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Archispeak

Archispeak

Evan Troxel & Cormac Phalen 390 Episodes Aug 17, 2026

Archispeak is one of architecture's longest-running podcasts, with over 383 episodes of honest, unfiltered conversation about working in the profession. Since 2012, architects Evan Troxel and Cormac Phalen explore design, career, firm culture, tools, work/life balance, mentoring, generational differences, and job hunting. The podcast is built for architecture students, emerging architects, and seasoned professionals seeking candid perspective on the profession. Topics include architecture career and job searching, design process and critique, firm culture, and candid interviews with architects and industry leaders.

Episodes

#395 - Thermal Reactive Umbrella
#395 - Thermal Reactive Umbrella Aug 17, 2026 48:23 Some weeks the conversation just goes where it goes. Evan and Cormac spend this one reading Wikipedia and AI overviews at each other in real time — the AIA convention ping-ponging from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, SoFi Stadium sunk 100 feet into the ground for the LAX flight path, its cable-net roof that expands and contracts like a tennis racket until Cormac christens it a "thermal reactive umbre
#394 - Your Architecture Degree Isn't A Dead End
#394 - Your Architecture Degree Isn't A Dead End Jul 27, 2026 51:06 What do you do when you finish six years of architecture school, land in the profession, and realize none of it speaks to you? Evan and Cormac start with a former student on a Detroit construction tour who says the buildings around her are falling on deaf ears, and they take the question seriously instead of waving it off. They dig into the difference between dreading the work and feeling nothing
#393 - We Ceded This to the Contractors
#393 - We Ceded This to the Contractors Jul 21, 2026 54:52 Evan and Cormac dig into why architects deliberately stop detailing at "design intent" instead of shop-drawing level, and how that decision has handed constructability over to contractors and manufacturers. They explore the level of detail (LOD) gap between US and overseas practice, a real design-assist story about pushing a terracotta fin cantilever further with a manufacturer, and why competitiv
#392 - Your Favorite Building Looks Like a Parking Garage
#392 - Your Favorite Building Looks Like a Parking Garage Jul 14, 2026 01:35:47 Evan and Cormac catch up on Cormac's 6,800-mile road trip from Detroit to the AIA National Convention in San Diego with his daughter, built around a bucket list of architectural pilgrimage stops. They explore what happens when a non-architect finally sees a building that lands emotionally (Thorncrown Chapel), what happens when a canonical masterpiece doesn't (the Salk Institute reads as "a parking
#391 - A Builder’s Life Done Well with David Prutting
#391 - A Builder’s Life Done Well with David Prutting Jun 5, 2026 01:24:03 David Prutting joins Evan and Cormac to talk about what 50 years of building high-end contemporary homes has taught him about the relationship between architects, owners, and builders. They explore the trust triangle that makes or breaks a custom project, why David actively steers clients away from design-build, and the floor plan theory he's developed over decades: the stranger the plan, the bett
#390 - From Idea to Execution: Heliomorphism
#390 - From Idea to Execution: Heliomorphism May 26, 2026 01:12:21 Sven Shockey, FAIA joins Evan and Cormac to talk about Virginia Tech Academic Building One — a 300,000-square-foot computer science and computer engineering building on a new campus in Alexandria, Virginia whose faceted, photovoltaic-integrated form was derived through 1,400 computational iterations. They explore what it means to design a building's exterior before the interior program is finalize
#389 - I Want To See Tears
#389 - I Want To See Tears May 1, 2026 35:46 A van conversion project that was supposed to take three days is now four months in and an eighth of the way done. Evan and Cormac dig into what actually happened and why an architect's brain might be the single biggest obstacle to finishing a personal fabrication project on time. They cover the scope creep hiding in "wouldn't you do it differently?", why one wrong cut forces every subsequent piec
#388 - Frank Lloyd Wright Lemonade
#388 - Frank Lloyd Wright Lemonade Apr 24, 2026 38:30 Cormac spent last week driving from Detroit to Baltimore for a punch review, then north to a factory two hours outside Toronto to inspect replacement vestibule glass — only to reject it for the second time because the print scale was still wrong. Along the way, he squeezed in an unplanned tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin House in Buffalo, ended up teaching the docents, and toured AGNORA'
#387 - The Walmart Greeter of Architecture
#387 - The Walmart Greeter of Architecture Apr 18, 2026 56:20 Five years into one project. Ten into another. Three principals retired before the second one wrapped. Evan and Cormac dig into what long-duration architecture projects reveal about career identity, why the profession has always romanticized the architect who works until death, and what retirement actually looks like when architecture is all you've ever done. They also get into the slow erosion of
#386 - If not me, then who?
#386 - If not me, then who? Apr 3, 2026 33:08 Ten years into a $600M research laboratory project, Cormac reflects on what it actually means to see a complex build through to the end — the COVID-era redesign, the permit battles across three code cycles, and the people who've been on site since day one. He and Evan unpack the case for continuity: why the architects who know every decision that was ever made are essentially irreplaceable, and wh
#385 - Why Architects Can't Say No
#385 - Why Architects Can't Say No Mar 27, 2026 37:44 Cormac spent twelve hours trying to send one email. Evan has seventeen apps open at all times. This week they trace the architecture of modern distraction — from "you're on mute" killing the flow of real-time thinking, to AI making it easier to do more of the wrong things faster, to the structural reason architects keep saying yes when they should say no. The profession runs on availability, respo
#384 - The AI and Expertise Paradox, with Chris Parsons
#384 - The AI and Expertise Paradox, with Chris Parsons Mar 20, 2026 01:19:00 Architecture firms are adopting AI faster than they're building the expertise to judge it.In this episode, we explore the AI and expertise paradox with Christopher Parsons, Founder and CEO of Knowledge Architecture, the firm behind Synthesis — a knowledge and learning platform built for AEC firms — digging into what happens when the tools your firm is counting on require more institutional knowled

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