The ROAR Podcast: Steve Lefton

# The ROAR Podcast: Steve Lefton
**Guest:** Steve Lefton
**Date:** 2026-09-10
**YouTube URL:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSeiyXWJHpE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSeiyXWJHpE)
**Source:** YouTube auto-generated captions (no speaker diarization)

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[00:02] In the late 1970s, a boy went to his first football game with his dad. The stadium was RFK. He remembers a walk up from the lot by the river. The tunnels under the stands and the traffic. Nearly 50 years later, that same site is being rebuilt and his firm is a lean engineer on the team doing it. His thoughts on the traffic, we're hoping to change that. Today's guest is C. left, executive tier of Kimley Horn. He calls it the largest firm you've never heard

[00:33] of. 11,000 people, 160 offices, engineers and planners and landscape architects doing everything on a project except the architecture. Steve studied landscape architecture and urban planning at Cornell, then started his career in Miami in the late 90s post Hurricane Andrew, a blighted railard south of downtown, a city center cut apart by highways built in the 60s. 29 years later after a run as president and CEO in which the firm doubled in size, he's still working on the same problem.

[01:04] How do you build something at enormous scale that still belongs to the people who are already there? In this conversation, Caroline gets specific. The battery and why districts that work don't feel like projects at all. Why a 100 block development can't happen without a public partner. what a Kimley Horn employee is doing on game day, standing beside a police officer with an earpiece in and why he will tell you AI is not going to replace engineers, but engineers who know how to use AI replace ones that don't. I'm Bryce Clinton and this is a

[01:37] ROAR podcast. Welcome to the ROAR podcast. I'm your host [music] Caroline Valvarti and with me today is Steve Left, executive chair at Kimley Horn. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. It's great to be with you today, Caroline. >> Excellent. So, usually we jump in with tell us about your career and how you got to where you are today. Wanted to start out with a little bit different question for you, which some of your team as we were preparing for the podcast, this would be a fun one, too,

[02:07] and I think helps tee up the rest of the conversation. They told me a little bit. I was actually visiting with the DC team recently, just yesterday actually, and they were uh giving me a little bit of background about your interest in sports. They mentioned you have a son who plays lacrosse in college and so wanted to just talk a little bit about if you can share what do sports mean to you. >> Yeah, thank you for asking. A lot is the short answer. But sports have been a defining thread for my entire life that shaped I think who I am personally and

[02:39] professionally. If I think back some of my best memories revolve around sports and family, right? whether that's playing or coaching or simply being a fan. I like to think we we're a family of athletes. Um as you mentioned today, that legacy continues with my oldest son playing collegiic lacrosse. So watching that journey unfold uh has reinforced to me some of the lessons that sports taught me so many years ago. You sports teach you discipline, right, through

[03:09] repetition, the power of habits. You have to be resilient in the face of setbacks. you know, how do you deal with and process uh things like criticism and the joy that comes from working towards a shared goal? To me, those lessons prepare you for life just as more as much as they prepare you for the game. Um, you know, I think about it in my career and I link these together. There are so many leadership lessons that I rely on today that I trace back to sports, right? Great teams succeed when

[03:40] people are trusted with ownership and they're given opportunity to contribute in meaningful ways. You know, at the risk of being trit, I I firmly believe that talent is everywhere and opportunities not. And so that belief has driven me to create opportunities for people to set up, to grow, and ultimately to live out their potential. And I think so much of that comes from sports. And I I think I would also add that to me great leadership mirrors great sports teams. It empowers individuals. It builds authentic connections,

[04:10] fosters collaboration, and unites people in a common goal. Look, whether it's business or sports or life, all these things, it comes down to being a team sport. I I don't think you can separate them. >> Obviously, we'll get into more, but you have your commander gear on, so we'll we'll dive in more. So, this is meant to kind of tee up and we'll definitely want to talk about uh Kimy Horn's journey, too, in kind of the sports space. uh because to my knowledge your whole focus is not necessarily sports but just kind of some of that journey. But before we get to that, can you talk a bit about

[04:42] your a long journey with Kimley Horn, but if you can kind of go through your background and how you got to where you are today. >> Yeah, sure. And we we'll try to keep that short to to keep everybody awake. You don't want to hear about my >> You have very interesting background. So, please >> my 30 plus year journey at 29 of which been with Kimley Horn. But before that, I I went to Cornell and studied landscape architecture and urban planning. So I've always thought about those I call them the spaces in between, right? The spaces that we inhabit as

[05:13] people. Started my career as a landscape architect and you know that passion for creating and strengthening communities has always been with me. I I was always keenly interested in those communities that maybe were overlooked or underserved. So my early days with Kimley Horn were in Miami. They were in the late 90s. It was post Hurricane Andrew. Gosh, blight was still incredibly pervasive, sadly so in communities like Homestead. You know, the downtown of Miami had been divided for years because of poorly planned transportation solutions that dated way

[05:44] back to the 60s. So that's the canvas that I sort of enter Kimley Horn and in in my thinking about, you know, planning. And so I I came to this ethos that you know meaningful solutions have to come from bringing diverse perspectives, diverse disciplines, stakeholders all together to tackle these complex challenges to create a lasting impact. And so that led me to a career of redevelopment projects and those are the things I love. But along the way I've also had some increased opportunity within the firm to lead

[06:15] offices and regions of our firm and ultimately the entire firm as our president and CEO. And so at at that that time I was wa I was experiencing this kind of expanded uh roles and responsibilities of designing projects and then moving to projects and communities I would say but then also moving to developing people and teams and so that kind of took me on this I'll call the second part of my journey where I've spent the majority of my time focusing on how do we live out our core

[06:47] values and core purpose at Kinley Horn. And I think it's really relevant because our core purpose is to provide an environment for our people to flourish. And I firmly and deeply believe that if you take care of your people, they will take care of your clients. And that creates aligned incentives for everyone. And that concept is something that is really important in our business and important in sports projects. So maybe we'll have a chance to talk about that as well. You know, when I served as president CEO, I was fortunate enough to lead Kimley Horn through a period of

[07:17] what was really transformational growth. We doubled the firm size in just seven years. But what I'm most proud of is that we did that while remaining true to our core values and our core purpose. And I think we're in this this next wave of growth and we continue to do that. So I kind of look at my career as an evolution from shaping places and communities to more shaping organizations and future leaders. But my goal's always been the same, right? to leave our profession and our communities stronger, right? Stronger through collaboration, through education and

[07:48] stewardship. >> Thank you for sharing all of that and that definitely resonates my background in community development and your point earlier too about there's no shortage of talent and it's about creating opportunity and helping create that for others and the communities that you're working in and making those better places for them to live. So love all of that and the whole philosophy and you know when your your workforce and your employees are treated well they're going to like you said makes your business better. >> Yeah. >> So looking back though in your career is there a project or a decision that you

[08:18] would say that uh kind of set the direction for everything that came after that? There's anything there that you think of that was maybe a pivotal moment or would love to hear about that. Yeah, happy to share. You had the good fortune to work on so many interesting projects both as an individual and of course as a firm. We were blessed with serving thousands of of projects and clients a year. If I go back in time to me and for me personally that kind of projects that were really transfer transformational for me and in the communities, I would

[08:50] hit two real quick. One was a master plan we did for the Miami River corridor that was 3 thou 13,000 acres along the Miami River corridor in downtown Miami. And I I take a look back at that and there's parts of that are still being implemented. It it didn't lack controversy. It had an enormous amount of stakeholders involved, private sector, public sector, different competing views from the public sector as well as the private sector. um you had the whole working river, you had um desires for

[09:20] redevelopment along that working river, uh mobility and greenways. And so it was really a microcosm of what all cities are, which is how do you balance um these interests and that became a really important platform for some of the complex sports mixeduse projects that we do today. And so it's just exciting to look back and still see pieces of that being implemented, you know, uh decades later. And then the other one was a project we called Midtown Miami. It was the development or redevelopment of a 56

[09:51] acre blighted rail yard south of downtown Miami. And we had the good fortune to to work on that for many many years and redevelop that into a thriving mixeduse hub in Miami. And it was fun because it drew energy from the design district. another project that we had an opportunity to to work on some years before which was the brainchild of Craig Robbins just a brilliant developer kind of a patron saint in in Miami he did a wonderful job there so we were able to build upon that and then that became the catalyst for development of Winwood and

[10:23] to me that's the magic when you look back on these big de redevelopment projects is how one begets the other and they can change the face of entire communities and so I look back on those projects very fondly and and you honestly with a little bit of pride >> as you should. Thank you. No, sounds amazing work that you do and so guess we can backtrack slightly um because I don't know that all the audience is familiar with exactly what Kimley Horn does and so if you could talk a bit about what Kimley Horn does but also um

[10:54] has Kimbley Horn always had a sports focus and now with the evolution of mixeduse sports district has that strategy changed at all? So give the bigger picture what Kimley Horn does and uh the focus on sports. >> Sure. Yeah. We're sometimes a joke. We're the we're the largest firm you've never heard of. Uh we are uh we're consultants and we consult on the built environment. We're predominantly engineers, planners, landscape architects, scientists, and think of us as the the consultant that is doing

[11:25] everything except the architecture, right? So, we partner with amazing architects all around the the country, even the world, and we continue to scale that practice, whether it's in sports arena, um developing roadways, transit systems, um parks, uh I could go on and on, um both for private clients, public institutional clients, and we've had amazing opportunity to work all across the country in the world. We now have a workforce of 11,000 people and 160 offices which makes us one of the largest and most capable uh firms in a

[11:58] private firm uh for that for that matter in the country. And so we're really proud of that. That all of those things together sort of bring us to a really important part of our business which is the sports practice. And the truth is we've been involved in sports for decades. It's really our sports practice is really rooted in designing facilities for the communities that we live and work in. So, so you know, zoom out, think about the local fields or sports complexes that your kids may play baseball, soccer, lacrosse on. I mean,

[12:30] there's hundreds, maybe thousands of those fields that have design been designed by Kimley Horn all across the country. So, then along the way, we had the opportunity to expand into collegiic and professional sports facility design. And as you know, professional sports facilities have really evolved from these standalone almost single-use venues to these community building destinations that really provide these wonderful epicenters for residents and fans alike. So you kind of take that sports practice and take a little bit of what I was talking about where my roots

[13:01] are in redevelopment and bring those together with what's happening in this really exciting moment in in sports mixed use. And that's been kind of the perfect wonderful storm for what we do. >> Yeah. Interesting because I believe Kimley Horn was also involved in the battery which is still one of the prototypes for the mixed use and as we get to this next generation of mixed use kind of interesting to see the continued evolution and we'll get more into the commanders which I believe you guys are are working on as well. So, but before

[13:33] we jump to that, wanted to you've touched on this a bit, just some of the public private partnership piece of it. Does Kimley Horn get involved in those conversations and the negotiations? And what do you guys find as the challenges or best practices? Um, as I mentioned, I was talking to some of your team and they were talking about some of the, you know, permitting processes and trying to figure out how to streamline those because at these projects you're working with, you know, all kinds of stakeholders who work on different timelines, have very different stakeholders that they're responding to.

[14:04] And so, you know, how to align all of that is a huge endeavor for particularly these mixeduse projects. But uh but but yeah, if you could just talk a little bit about your perspectives on the public private partnership piece and how Kimley Horn gets involved in those and again any challenges or best practices that that you have found. >> Yeah, it's a it's a great question and the short answer is yeah, we are involved in a lot of projects that are a mix of private and public funding. The reality is these successful sports

[14:34] districts, they depend on aligning public priorities with private investment. And so where's our role? It's really helping turn that alignment into execution. You use the word negotiation. There's obviously lots of negotiations that go on with these. I think our view is we try to be the honest broker for everybody involved, right? You want your you want your engineer to be using data, right? And so we try to provide data and information for for all parties so they can make really informed decisions. These projects are incredibly capital

[15:06] intensive. Um and so as we're looking at the scope and scale of them today, it's rare that any one organization can take take on these projects alone. So we look at it as sports is a unifying aspect of the community. And and when you think of it that way as opposed to a negotiation, these districts can really accelerate that culture. And I think they just strengthened that ecosystem, right? Let me give you a sense of the scale, right? I think not everybody realizes that. If you put it in perspective, think about a

[15:38] single block in New York City. That's kind of roughly three acres. Many of these projects that we're talking about, they're not a block. They can span anywhere between 16 and 100 city blocks. So when you think about that in doing a development of that scale, you have to have public partnership. In a lot of cases, you have to have public land. Where do you have a hundred blocks in a city that are just sitting available for purchase? So that that requires that that partnership because you really are

[16:10] you're talking about creating these entirely new districts. And in these new districts, you have new infrastructure, you have new public spaces, you have new transportation, and then you're what what are the outcomes? You're not talking about just creating great places, but the long-term economic impact for these communities can and should be both positive and extraordinary. So, yeah, we're involved. The nature of them almost requires it these days. So, we kind of think of ourselves as a bridge, right? We we try to bridge that gap between intention and impact. We're looking to help turn these

[16:41] ambitious visions into measurable outcomes, right? We try to use datadriven planning, actionable strategies, and execution that ultimately can can get us, you know, get us to to results. And and if I if I may, I' I'd add one more thing. It's not just, you know, once you get to these private public partnerships in terms of the creation of a project, there are others that that continue. And a great example is one that just happened in our country. The the the recent World Cup is a great example of that bridging. So we

[17:13] had the opportunity to work with FIFA and the public entity host cities to have these amazing events all across the country. So working with six of the host cities, we move 2.8 million fans to stadiums throughout the throughout the World Cup. We organized mobility operations for 10 fan walks. We supported 35 of the 78 matches through mobility planning and uh were part of the hosted almost 600,000 attendees at

[17:45] the Philadelphia FanFest. So these public partnerships, private public private partnerships, my point is they don't just end at the the the deal, they continue with the events and they're really important for that fan experience that we all care so much about. Thank you for adding that part in about World Cup. That's incredibly impressive and I know you're involved in the World Cup and all that, but just hearing some of those numbers is really incredible and just the work which we'll dig into more in a second around the traffic and technology and how you know you're using

[18:16] all these pieces. Um, at the other point I also like calling it negotiations and yes, there is negotiating but I think that is a really important point when you're going into communities and trying to do these projects. Sometimes myself on the public affairs side of things and and the community development side, it can feel too transactional sometimes where the relationship and trust are the core what you that needs to be the foundation even before you're getting into quoteunquote like the negotiations and making sure that people are excited and see the value and the benefit for the broader community. So I think that's

[18:47] a great point. You started to touch on this a bit just uh this is the roar podcast. So that's a Serge's data analytics platform and so we do a ton around the data and data collection and analysis and insights and the evolving technology and how we think about that in mixeduse districts and obviously Kim Lee Horn that's a huge focus and and what you do. Uh so would love to hear how AI and technology are impacting your business any positive shifts and some of the things that you're more cautious about. Yeah, it's a it's a great and obviously

[19:20] timely question and and the answer next week will probably be different than the answer this week given the the pace of of change with technology. I do have the good fortune of serving as the chair of the ACC research institute and I mention that because we've been providing leading research on AI and the impact in the the business of engineering and so for context those conversations and being part of that research and spending time with that has absolutely influenced my approach to AI and technology and I

[19:51] think that has transferred into our firm to be sure we believe that AI is a powerful tool for our When I take a step back, I firmly believe that the team of the future will be both our people and our people working with agents, right? So, we're trying to get people to process a team of four people today might be a team of four people and one agent not too long from now and they will actually be a team member. And that's a really

[20:22] important way to think about it. It's not replacing the team, it's augmenting it. And so it's it right now it is accelerating how we gather and analyze data. You mentioned it but particularly traffic data things that were really mundane tasks for our people can be automated and that allows our people to spend more times more time on strategy client engagement and problem solving. They're the things that they love to do and they're the the things that our clients value. So we can move up the

[20:53] value chain by automating a lot of the very simple mundane tasks and move move more into the problem solving for our clients and that that's hugely important. Um so it's an amplifier. It is definitely not a replacement. We often say hey the uh the AI is not going to replace engineers. Engineers who know how to use AI will replace engineers that don't. And that's true with CAD and a whole bunch of other technologies. if you go back in time in our industry,

[21:24] >> but it's also changing our client expectations. They expect uh more real-time infid information. They expect datadriven recommendations and more options because the data is easier to gather um and faster responses. So, our approach to client service hasn't changed. I think that's a hallmark and it allows us to amplify that for our clients because we've got be we've got better data and we're managing those data links so we can get to that information to serve our clients at the speed that they need to be served.

[21:54] >> And is there anywhere where you are more cautious or not leaning in as heavily or anything you want to share on that side of things? >> Yeah, so there's there's a lot of cautions. There's some yellow flags out there. There's some red flags. If you think about what we do, one of the things we talk about is we have to be careful to avoid assuming that faster automatically means better, right? We can we all know that we can generate information unbelievably quickly using AI, but it still requires validation. It

[22:25] still requires context and it still requires professional judgment. We are a firm of licensed professionals, right? And as licensed professionals, whether we're engineers, planners, landscape architects, we're responsible for the standard of care and for the health, safety, and welfare of the of the public, you can't outsource that to AI. No one wants us to. That would not be in the best interest of anybody. So, we can get information. We still have to validate. We still have to use our professional judgment. And that's where I have a caution, right, is making sure

[22:56] that our young people who are amazing know that and we're taking the time to teach them the fundamentals so they can make those good judgments on the data that they get in just unbelievably rapid time. >> Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. What has been the biggest challenge in the work you're leading now? Whether specific project or industry shift, any of the things we talked about, I also would be interested. Everyone always brings up traffic flows and you hear a lot as we get into these larger scale

[23:26] mixeduse districts and how people navigate those and as you're having more residential built into some of these mixeduse districts. Obviously there's challenges of how you move on game day or event day 40,000 people. But uh I would love to hear you touch specifically on that but also to are other bigger challenges that you're working on or leading whether again that's a >> yeah there's a few let me start where where you ended because I think that's very interesting and probably something that most people don't know we have as I mentioned we have the good fortune to

[23:57] work um operations for a lot of major events whether that is Formula 1 in Las Vegas Super Bowl national college championship and I think what most people don't realize If if you've been around long enough, we're all used to going to the big game and there's officers out in the street and they're directing traffic and you're still wondering why things aren't going. And it's because those officers, while well-intentioned, no one's armed them with data. And so the game has changed. What's happening now, and people don't

[24:27] realize, is you may have a Kimley Horn employee standing next to that officer. That Kimley Horn employee has an earpiece. They're talking to one of our people that is in the traffic operations center looking at all the cameras and saying go green north, right? Which means, hey, we need to we need to flush that road north. And then they'll send the information again. Let's stop. Let's go east, right? And so now you've got that officer who's directing traffic

[24:57] actually have a making data driven decisions and we're feeding those folks that information. So using our technology, our cameras, watching um traffic flows is allowing us to get people in and out of facilities on these major events in ways that we've we've never been able to in the past. So that's just an example. And that that continues to evolve in how we can manage those those events because it's really important, right? You want to have a

[25:27] great experience and it's hard to have a great experience at the game if you end up being 30 minutes late because you've been stuck in traffic. You're already frustrated. So, that's a really important part for our owners and for communities that that experience starts with an easy experience getting to the event and leaving the event. >> I definitely did not know. So you have Kim Leehorn folks are talking directly to officers >> and I think most importantly is we're in the command centers with banks of

[25:58] screens that are showing all of the intersections that are affected. Now cities have to have installed cameras and we're working with them so they have all that information but that's the use of technology to move people. We can see where so we don't rely on the traditional green red uh systems. we can turn those on and off to flush to flush traffic and and direct the officers who are great partners. >> I did not know that's how that worked. So, thank you for explaining that. So,

[26:28] as we continue on this journey down the focus on mixed use districts, again, they're continuing to evolve, become larger, have more elements as the focus becomes experiential, trying to make them really places where people can have these in-person shared experiences and continue to evolve. and the master planning around them is becoming more sophisticated. Whereas in the past there was more of the kind of fan zone or not much even around a stadium or it was individual developers, a few buildings

[26:59] here, a few buildings there. But now it's a very master planned mixeduse district. So it's interesting and rapidly happening globally and even at the college level and even down to youth sports. Obviously that's our total focus at Surge. But would love to hear you talk about what you see as the most successful attributes of sports mixeduse districts, which I know you've touched on a little bit, but uh with that, where do you see potential downfalls or and some of this may be a summary of what we've talked about, but the best things about them and some of the cautions or things we have to be careful about as we're building them out?

[27:30] >> Yeah. You know, it it would be nice for all of us if there was one easy answer to to all of that, but the the the short answer is there's lots of different things. I'll try to hit on a few. To me, the best sports districts, they don't feel like projects. They feel like organic neighborhoods. And I think you mentioned the battery. That's what's so special about the batteries. It really feels or organic. And people love that that about it. If you go back, right, the the sort of how they're structured, they have to be structured around shared

[28:01] purpose and true partnership, right? they they're successful kind of as I said when it's not a negotiation but when the ownership and the developers and the public leaders are aligned right and there's alignment around a common vision and approach that that everyone's coming together as these are problems we have to solve together not I'm going head-to-head with you weren't locked arms to figure out how to make this great right when when any side right and there could be multiple sides is focusing on extracting kind of the I'll

[28:32] call it the maximum value for whatever is their most important thing rather than creating long-term value. That's where things you we really forget what's the big picture. So part of it's just the mindset. Hey, are we excited to do this together? And we know there have to be competing interests and working on those together. I think the other thing is this idea of a seamless blend between art and science, right? these districts um and the great ones integrate design and engineering really effectively. So the individual components feel like one

[29:04] place. And so that does require an incredible amount of collaboration between folks like us and amazing architects and great owners and public officials that balance the experience and the function and the infrastructure and the identity because like I said, they shouldn't feel like playing communities. If you think about it, cities, they have patina, they have a little bit of grit. And so how do you design that into a sports mixeduse facility? That's not science. That's art. You know, downfalls, if I if I could, I feel like the biggest

[29:34] downfalls, and I've kind of alluded to this, is siloed delivery, right? When people aren't collaborating, when services or teams or ownership responsibilities are fragmented, and we're not all kind of on the same sheet of music driving towards a a shared success, you see dissension. And I'd love to say we've never seen that, but we have, and that creates challenges and delays on projects. So I I think those are important things for people uh to remember. And then authenticity, right? Every city, every team, every site,

[30:06] they're all different. So, you know, it's not uncommon for owners to tour different projects. We've given countless tours of Battery and Allegion, which are great projects, and there's so much to learn from them. But I always encourage people to draw inspiration and then make it your own, right? Because what's authentic in Atlanta is different than what's authentic in Washington or Nashville or Chicago or Las Vegas or LA. And you would expect that and when you go there, you would expect it to be

[30:37] authentic to the place. So, lots to learn from each of these, but so much to sort of make genuine about the place and the community. Well, >> it's a great point, too, as you think about because I think that's always the fear. where we have this big development coming in and yes it is going to change some of the fabric of that area but it needs to feel like the people who live there that that is still their city and at the end of the day that's what's going to make it most successful because people are going to go to more of the restaurants engage in that district if it feels more like their place and their

[31:08] community. So that's a very important point and being really thoughtful about that and that's the piece of data and from our side with our Aurora data is incredibly valuable because it's basing a lot of those decisions as we're planning out. It's not just like guessing um but it's really looking at people in that area and the people that we want to come to that area and what are their preferences and basing that on like real behavioral data. What do they spend their money on credit card transaction like all that kind of stuff. So that's I think a very important point. So, we've talked about the battery as

[31:39] again still the prototype that people point to a lot as one of the earlier mixeduse districts and as they do evolve. What are you most excited about in the evolution of mixed use districts whether it's how people flow in and out so from the Kimley Horn side or or anything beyond that uh as these districts continue to evolve in this next generation? Yeah, there's so much so much opportunity to shape places, right? And it's it's about creating

[32:09] value that's 365 days a year for all the stakeholders and that includes the communities, our clients, and all the fans, the people that live there and work there. Like you said, you can see that in some of the in some of the data. So, I mean, that gets me incredibly excited. I mean, you'd mentioned transportation a few times. These are all we're no longer doing transportation plans. We talk about them as mobility plans, right? How we move people and the sort of options for mobility and and some challenges, right? You think about ebikes and where do they go and the

[32:40] speed they go and you've got transit and you've got fixed rail and you've got light rail and you've got rubber tire. Um, of course we have cars, uh, we have bikes, we have peds and so what is a mobility plan? because people have different preferences and how do we accommodate those and still keep people moving but that should be in the background and that shouldn't be a challenge for a district that should enhance a district but people really want to get there and experience the place so that's part that's part of what we do on the trend side I I'll come back

[33:12] to that kind of local insight at a at a national scale you know our people for us our people are part of the communities they serve they live and they work and and they spend time in the districts that they get a chance to work on. And so for us, that gives us a direct understanding of how these places need to function. We're not the out of town experts, right? We tend to be boots on the ground, understand these communities, understand how they operate. And you mentioned a couple times, I I'll hit it one more time, that the truest battery park to me continues

[33:44] to be a gold standard, right? Its success, and I don't think people fully appreciate this, which is why I think it's worth sharing. Its success is a gold standard for a reason, right? It it really came from that deep local insight and the national experience. It was our Atlanta team that understood how to capture the character, understood the community and brought in our broader national sports partners to leverage the lessons learned from projects across the country. That that 1 plus one equals

[34:14] three every time, right? when you combine that local and national and that's what we do and I think owners need to think about that. Make sure that you've had a national perspective and then you have a team that really understands the local communities. >> Great points. We have a one or two questions before we go and one of those I have to make sure I talk about what's brought you the most joy in your career as it relates to sports and I would imagine you've mentioned some specific projects but we have not talked about the commanders and so from what I

[34:46] understand is that you are a very big commander fan and so not only are you guys working on that project but as a fan too so feel free if there's other moments that have brought you joy as well but would definitely would love for you to touch on that and I imagine it might have been one of those like where were you when you found out that you were going to work on the commanders. >> I I'm very fortunate to have had maybe more than my fair share of joy in in the work that I do. I love it. whether they're their their sports projects, you know, watching the work that our team

[35:17] did to be at the inaugural Formula 1 in Las Vegas and seeing our team on the ground, a just a huge Formula 1 fan, but to see our team in action was just incredibly warming. I mean, their leadership was amazing to pull that off. But but I think you know as you said a big Commanders fan went to my first game with my dad in the late 70s. So I I gotta say I think the story is still being written because I sure am excited about the work we're doing with the

[35:48] commanders. You know we're a lead part of their team lead engineer on their team from very early on and it has been a joy to work with an absolute absolutely amazing owner and client in Josh Harris and his team. And so I, you know, to me it starts to really look like a full circle experience. You know, as I said, it was my dad who took me to my first professional football game. And it was an RFK, so I have a lot of memories of this site, you know, walking through the walking through the tunnels

[36:18] from the parking lot out by the river, spending a lot of time in traffic. We're hoping to change that, but uh so I sure do look forward uh to the work that we're doing there and being back on that site an opening day a few years from now. Yeah. And uh bring my dad. >> Thank you so much for sharing that. That is incredible stories and really makes the personal side of the work. It it should be fun and it should be meaningful. And obviously this is a incredibly meaningful project for you and >> also really excited to see how it all

[36:49] turns out. So and in trusted hands uh with all the moving pieces of a huge mixeduse district like that. So so exciting. So as we close things out, I'd like to ask this question of people and there's a lot of elements you've already touched on related to this around leadership. And so would love to hear you talk a little bit just as you as a leader what you prioritize as a leader and any lessons you've learned over your time about what makes good leadership. And clearly there are many things that you've shared throughout this conversation that demonstrate the team

[37:20] that you've helped build. So, if you can talk a bit about what you prioritize and what you think makes most effective leadership. >> Sure. I think a overlooked attribute of of leadership is uh humility, right? There's there's folks in roles like mine that uh probably get too much credit, get too much of the spotlight. And if you don't stop to really realize you're not that important, that that then you're missing something. Uh to me, leadership is about working with and working through other people. We couldn't do what what we do at Kimley

[37:51] Horn without the 11,000 amazing people, most of which spend the majority of their time in direct client service. You know, I I get to do what I do because of all of them. I've walked in their shoes. I have spent most of my time serving clients. These days, I spend less and less of it and more in in leadership uh roles in our firm. But I don't take that lightly. And I think it's really important for all of us in leadership roles and responsibilities to not lose

[38:21] sight of that. You can start to get pretty far away from the action and forget what's really important. And what's really important is your people, taking care of your people. As I said, make sure that if you do that, they'll take care of your clients. Um, and we will do amazing things in our communities. >> Thank you so much for sharing that. and you've been through it, like you said, you've been through all the stages and places that your police have been to, which I think is helpful being able to relate and even if people have been through those shoes, you forget, but um you clearly are very grounded in that.

[38:52] So, thank you for sharing that because I agree. I think that's very important thing to keep in mind, particularly as you continue to get to the top level and you're less in the weed sometimes on the day-to-day. So, really appreciate that and all of your leadership and everything that you're doing. Amazing to have you on the podcast. So, thank you again for your time and all of your insights and excited to see where everything goes from here. So, thank you again. >> Well, thank you. It was a real pleasure. I enjoyed our conversation and uh this has been a real joy.