The KPF Principal joins host Brad Biehl to explore how thoughtful, context-driven design creates lasting value in cities.
In the latest episode of the Good Traffic podcast, Forth Bagley joined host Brad Biehl to discuss large-scale architecture’s role in developing and refining urban landscapes. The conversation centered on how precinct-defining developments—including KPF’s EastBank in Nashville, Hudson Yards in New York, and the revitalization of Covent Garden in London—demonstrate that the most enduring urban projects are those that integrate the full texture of city life. Each is a place where people can live, work, gather, and play within a single, highly connected district. Forth made the case that cities anchored by central social districts are better positioned for long-term health than those that are organized around traditional central business districts alone.
Ranging broadly across Forth’s views on urban planning, the episode explored how KPF’s work is never conceived in isolation, but exists in dynamic conversation with city planners, developers, and other stakeholders who shape the future of the places people call home. Forth examined public policy’s role in shaping cities—from Austin’s elimination of parking minimums, to the rezoning that made Hudson Yards possible and Singapore’s commitment to integrated green space—illustrating, as he put it, “the power of urban systems to make people’s lives better and easier.” Forth also reflected on Bill Pedersen’s theory that tall buildings are the church spires of modern cities, responsible not just to their owners but to skylines, wayfinding, and civic identity.
