EP97: How do we sustain a city's culture and character? With Seeing Better Cities founder, Chuck Wolfe

“Imagine if the world around you disappeared and the paths to which you are so accustomed suddenly went away and you had to reinvent them…”

Charles (Chuck) Wolfe is the founder of Seeing Better Cities and the author of the award-winning books Seeing the Better CityandUrbanism Without Effort.

In 2017 Chuck left 34 years’ experience as an environmental land-use lawyer behind and set up Seeing Better Cities to improve the conversation around how cities grow and evolve in the around the world. 

Chuck helps developers and municipalities with policy-related issues and community involvement strategies and leads explorations of urban spaces impacted by rapid change and growth. 

“Enough with the touristic experience or the classical fantasy that drives our understanding of a particular place, we need to do the work, we need to dig in,” he says. 

Much of Chuck's inspiration, he says, comes from his father, who founded the Modern Urban Design and Planning Programme at the University of Washington. 

Chuck's latest book, Sustaining a City's Culture and Character explores what it means for a city or town to acknowledge and honour its traditional identity as it transitions to something new.

We talk about that and also: 

• What makes up the essence of a city

• How to understand the fundamental relationships between people and their cities 

• Taking your home with you versus immersing yourself in a culture

• The LEARN methodology: Look Engage, Assess, Review and Negotiate 

You can follow Chuck on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and find out more about his consultancy services at Seeingbettercities.com. You can buy a hard copy of his latest book at Blackwells.