The ROAR Podcast: Steve Lefton

<p>Steve Lefton has spent twenty-nine years at what he jokingly calls "the largest firm you've never heard of." Kimley-Horn is eleven thousand people across a hundred and sixty offices — engineers, planners, landscape architects and scientists who handle nearly everything on a project except the architecture. As Executive Chair, and previously as president and CEO during a stretch in which the firm doubled in size, Lefton has watched sports venues transform from standalone buildings into full districts that have to work three hundred and sixty-five days a year.</p><p></p><p>He joins Caroline to trace that shift from the ground up. The conversation moves from his early redevelopment work in post-Hurricane Andrew Miami, to why the districts that succeed feel like organic neighborhoods rather than projects, to the scale problem hiding in plain sight: a New York City block runs about three acres, and these developments can span sixteen to a hundred blocks. That math, he argues, makes public partnership unavoidable.</p><p></p><p>Along the way: what a Kimley-Horn employee is doing beside a police officer on game day with an earpiece in, how the firm moved 2.8 million fans during the World Cup, where Lefton draws the line on AI in a profession of licensed professionals, and why a Commanders project on the RFK site is personal.</p><p></p><p>00:00 Welcome</p><p>00:52 What sports mean to him: family, coaching, and a son playing college lacrosse</p><p>03:37 Cornell, landscape architecture, and the "spaces in between"</p><p>06:05 Leading Kimley-Horn: doubling the firm in seven years</p><p>07:37 Two projects that shaped him: the Miami River Corridor and Midtown Miami</p><p>10:36 "The largest firm you've never heard of" — and how the sports practice grew</p><p>14:11 Public-private partnerships and playing the honest broker</p><p>16:33 Beyond the deal: moving 2.8 million fans at the World Cup</p><p>19:54 AI as amplifier: agents on the team and moving up the value chain</p><p>22:52 Where he's cautious: faster isn't better, and what a licensed profession can't outsource</p><p>25:04 Game day traffic ops: the earpiece, the command center, "go green north"</p><p>29:20 What makes a district work: organic neighborhoods, art and science, silo delivery</p><p>34:17 Mobility, not transportation — and creating value 365 days a year</p><p>36:36 Local insight at national scale, and why the Battery is still the gold standard</p><p>37:37 Full circle: Formula One, the Commanders, and RFK with his dad</p><p>41:34 Leadership and humility: "you're not that important"</p><p></p><p></p>