Podcasts

Charlotte Douglas International Airport is one of the busiest hubs in the world, despite the city of Charlotte’s modest size. That disproportionate air service is usually cited as one of the city’s biggest economic advantages, making the airport one of our most important economic engines. But COVID-19 impacted the air travel industry in a profound […]

What if the future is not just a continuation of present trends, but looks radically different? That’s the vision of Curators, a collective of young, multinational designers who hope to develop new, innovative and sustainable ways of life in Charlotte. Join us as we talk about two pilot ideas they want to see happen in […]

Imagine this scenario: Building designers are trying to figure out why pedestrian traffic at one spot in an airport terminal past the security checkpoints is consistently snarled. A decade or two ago, the designers might sit in the terminal, counting passengers with a clicker, and trying to get a select sample to answer a few […]

When it comes to planning, development and land use regulation, it’s easy to let your eyes glaze over in the alphabet soup of jargo. So, let’s get a little nerdy and jump right into the alphabet soup of zoning, land use, planning and development on this episode. Join us for a talk with Keba Samuel […]

When it comes to Charlotte’s urban design, there’s a perception that the city is dominated by apartments and bland, corporate towers. But a new award series is trying to prove that’s not the whole story. The Charlotte Urban Design Awards (or Urbies) relaunched this year, co-hosted by the UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture […]

When you think “Charlotte” and “urban design,” do you think “bland” or “exciting”? A new awards series, the Charlotte Urban Design Awards, is meant to prompt you to think more of the latter and less of the former. While Charlotte might get an unfair rap as a city of bland office towers and five-story, stick-built […]

Charlotte has a reputation as a shiny new city, one that tears down grand old buildings to replace them with bland new apartments and historic marker plaques. But that’s not the whole truth, and the guests on this episode of “Future Charlotte” are devoted to preserving and promoting more of Charlotte’s history. Historian Dan Morill, […]

Water seems like an almost limitless resource. Turn on the tap, and there it is, clean and ready to use. Until, one day, it isn’t. Catawba Riverkeeper Brandon Jones joins this episode of the Future Charlotte podcast to talk about the biggest threats to our water (growth is high on the list, as we add […]

Charlotte’s growth rests, in the end, on the people who actually build our city: The construction industry. In this episode of the “Future Charlotte” podcast, general contractor Myers & Chapman CEO Marcus Rabun talks about the near-term challenges facing the industry such as covid-19, material and labor shortages. Rabun also discusses what might be an […]

Charlotte is known for its tree canopy, and if you’ve ever flown in here or driven on streets lined with towering oaks, you know why. But that canopy is under threat, shrinking by the equivalent of three football fields a day as development spreads and iconic trees planted decades ago age and die. And the […]