The Building Culture Podcast

#22 Alan Pullman: Creating Meaningful, Mixed-Use Infill Projects that Make Our Cities Better.

Aug 8, 2024

01:13:32

Today I get to speak with Alan Pullman, founder of Studio One Eleven, an architecture, urban design and landscape architecture practice focused on human scaled, mixed-use infill projects. They have a truly impressive portfolio of work. I love their “practice themes” which I think will resonate with many of you: housing for all, building community + place, renewing the public realm, 21st century mobility, and equitable practice.

I was truly inspired by this conversation with Alan, particularly around the community integration and engagement they cultivate in their office. He intentionally moved the practice out of their “ivory tower” and down into the heart of the community, sharing their office space with artists and facilitating all kinds of community-wide events and workshops. It’s given me vision for how I want Building Culture to evolve.

Alan and his team work closely with developers around the country looking to do difficult and messy – but meaningful – infill projects. They relish the mess. And, between running a sizeable practice and doing some of their own development projects, I was extremely impressed with Alan’s practical approach (you know, understanding that the economics have to work to do the project!). They strike the right balance between idealism + pragmatism to actually pull off incredible projects, and keep people at the center of what they do and why they do it.

I hope you find this episode as inspiring as I did!

TAKEAWAYS

Reinvesting in cities and putting people at the center of architecture and urban design is crucial for creating meaningful and impactful spaces.
Studio One Eleven specializes in infill development, mixed-use projects, and adaptive reuse, focusing on creating places for people and collaborating with developers and public-private partnerships.

Affordable housing development is complex and requires specialized knowledge and collaboration with various funding sources, such as state, city, and federal programs.
Collaboration and agility are essential in the design process, allowing for co-creation with clients and the ability to adapt to changing needs and circumstances. Studio One Eleven focuses on incremental development and creating human-scale cities.