What does it take to design cities that heal the planet while putting people first?

In this episode of Be All You Can, Douglas Voigt, Urban Design and Planning Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), shares how his philosophy of "planet first, community first" has shaped projects from the Wild Mile, a floating wetland park on the Chicago River, to the waterfronts of Detroit and the Pearl River Delta.

From navigating a jurisdictional maze on a river that needs an act of Congress to alter, to learning from a child's simple question about riding a bike through a city block, Douglas reflects on the power of participatory design, shared principles, and thinking bigger and smaller at the same time. He explains why regenerative design is not a luxury but an imperative, and why cities like Mumbai can grow and heal at once.

He also offers ideas on designing for urban heat, the real role of AI in the design studio, and the capabilities tomorrow's designers need to build. Along the way, he imagines a transformational project for India: reconnecting Mumbai's hills and forests to its coastline.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation on regenerative cities, community-led design, curiosity, and what it truly means to build places where people and nature can thrive.

Chapters

• 0:00 – Highlights and introduction
• 1:57 – The Wild Mile: building a floating forest on the Chicago River
• 5:31 – What shaped Douglas's belief in design for community
• 8:19 – Regenerative vs. sustainable cities
• 11:14 – Thinking big and small: the Detroit riverfront and a child's question
• 15:31 – The Wild Mile story: from milk-crate prototype to city plan
• 22:31 – Navigating the jurisdictional maze of the Chicago River
• 27:10 – How community input changed the design
• 30:01 – Keeping stakeholders aligned over a decade
• 37:11 – One transformational urban project for India
• 39:36 – What transfers to Indian cities: mangroves and the "living levee"
• 42:45 – Can a city grow and heal at the same time?
• 45:05 – Designing cities for extreme heat
• 49:06 – AI as a design collaborator
• 51:48 – Skills the next generation of designers should build
• 54:11 – What success looks like for a project
• 56:20 – Rapid fire round
• 58:04 – Becoming "all you can"

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