Driving Change

Sidewalk Labs co-founder, former Michigan Central CEO Josh Sirefman, M.U.P. ’03, on managing complexity, building community, and delivering on potential

Josh Sirefman, M.U.P. ’03, has spent the last 30 years making change at scale. He has overseen major developments in multiple cities, including New York, Washington, and Chicago; co-launched an Alphabet-backed company that reshaped how people think about cities and technology; and, most recently, helped transform Detroit’s Michigan Central Station into a globally recognized innovation hub after decades of dormancy.

Sirefman was named a Taubman College Distinguished Alumnus last fall, and he remains deeply involved with the college, having served on the Urban Tech Advisory Board and the urban planning external review committee. His insights were key to launching the Urban Technology degree program — a curriculum he now experiences from a new perspective as the parent of a student — and the newly announced Master of Urban Technology.

Whether working as a planner, developer, or executive, he attributes his accomplishments to the people he’s worked with and learned from over the years and to his knack for envisioning possibilities and realizing them.

“My one true superpower is navigating the complexity that must be solved to make things meet their potential,” he says.

Detroit Crash Course

Sirefman first came to the University of Michigan from New York, in part, to follow his girlfriend at the time. Once he started his planning studies, he soon “fell hard” for nearby Detroit.

Faculty members and mentors Margaret Dewar, Robert Marans, and June Manning Thomas were instrumental in fostering his engagement with the city. Through an AmeriCorps program, Sirefman worked with nonprofit Islandview Village Development Corporation to revitalize an industrial corridor on the city’s east side while working toward his master’s. 

“That work, in some ways, was the heart and soul of the urban planning degree experience,” he says. “It was a real crash course in what it means to do community development, to do planning, to foster growth, and to do it equitably.”

It also led to a position with the Detroit Economic Development Corporation, where he designed citywide programs to retain industry and continued to work after graduation. (Although he technically earned his degree after submitting an outstanding paper in 2003, Sirefman finished his coursework in 1996). 

Extraordinary Experiences

Returning to New York, Sirefman worked with the New York City Economic Development Corporation for a few years during the Rudy Giuliani administration, where he laid the groundwork for new baseball stadiums for the Yankees and Mets. As principal at HR&A Advisors, he managed the planning of Brooklyn Bridge Park and Washington’s Anacostia Waterfront Initiative before returning to the city as COO and interim president of the NYCEDC and chief of staff to the deputy mayor of economic development under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. There, he oversaw a dozen city agencies focused on planning, development, housing, small business, and economic growth, and led large, complex initiatives with major impact across New York City. He served as a point person for developing the World Trade Center after 9/11, brought Brooklyn Bridge Park plans to fruition, and led the deal to acquire Governors Island from the federal government.

“It was incredibly challenging, but also an extraordinary experience to learn so much from so many amazing people and to play such an active role in nearly every aspect of the city’s future, working side by side with communities,” he says.

Sirefman returned to the private sector as senior vice president of U.S. Development for Brookfield Properties before launching Sirefman Ventures in the late ‘00s.

“I essentially became a rented CEO, driving large-scale projects that were transformative both for places and for the entities doing them,” he says.

For the Cornell Tech applied sciences campus on New York’s Roosevelt Island, he helped develop a talent anchor in the city focused on tech-oriented, postgraduate education and entrepreneurship. In Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, he helped build a vibrant commercial district and community near the University of Chicago.

A New Approach to Cities and Tech

In 2015, Sirefman teamed up with his former boss at City Hall, Dan Doctoroff, to form Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company created to produce tech-driven urban solutions. There, Sirefman led efforts to develop new tools and services that used data and smart technologies to address construction, mobility, energy usage, and more. 

“We were at the forefront of the collision of tech and city shaping, laying the groundwork for so much happening now in cities,” he says.

Plans for a modular, sustainable “smart neighborhood” in Toronto generated excitement, as well as debate about potential data collection and privacy. However, the project eventually stalled due to uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sidewalk Labs was folded into Google in 2021, but its influence is still felt. At Taubman College, the first-of-its-kind Bachelor of Science in Urban Technology program was developed by associate professor Bryan Boyer, a former Sidewalk Labs consultant, with input from Sirefman and others in the emerging field. The program is now in its sixth year, and a one-year Master of Urban Technology will launch in 2027.

“It’s one of the most exciting things happening across the university,” Sirefman says. “My strong hunch is that it will increasingly become a model for adapting what it means to prepare university students for the world.”

A Perfect Opportunity

Sirefman was ready for a break in 2022, when Ford Motor Co. approached him about leading its Michigan Central innovation hub in Detroit. The automaker purchased the historic, abandoned train station and adjacent properties in 2018 with plans to convert it.

“Driving that rebirth and creating a talent magnet for innovation while also creating a place that could be a meaningful part of people’s lives again made it the perfect opportunity,” he says.

Since reopening in 2024, the 30-acre campus has become home to nearly 250 businesses and more than 2,000 workers representing startups, Fortune 500 companies, and artists, as well as retail and hospitality spaces. Reactivating the long-abandoned space was personal for Sirefman.

“It’s an anchor for driving economic growth and transformation in Detroit that should carry forth in perpetuity and that, for me, is deeply rooted,” he says.

Last fall, Sirefman stepped down as CEO. He’s not sure what’s next, but he intends to continue making an impact, whether serving on nonprofit boards, driving transformative projects, or exploring new approaches to technology and financing in a slow-adapting built environment.

“I think a lot about a different model of large-scale city-building,” he says. “I don’t know yet where I go with that, but these are the kinds of things I think about.”

— Eric Gallippo