Recorded live at the NeoCon Podcast Lounge, AJ is joined by Bryan Ballegeer, Vice President of Education for KI, and Jason Lazarz, KI's A&D Market Lead. Together the group explores the transformative power of well-designed educational environments. Learn about KI's inspiring Classroom Furniture Giveaway program, which empowers teachers and students to create dream classrooms tailored to diverse learning needs. Discover how inclusive design can improve student engagement and outcomes, and why...
Jun 25, 2025•43 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Sensory design expert Russell Jones sits with AJ to explore the fascinating world of multisensory design in the built environment. Learn how Russell and his team transformed the iconic John Lewis & Partners department store into a testbed for sensory innovation, balancing the needs of neurodiverse visitors, enhancing brand experience, and creating environments that are both immersive and inclusive. Russell's eBook: Designing For Humans: How cross-modal neuroscience can transform the built en...
Jun 13, 2025•40 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Explore the powerful connection between design and neuroscience with Suchi Reddy an NYC based architect, designer, and artist. Discover how design can influence our emotions, well-being, and human connection through compelling stories and innovative projects. Suchi shares her journey from architectural practice to art installations at Salone del Mobile and discusses the groundbreaking work in neurasthenics. This thought-provoking conversation uncovers how spaces can evoke physiological and psych...
May 28, 2025•42 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Dive into the world of color with one of host AJ Paron’s design heroes, Laura Guido-Clark. Laura discusses the psychology of color, its impact on our lives, and how her company, Love Good Color, leverages this knowledge to transform spaces. Learn about her inspiring work with Project ColorCorps, where she brings vibrant transformations to underserved communities, creating environments that reflect joy, belonging, and empowerment. Discover how careful consideration of hues, temperaments, and cult...
May 14, 2025•43 min•Season 3Ep. 3
An expert in inclusive environments, Steve Orfield, President at Orfield Laboratories, Inc., offered up the quietest room in the world to record this episode. Host AJ Paron and Steve discuss their collaboration on a groundbreaking project for Fraser, Minnesota’s leading autism treatment provider, focusing on creating scientifically designed, peaceful spaces for individuals with autism. Discover how science and empathy come together to shape environments that enhance human experience. This season...
Apr 30, 2025•40 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Wild, ambitious projects can be done — or they can be epic. Neil Ferrier, founder of the design firm Discommon , chose the latter when his team took on the ultimate challenge: designing and installing a 48-foot-long sculpture of the Concorde, suspended inside a London restaurant. Ferrier shares what it took to bring his firm’s largest project — in both size and scope — to life. The intricate feat of structural engineering was crafted from hundreds of machined aluminum panels, designed to appear ...
Apr 16, 2025•40 min•Season 3Ep. 1
AJ Paron sits down with designer Yinka Ilori at Neocon! They discuss Yinka’s vibrant, joyful, and award-winning collaboration with Momentum Textiles and Wallcovering, his journey from furniture design to becoming an acclaimed multidisciplinary artist, and how his Nigerian heritage influences his use of bold colors and patterns. Yinka shares insights into his creative process and the importance of making spaces that evoke happiness and connectivity. He also offers valuable advice to young designe...
Jul 17, 2024•26 min
This is a special edition episode! We're joined by Gene Wilson, the Vice President of Merchandising and Vendor Management at Room & Board. Explore a groundbreaking initiative in sustainable design as we learn how Room & Board, a pioneering American furniture company, transforms discarded wood into stunning heirloom furniture through their Urban Wood Project. Discover how this line of products prevents waste, creates jobs, and supports local communities across the country. We’ll hear from...
Jun 03, 2024•56 min•Season 2Ep. 9
David Shove-Brown, co-founder of //3877, a D.C.-based architecture and design firm specializing in hospitality, shares the story of one of their most challenging projects—a historic building turned restaurant that they redesigned not once but twice! Learn how //3877 balanced the unique challenges of working within a historic structure while creating a vibrant dining experience and how unexpected events like an earthquake can impact a project. This season of Once Upon A Project is presented by Sh...
May 13, 2024•50 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Join host AJ Paron in an enlightening conversation with Jennifer Kolstad, the Global Design and Brand Director at Ford Motor Company, as they delve into the fascinating world of design and its profound impact. Despite her limited background in healthcare design, Jennifer spearheaded the six-million-square-foot Kuwait Children’s Hospital project with HKS. Together, they explore the intricacies of this ambitious endeavor and touch on themes of innovation, empathy, and the lasting influence of desi...
Apr 08, 2024•47 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Big business means a big office. For Boston Consulting Group’s Canadian HQ in Toronto, HOK Canada was the architecture, planning, and engineering firm for the job. Regional winner for the Best of Canada Design Awards for Shaw Contract 2023, Caitlin Turner, project lead and Director of Interiors at HOK Canada, discusses how the project became such a success with host AJ Paron. From tenant-improvement fit-ups and championing Toronto’s mighty emerging design scene to planning for serendipitous bump...
Mar 11, 2024•46 min•Season 2Ep. 6
If you ever find yourself in court, you’ll hope it’s this family circuit in Orlando, Florida. Designed by Jose Jordan who comes from an architectural family and is a current Principal at DLR Group, his scientific approach to architecture with a focus on tactile materials has led him to this niche of civic architecture. Host A.J. Paron shares a personal story that helps hammer home the importance of Jordan’s design ideas, like planning for privacy, ensuring views of nature, and the inclusion of l...
Feb 12, 2024•44 min•Season 2Ep. 5
This might be the one sex shop you can walk into with your mother and not feel awkward. When given the brief to design a SoHo storefront for Contact Sports, an elevated and experiential sex and wellness destination, Madelynn Ringo was obviously intrigued. As the founder of her NYC-based eponymous design studio, working with Contact Sports’ founders Justin and Chelsea Kerzner was a match made in heaven, two disruptive and creative teams collaborating to bring their visions to life. Listen to how ...
Jan 08, 2024•49 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Hear the story behind designing a 1-million-square-foot Nike World Headquarters building that set out to change and inspire how a legacy brand and thousands of employees work. Nita Posada, a partner and director of interior design at Skylab Architecture, explains the multi-faceted functionality of the monumental Serena Williams Building. With “Phenom, Warrior, Muse” as the guiding design principles inspired by the legendary athlete, Posada describes the deliberate work behind every detail, like ...
Dec 11, 2023•43 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Coast-to-coast, designers are figuring out how to get the workforce back into their offices by implementing innovative concepts that are still conducive to productivity. In this episode, learn about two projects that took creativity and thoughtfulness to the next level. In New York City, landscape architect Hank White of HMWhite has put a timber forest on top of the iconic Radio City Music Hall, realizing a dream that was in the development’s original blueprints: bringing the wild to the urban d...
Nov 13, 2023•46 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Where hip-hop and design intersect, you’ll find Michael Ford. Learn what sparked the discovery of this seemingly unlikely connection and how a childhood interest in car design fueled an expansive, unique career for “The Hip Hop Architect.” Tune in as Ford, who also founded the Hip Hop Architecture Camp for underrepresented youth, dissects the intricate elements of hip-hop music and culture that inspire textiles, buildings, neighborhoods, and more. Tap into how Ford’s distinct perspective transla...
Oct 23, 2023•49 min•Season 2Ep. 1
When Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten met twenty-five years ago, did they ever imagine their partnership would result in the inception of the iconic media brand COOL HUNTING? This episode offers a glimpse into their journey of evolution at the intersection of the internet, content, and design—not to mention the twenty-year partnership of the men behind the helm. Explore the captivating world of digital design in our latest episode. More on COOL HUNTING. Follow COOL HUNTING. This episode was recorded...
Oct 16, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 9
When SmithGroup submitted a crazy idea for a design competition from the City of San Francisco, they never thought their futuristic public toilet kiosks and street furniture would be selected, let alone that they would need to be realized. Working with the City of San Francisco and JC Decaux, principals Bill Katz and Tyler Krehlik turned the stigma of public toilets being dirty, unsanitary, and dangerous on its head to add dignity back into these facilities for the people who need and use them. ...
Apr 07, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Amy Mays, Interior Design Director at HDR, describes the eye-opening experience of working on the NYU Oral Health Center for People with Disabilities. With spaces that provide quality care for people with physical and cognitive disabilities lacking, the HDR team created an environment that goes beyond ADA standards, providing patients and their families with choice, control, and accessibility—experience how this project redefines care and sets new standards in healthcare design. Once Upon a Proj...
Mar 03, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Sequoyah Hunter-Cuyjet, Vice President of Determined by Design, describes the impact that design equity standards can have on marginalized communities. Working with their development partner, Dantes Partner, Sequoyah, and her team tackled two large affordable housing projects in Washington, DC. Intent on serving the communities that will call these buildings home, the team drew from history and a strong sense of equity to create spaces filled with awe and wonderment for the residents. Once Upon ...
Feb 17, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 6
David Levo, Principal at ZGF Architects, describes his experience collaborating on a redesign of General Electric’s global leadership training location in Crotonville, New York, during his time with Perkins Eastman. In a project that was at the intersection of workplace, education, and hospitality design, the teams worked together to ensure that the built spaces were an extension of the global strategy and curriculum of the training process “Reimagining Crotonville,” facilitating human connectio...
Feb 03, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Taruan Mabry, former Senior Designer with iCrave, talks about the thrilling opportunity the team was given to work on Scores, an adult entertainment venue in Atlantic City. Listen in as Mabry discusses the unique challenges of designing a high-end strip club—from strange material applications to the moral and ethical question of tackling this kind of project. Once Upon a Project is a member of the SURROUND podcast network. Check out more architecture and design shows at surroundpodcasts.com. ---...
Jan 13, 2023•22 min•Season 1Ep. 4
While at Perkins&Will’s New York studio, Meena Krenek and the team were hungry for Columbia Property Trust’s project, The Edge, in New York City. Listen in as Krenek describes the out-of-the-box approach the Perkins and Will’s team used to win the Request for Proposal (RFP), and how their experiential approach to design provided the building’s future tenants with unique amenities and more. This show is produced by Surround Podcast Network. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and ...
Dec 16, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Betsy Vohs of Studio BV cultivated a unique relationship with client Evereve that evolved into designing not only their office but the co-CEO’s home and then redefining what their retail brand looked like post-pandemic. Listen in as Vohs discusses how good design can empower everyone that it touches—from her team to her clients and her client’s clients—across retail, workplace, and not-for-profit organizations. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at http...
Dec 02, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 2
When Dan Menchions and Keith Rushbrook of II BY IV DESIGN, the Toronto-based luxury hospitality interior design firm, were asked to design the hospitality spaces in the new Yankee Stadium, they knew it had to be a home-run. Listen in as Menchions and Rushbrook talk about the enormous task of designing 37,000 square feet of restaurants, private clubs, and public space for fans of the New York Yankees, and how they drew inspiration from and paid homage to one of the most recognizable Major League ...
Nov 18, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Introducing Once Upon a Project, a new podcast from SANDOW Design Group. This season, we'll hear the from designers and architects around the world as they tell their stories behind their finished projects. From hospitality spaces in Yankee Stadium to adult entertainment venues, design - and designers - have a hand and a story behind the project. Follow the show so you never miss an episode. Once Upon a Project is part of the SURROUND Podcast Network. Check out show notes, and discover other des...
Oct 21, 2022•2 min
