a woman-owned podcasting services company and was the winner of Best New Podcast Company and Best Podcast Marketer in the 2021 Quill Podcast Awards. It is based in Los Angeles.
Testimonials
Listeners love American Building. Check out these reviews:
Fascinating for those in or interested in RE
This podcast covers a wide range of topics, showing just how interdisciplinary real estate can be! The host digs into the details of a project while also asking macro level questions (like how an environmentally friendly project fits into the larger question of resiliency). I especially like how the podcast has episodes not only on buildings but on other facets of real estate development with everything from transportation to art!
Great for Young Professional Creators
A podcast for young professional creators. Whether you are an aspiring architect, established developer or even a novice to the world of architecture, give it a listen. Atif’s interviewing style is relaxed and doesn’t get in the way of the true conversation being about the interviewee. I really enjoyed the first episode with Matthias Hollowich, and the project 25 Kent.
Wonderful Built Environment Podcast!
If you love learning the stories behind buildings and the people who make them, this is the podcast for you! Atif is a prepared host and brings in very interesting guests - a MUST for people interested in architecture!
Housing in America: 8 Ways to Solve Our Way Out of a Crisis
Hear from experts across the industry on eight ways developers and designers are making their dent in the housing crisis.