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metropolis deep green podcast highlights

August 1, 2023

Deep Green Returns for Summer Season

The Summer Season of Metropolis’s sustainability-focused podcast kicks off with an episode on designing for the public good.

By: Metropolis Editors

Metropolis’s Deep Green debuts the first episode of its summer season today. Buildings are some of the biggest things we make as human beings. In these weekly episodes, we explore how through understanding buildings, cities, and all the things that go into them, we can do better for the environment and all life on this planet. The first episode of Deep Green’s Summer Season explores designing for the public good.

Deep Green


Renowned architect and Chicagoan Carol Ross Barney joins host Avi Rajagopal for our Summer Season premier. Ross Barney is a visionary about how people live their lives in cities—whether it’s through public, hospitality, or education spaces.

Chicagoans know Ross Barney best for the transformative work she did on the city’s Riverwalk, just steps away from where this episode was live recorded during NeoCon. Together, Rajagopal and Ross Barney discuss how the pedestrian walkway has opened so many possibilities for the city and how it is also emblematic of the kind of work that Ross Barney does. A sense of public good suffuses her work, from mammoth urban projects to her work on privately funded spaces, like the McDonald’s Chicago flagship.

Listen to “Carol Ross Barney: Design for the Public Good” to hear from Ross Barney about these landmark projects and others, exploring the connections between equity and the built environment, the complexities of sustainable design, and design as an opportunity to engage with people.

Listen to Season 3, Episode 1 now. Then join us every Tuesday for future episodes covering topics like sustainability in affordable housing, making solar energy accessible, and the future of urban density.

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