Jason Twill: An apostolic and restless urbanist

Then it becomes his own story of swapping out an early disillusionment and distaste for the monocultural deadlands of suburban life for formative years in New York City. 

Jason: “I like to call New York my first teacher… a place that taught me about tolerance, diversity, language, ethnicity, culture, fashion, art and architecture. The island of Manhattan will always be one of my anchoring places”. 

Back in New York after gaining a degree in International Political Economics from Colorado College it looked as if his life choice would be architecture. 

But then, working at the World Trade Center offices of architecture firm Mancini Duffy on 11 September 2001 he narrowly survived the horrific tragedy of that day. 

Soon after he was introduced to Jason Howard Kunstler’s book The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-made Landscape, described by Jason as “a fantastic, non-technical explanation of suburban sprawl in the post-World War II era”. 

“This book became a ‘spear in the chest’ turning point for me. I realised from that book that no, I needed to be a developer not an architect - that I needed to come at things from the very start”. 

By the end of 2004 he had gained a degree in Real Estate, Finance and Development. And so began his self-driven, often self-taught pursuit of boundary-pushing models of urban development that were, and still remain, chronically under-evolved.

Jason doesn’t hesitate to credit the power of the network of Argonaut-like heroes he has successfully reached out to and made friends with along the way. 

This has included making connections with people such as inspirational developer and thought leader Jonathan Rose - a keynote speaker at the 2018 edition of UrbanismNZ. 

Jason’s first job outside of New York was hugely influential, locating him within the globally enabling orbit of Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc in Seattle. This began with a lead role on one of the first Innovation Districts in North America, South Lake Union, and accelerated up to the privilege of serving on Mr. Allen’s global change advisory committee seeking ideas and solutions to address the world’s most pressing challenges.

Over the next phase of his career Jason embarked on obtaining important credentials such as his LEED accreditation, as well as roles in co-founding such ground-breaking concerns as the International Living Future Institute and the Green Sports Alliance. 

“By now my networking had moved into being more peer-to-peer, and by 2013 I had also determined, with my wife Jennifer, that we wanted our sons, Stellan and Sullivan, to experience a life that wasn’t purely US-centric, so we made the move to Sydney, Australia”. 

“I had a great opportunity to work on mega-projects and sustainability with Lendlease for three years. I’m not necessarily cut from a corporate-fitting cloth so then, in my 40s, I decided to engage my inner entrepreneur by starting up Urban Apostles in Sydney as well as reverting to my network-building and teaching instincts through a collective called the City Maker’s Guild and being an Innovation Research Fellow at UTS”. 

Next up for Jason was the unique “sports diplomacy” and change agent challenge of being the Qatar Foundation’s World Cup program director, followed last year by a return to the USA. 

He’s now working in Minnesota as principal and national practice lead for the Viridis Initiative, a climate action development firm specialising in large-scale, turn-keyed net zero energy and infrastructure development for cities and major institutions backed by a multi-billion dollar B-corp fund. It focuses on deployment  of mission-driven capital to support the acceleration and scaling of decarbonization across the U.S. economy.

Over the years Jason has always given close attention to Indigenous values and cultural wisdom. He often refers to a quote seen on a T-shirt in New York and indelibly attributed to Chief Seattle as a longstanding personal compass point for him: “The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth”. 

He has immense regard and respect for the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. The same goes for the Māori connections he has made in Aotearoa New Zealand, particularly a bond with Ngai Tūhoe, and the exemplary knowledge held within mātauranga Māori. 

“Working with Aboriginal colleagues and mentors like Chels Marshall, Auntie Anne Poelina and Tyson Yukaporta was like being ‘kicked back to kindergarten’ and it’s been an eye-opening process of un-learning and de-colonisng my mind. 

“There are so many Indigenous interpretations that Western thinking - the thinking of the colonisers in effect - needs to tap into to get out of the mess the planet is in. The example of a Māori interpretation of doughnut economics is an insight into how much there is to learn and to base actions on, by changing the ‘how’ of how we think”, and the nature of the mindset we use to consider solutions. 

This has direct relevance for our cognition of the magnitude of climate change because the current status quo, as Jason observes, “is all about the way we’ve structured our economic systems, the way that we structure our geopolitics, and the perpetuation of exclusionary Western thinking”, adding “at the heart of the polycrisis we now face, is humanity’s insistence on the privatisation and commodification of land”.

Jason isn’t a fan of being defined by any one thing he does. He’s more excited by helping serve to generate ripples for positive change in whatever ways he can.

It’s refreshing to know there are people like Jason in the world who are committed to new paradigms. 

Like speaking up against speculative development, franchised gentrification and commoditised urbanisation. Like disavowing private property in favour of community land trusts and retaining public land. Like promoting the idea of the commons and being custodians of the land. Like leveraging capital that is invested in urban development so that there are strings attached directly to achieving better equity outcomes including better health and less inequality. Like promoting serious discussions about community wealth building, regenerative economics and Indigenous Rights.

The collective perspective that Jason, Dr Danièle Hromek (Djinjama, Australia) and Henriette Vamberg (Gehl Architects, Denmark) bring to the opening day panel at the UrbanismNZ conference on Thursday 27 April will be fascinating and compelling. 

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Further references, listening and reading:

• Jason Twill articles on The Conversation 

• Conversations about regenerative practice 

• Sense-making in a Changing World

• Regenesis - https://regenesisgroup.com/