Follow our IWD 2024 blog series to hear from our leaders around the world about initiatives and programs geared towards investing in women at ArchTam.

Engage in this year’s conversations on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

We sat down with Kate Dunton, Director, Clients and Marketing, Australia and New Zealand and James Rosenwax, Regional Managing Director, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, who are also co-chairs of our ED&I Committee in Australia and New Zealand, to talk about International Women’s Day 2024 and the programs we have in place to support women’s progress in our Australia and New Zealand region.

Tell us why aligning with the United Nations’ (UN’s) International Women’s Day (IWD) is important.

Kate: I’m really passionate about this one. By aligning with the UN’s International Women’s Day theme, I think we position ourselves more meaningfully to a global movement. Our purpose is to deliver a better world, and UN IWD is an opportunity to align with the community in accelerating progress towards gender equality on a global scale. It can’t just be words and morning teas – we need to use our organisational context to promote genuine gender equality. I’m really proud of all we do supporting women within our organisation, but also in driving more women into STEM and in building gender equality for minorities and First Nations communities. I love that the UN’s International Women’s Day recognition serves as a catalyst for a more extensive, collective effort, and how it brings attention to the specific challenges faced by women and girls globally.

James: Aligning with the UN’s International Women’s Day recognition is important for us, particularly given the theme for 2024: “Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress,” which shines a spotlight on women’s economic empowerment. We know that when we have diverse, inclusive workplaces, our business thrives, so investing in women and accelerating their progress at ArchTam is not only the right thing to do but makes strong business sense. IWD is more thana local celebration — it’s a global celebration fostering collaboration across borders, emphasizing that no country has fully achieved gender equality. By participating in IWD events, we actively contribute to advancing gender equality, whether by showing up, sponsoring and donating to initiatives, or spreading awareness. IWD isn’t just about recognizing achievements and challenges — it’s a collective effort to work towards a future where gender equality is a reality for all.

Tell us about the ANZ region’s Advocate sponsorship program for women.

James: Advocate is a sponsorship program that I have been a part of since its inception five years ago. The program is in partnership with an external company called Cultivate, and it pairs our ANZ executive team with high-potential women employees. Together, we participate in a year-long curated mentor program that focuses on honing leadership skills, expanding professional networks, pinpointing areas for professional growth, and sharing life stories and experiences. Spending time with my sponsee is my priority, and I find real job satisfaction in our relationship. I learn a lot from my sponsee, and it ends up being a two-way relationship. By spending 12 months on the program, we can develop personalized connections and focus on investing in the development of our talented individuals. We create a supportive environment conducive to career advancement and overall success. We have received great feedback from the women that have participated in the program.

Elizabeth Kittoli, Technical Director, Structures “When I found out I was nominated, I was excited. I was initially slightly uncomfortable just because, to some, this might seem like preferential treatment for women. But women, they don’t necessarily get the same type of sponsorship, especially into leadership roles, as men do. You get to make connections, network, and just overall access to the senior leadership team.”

Kate: In my three-year journey as a sponsor in ArchTam’s Advocate program, I am continually surprised by what I personally get from it. I have established several long-standing and mutually beneficial relationships – dare I say, friendships! Working in a predominantly male industry, this program has forced me to recognize the need to address organic male sponsorship bias, and I’ve reassessed my sponsorship approach – I think I’ve become a lot more intentional and conscious of the environment that women work in and the opportunities they are afforded. We need to tackle many other levels of diversity, but creating a strong and successful women leadership pipeline and providing excellent opportunities to our highest-performing women is incredibly rewarding.

Amanda Kerr, Area Manager – Hunter “I had previously lacked the confidence to engage and form effective relationships with senior management across the business.  Spending time with Kate and being exposed to the broader leadership team, participating in their meetings, helped me realize that I do have the relevant experience to contribute. I also carve out more time for clients and strategy.”

What other steps is ArchTam taking to embrace gender equity, or what has impressed you most to date?

James: We are committed to advancing gender equity within our organization and have developed a comprehensive gender equity strategy.

In tandem with our efforts, we are actively working to challenge and disrupt prevailing gender stereotypes and norms. Our overarching goal is to cultivate a corporate culture that is not only equitable but also flexible for individuals of all genders.

In pursuit of our commitment, we have implemented participation targets, both globally and internally within ANZ. These targets, publicly reported to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency for transparency, align with our vision of achieving a gender-balanced workforce, where 40 percent of positions are held by women, 40 percent by men, and 20 percent by individuals identifying outside the binary. This intentional approach ensures measurable progress toward our aspiration of fostering an inclusive and diverse corporate environment.

Kate: I genuinely think ArchTam is committed to creating an environment where women thrive, and I love that we are investing significantly in programs that empower women. I wouldn’t have stuck around so long otherwise! Our gender equity strategy includes initiatives such as the Advocate sponsorship program and our mCircles network, which brings together women from across career levels to swap advice, attend development workshops, and explore job opportunities within ArchTam. I’ve been a member of mCircles for many years, and I have established great relationships, received good support, and learned a lot. We’re teaming up with organizations like Work180 and Where Women Work to not only encourage more women to join us but also build a powerful network of women talent. I am also proud to have participated in the development of an explicit framework of inclusive hiring and remuneration review practices.

And, of course, our Freedom to Grow framework gives us all the flexibility to work in a way that suits our lives and career development. This has allowed my life and family to (mostly!) balance well over many years.

Learn more about our Advocate sponsorship program, mCircles network and Freedom to Grow framework from our women who have benefited from them:

The post Accelerating women leadership development through mentorship appeared first on Blog.

Our mission is to learn from US cities and bring a broader perspective to what we need to do in Australia to become a next-generation knowledge economy driven by a culture of collaboration and innovation – whether that’s the way we think as educators, businesses or individuals, or how we plan our cities.

So far we’ve led a cracking pace, visiting three cities in three days. Our first stop was Emeryville, on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. Mayor Dianne Martinez gave us an overview of the extraordinary transformation of this former industrial area into what is today a thriving sciences and technology innovation ecosystem. Martinez affectionately refers to her province as ‘the little city that could’, drawing upon an underdog mentality to topple competitors.

The transformation was born of necessity; as industry moved out of the area, the city was left with vast sites of contaminated waste land. They formed a development agency and, using tax incremental financing, provided the essential infrastructure and attracted global brands such as Pixar, Novartis and Bayer. Some other key moves and factors that allowed the transformation from industrial area to innovation ecosystem included:

• Jumping on an opportunity to build the Emeryville train station, which became the San Francisco terminus for all Amtrak trains. When Oakland moved too slowly after its station (the previous Amtrak terminus) was destroyed in the 1989 Earthquake, Emeryville acted first and had its station up and running in 1992, before Oakland.
• Collaboration with the private sector. The city has been described as a developer masquerading as a municipality, and it wears this badge proudly. Through an open dialogue with key developers such as Wareham Property, certainty has been provided around the redevelopment process.  Initiatives like the establishment of a free local bus loop to the nearest BART station and a Brownfields Programme all provided the incentive to attract development and investment in surrounding neighbourhoods.
• Proximity to the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley). Bio-tech companies have been attracted to this student population as a potential talent pool to mine.

We then heard from the CEO of Wareham Development, Rich Robbins, who after having developed much of the precinct over the past 20 years, gave us his opinion on why it had been successful.  Key points included:

• Align all stakeholders’ interests through true collaboration with the public sector and view the entire development area as a programme rather than one-off sites.
• Promote low-rent work and housing environments to attract start-ups from UC Berkeley.
• Ensure that a local artist community is established, and that public art becomes a feature of the area.
• Take a long-term view, and see yourself in the role of developer as ‘an accessory to profound thinking.’

So, with all this positive conversation, how did the precinct stack up from an outsider’s perspective?

• We visited a start-up called Nano Precision in one of the Wareham Living Sciences buildings and learnt that the flexibility around space requirements has been one of the most attractive parts of being located at Emeryville. They also draw upon UC Berkeley for talent, the very place the founders came from when they won the business plan competition.
• Nano Precision benefits from network gatherings with similar firms in the precinct and uses Meetup.com to facilitate these weekly meetings.
• The public realm felt quite deserted, and this is because many of the key tenants like Pixar have huge confidentiality requirements and tend to create inward campuses – providing food to their staff within the building. Even elements like secure gates and fences are quite defensive and not open and inviting.
• Generally, care has been given to the public realm, and high-quality finishes exist. However, consistency of materials and signage could be more coordinated.

This innovation precinct was more opportunistic than strategic – it was born of a dire necessity and this local government did what we wanted these precincts to do – innovate. It engaged with a reputable developer and saw opportunity and capitalised on it before their opposition (Oakland) did. The phrase “Kill or be killed” comes to mind, but it isn’t perfect by any means, and with foresight I would see Emeryville better integrate the residential and retail components and also campaign to capitalise on their greatest asset – the San Francisco Bay.

Next stop is Seattle. I look forward to sharing our findings over the next few weeks as we continue to make our way across the US. Regular posts and images will be uploaded here, on ArchTam’s Connected Cities blog, as well as to the Future Cities blog.

Register to receive the final report due in mid-June. This report is one part of ArchTam’s research into future cities. We are exploring three broad ideas that we believe will impact how cities are planned, how they function, and the way in which we will all live, work and navigate within them.

The post Emeryville: “the little city that could” appeared first on Blog.

They’ve all created campuses for their employees.

The idea is quite simple: create an environment where employees are encouraged to flourish (and hang around beyond the typical ‘nine to five’), and keep them engaged, productive and collaborative for as long as possible.

These campuses are more than just offices with showers and somewhere to park your bike; rather, they cater to employees’ diverse needs throughout any work day, offering on-site health care, free food and drink, and even entertainment.

Designed not only to attract and retain the world’s best talent, campuses are increasingly hotbeds of innovation, as the communities that typically cluster around them intersect, cross-pollinate, and create.

Such an approach has clearly worked for the big three tech behemoths, who are regularly cited as employers of choice, hotbeds of innovation and remain darlings of the investor community.

So what can cities like Sydney and Melbourne, who are similarly competing for global talent and investment dollars, learn from these corporate campuses?

How can we create similar environments where people want to live, work and play as we transition in Australia from a ‘rocks and crops’ economy to a high-value, people-orientated knowledge economy?

In the context of the city being ‘one big campus,’ how do we enable and encourage innovation everywhere?

A truly brilliant city needs to make it possible for the thinkers, makers, consumers and financiers to hang out, kick back and interact—everywhere.

This week, I’m taking part in the United States – Australia City Exchange on Innovation Ecosystems. The Future Cities Collaborative, an initiative of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, is running the 10-day exchange, which will visit some of the most successful innovation hubs and precincts on both the east and west coasts of the US.

I’m looking forward to reflecting on some of the key ingredients that make US places successful, and how in the Australian context we might apply them and help speed up the establishment of more liveable and productive cities.

Without getting too far ahead of myself, I’m pretty confident the types of things we will see include:

• Relaxed planning and zoning rules to enable the blending of residential and commercial within the same building to encourage micro-businesses;
• Tax incentives;
• Floor space ratio uplift that encourages developers to include workspaces in a residential development;
• High-speed connectivity such as 5G Wi-Fi in public areas;
• Government grants for reskilling and training;
• Visa relaxation for entrepreneurs and investors;
• Transport connectivity and subsidised or free transit;
• Access to free or subsidised green power;
• Federal government seed funding through their proposed City Deals programme.

As part of ArchTam’s research into future cities, we are exploring three broad ideas that we believe will impact how cities are planned, how they function, and the way in which we will all live, work and navigate within them.

Follow our findings over the next few weeks as I join the Future Cities Collaborative and we make our way across the US. Regular posts and images will be uploaded here, on ArchTam’s Connected Cities blog, as well as to the Future Cities blog.

You can also register to receive the final report – our Sydney Manifesto – which is due out in mid-June here.

James Rosenwax is ArchTam’s Cities Market Sector Director for Australia and New Zealand. Connect with him on Linkedin, or tweet him @jamesrosenwax.

The post Turning a city into a campus for innovation appeared first on Blog.

If you could describe the perfect city, how would it look and feel?

Every person has their own opinion on what makes a city brilliant – stunning architecture, a great football team, or a beautiful waterfront that bustles with activity. However, brilliant cities share a number of common characteristics which make them stand out and draw a crowd. The most brilliant cities exude character and confidence. They bridge the gap between private and public to get essential projects funded and delivered. They draw on technology and innovation to operate efficiently while achieving tangible social and economic benefits.

The most brilliant cities also learn from mistakes of the past and consistently ask; what could we do to improve our city? They recognise when existing projects are failing – and take steps to correct them, no matter how disruptive it might be to the status quo.

Let’s change the headlines

The urban century is upon us – with 70% of the world’s population expected to live in cities by 2040. In Australia and New Zealand, our cities are facing extraordinary growth. The populations of Sydney and Melbourne alone are expected to double, each surpassing eight million by 2054. For this reason, cities have never been more important, nor has the global competition for capital and talent been more intense. For some, this scale of growth can be a reason to panic – more traffic, less green space, more pollution, less affordability we hear them say. But the opportunity is relative to the ambition. Now is the time to change the headlines, and excel through this time of global change for our cities to become truly brilliant.

In Australia, our newly appointed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made a bold start by appointing Jamie Briggs as Australia’s first ever Minister for Cities. We are hopeful that this could lead to a shift in how we plan, design, build and operate our cities – to pursue broad, integrated strategies to tap in to hidden value. To think holistically in this way will enable us to see more potential from our cities.

Putting a plan into action

Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is to repeat the same behaviours and expect a different outcome. Designing and building our cities how we always have will continue to generate problems like urban sprawl, ad-hoc development and in some areas, poor livability. All factors which can inhibit productivity of people and capital investment.

This edition of ‘thinking…about’ introduces new ways of designing, funding and enabling brilliant cities in Australia and New Zealand. We explore the opportunities that can be created by thinking differently, and by taking bold moves which may be disruptive in the short term. Whether that’s replacing a riverside expressway with an underground tunnel to open up a city’s waterfront, or unlocking the potential of our disused underground spaces, we need to optimise our assets and when we do – the opportunities are endless.

We hope you enjoy this edition of ‘thinking…about’. Read more at www.archtam.com/seeingmore and continue the conversation online #seeingmore

James Rosenwax (james.rosenwax@archtam.com) is leader of ArchTam Cities in Australia and New Zealand.

The post The secret to growing a brilliant city appeared first on Blog.

While Jacobs’ book was primarily a critique of 1950s American planning policy, her quote above remains relevant over half a century later.

Around the world, governments, developers and planners are grappling with difficult decisions about how cities should develop. In an age when technology is knocking down barriers to participation and opening up opportunities for collaboration, the best and most progressive cities are those where communities are playing an active role in helping decision-makers make the right decisions.

When you think about it, it’s a no-brainer. Design, planning and development in a city’s context cuts across governance, investment, business and stakeholder buy in, and goes to the heart of a city’s identity. Who better to provide pragmatic, user-driven advice on how cities should develop than those riding our trains and trams on a daily basis, driving or cycling on our roads, playing in our parks and shrugging off the daily frustrations that affect most major cities?

This year, ArchTam has launched two people-powered, city-wide conversations about the future of Melbourne and Sydney. Melbourne NEXT and Sydney Connected both sought ideas and input from residents, visitors and those with links to the two cities on issues ranging from business growth and new industry development to social diversity, transport links and the emergence of city precincts.

Sydney Connected was launched in partnership with the recent Sydney Design Festival. We received over 500 responses to our online survey, and the results – released to industry late last month – paint a picture of a vibrant and diverse population wanting a similarly vibrant and diverse city.

It comes as no surprise that, as Sydney confronts the growing pains associated with population growth that will see it home to more than 6 million people in coming decades, 65 percent of respondents named ‘seamless transport links’ as critical to the city’s future.

The replacement or upgrade of elements of Sydney’s creaking public transport infrastructure has, of course, been a topic of discussion for policy-makers for some time, and no doubt a sore point for frustrated commuters for even longer.

While this insight isn’t anything new, it’s yet another important call to action. Certainly, the potential of integrated multi-modal public transport networks comprising heavy rail, light rail and buses is enormous; the public transport networks of Hong Kong and Berlin demonstrate how effective a well-designed and integrated network can be.

But Sydney Connected demonstrated community expectations not just in terms of public transport, but in terms of where and how Sydney-siders are living, or will live.

Thirty-five percent of respondents think new housing solutions – evident in Sydney’s growing appetite for apartment living – and the development of precincts within and beyond the City of Sydney are critical to the city’s future.

In some ways, such a finding could be seen as the latest nail in the coffin of the great Australian dream of house and land ownership. In others, however, it simply points towards changing tastes and a realisation that, as Sydney’s population grows, vertical communities and apartment developments will offer the 21st century amenities – including transport links – residents and visitors expect.

There are, of course, all sorts of questions surrounding the sustainability of Sydney’s inner-city apartment boom, as well as others of affordability and social cohesion. But we can also see, through  building precincts such as Green Square Town Centre in inner-city Sydney and further west in Parramatta, there is enormous potential for diverse and functional communities that are properly planned, properly linked to transport, and able to cater for diverse and ever-changing needs.

Sydney Connected and Melbourne NEXT have proven valuable opportunities for ArchTam to engage the community around the necessary steps our two major cities need to take to evolve. It’s surprised us all how passionate many responses have been, and we’re hoping from this passion follows momentum for positive change.

If Sydney is going to provide “something for everybody”, as Jacobs said in 1961, there needs to be ongoing opportunities for communities to have their say, to connect with policy-makers and planners, and to feel they’re contributing to the future planning decisions that will ensure the Harbour City remains inclusive, accessible, adaptable, and above all, connected.

 James Rosenwax (james.rosenwax@archtam.com) is managing director, Design + Planning, Australia and New Zealand, ArchTam.

The post People power for a connected Sydney appeared first on Blog.