Ten years into building one of the most unique AEC firms in the world, City Collective Managing Partners David Cooke, RAIA, MPIA and Justin Kearnan, AIA talk about what it actually takes to move the needle on the problems cities can't seem to solve.

City Collective was built around a simple but radical premise: that the only way to solve a city's toughest challenges is to bring every discipline into the same room. In this conversation, Managing Partners David Cooke, RAIA, MPIA and Justin Kearnan, AIA walk us through the firm's holistic design approach, from writing their own economic pro formas to unlock housing deals, to championing the "missing middle" housing typologies that were effectively regulated out of existence for half a century. They share how City Collective operates as a single design culture across Australia and the United States, why they hire for people with roots in at least two disciplines, and what it looks like to bring sports and community infrastructure into the same equity-driven framework they apply to affordable housing.

If your architecture firm's About page sounds like every other firm's About page, this episode is for you. Hosts Patience Jones and Brian Jones break down why so many firms end up with generic, forgettable positioning statements and, more importantly, how to write one that actually works.

We discuss:

• Why vague language like "excellence" and "collaborative" fails to differentiate your firm from competitors

• How to identify what makes your firm worth hiring

• How to create a framework for building an effective positioning statement that doesn't copy from competitors

Whether you're writing your About page for the first time or overhauling one that's been collecting dust, this episode gives you a clear starting point. Subscribe to As Built for more practical marketing guidance built specifically for architecture and construction professionals.

Wanting to break into a new building type or market sector is exciting, but it comes with a real challenge: how do you win work you or your firm has never done before? In this episode of As Built, Patience and Brian tackle one of the most common growth obstacles for architecture and construction firms, and lay out a practical roadmap for making the transition.

We explain how to:

• Identify transferable skills and processes from your existing portfolio

• Use photo and video storytelling

• Quietly expand into a new sector without alarming your current clients or signaling inexperience to prospects

If you're feeling like you're stuck in a cycle of "wanting to do it but haven't done it to prove you can do it," this episode is for you. Subscribe to As Built so you never miss an episode.