Life of an Architect

Life of an Architect

A gifted storyteller communicating the role and value of architecture to a new audience, host Bob Borson uses the experiences acquired over a 25-year career to inform his podcast. A small firm owner, architect, and college design instructor, co-host Andrew Hawkins brings his insight from his 20 years in various roles within the profession. It responds to the public curiosity and common misunderstanding about what architects do and how it is relevant to people’s lives, engaging a wide demographic of people in a meaningful way without requiring an understanding of the jargon or knowledge of the history of the profession. With a creative mix of humor and practicality, Borson’s stories are informative, engaging, and approachable, using first-person narratives and anecdotes that have introduced transparency into what it really means to be a practicing architect. To learn more about Bob, Andrew, and what life is like as an architect, please visit Lifeofanarchitect.com

Episodes

July 12, 2026 59 mins
Designing a house does not begin with floor plans, exterior styles, or deciding where the kitchen island should go. It begins with understanding the people who will live there and translating their habits, priorities, routines, and expectations into a useful design framework. In this episode, Bob and Andrew examine the residential programming process and the role a well-constructed client workbook can play before design begins. Th...
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In episode 204, “Character Development - Revisited,” we go back to the beginning and revisit the very first Life of an Architect podcast episode. Episode 001 was mostly an introduction: who we were, why the podcast existed, and what we thought it might become. At the time, the website had grown beyond the casual creative outlet it was intended to be, and the podcast seemed like a way to return to the original idea - tal...
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Episode 203 explores ten museums worth seeing not for the collections alone, but for the buildings themselves. From quiet rooms shaped by light to dramatic structures carved from old industrial spaces, this episode looks at museums where architecture changes the way we move, look, and remember the visit.
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May 31, 2026 55 mins
So you are thinking about teaching architecture. You’ve got some years of experience under your belt and you want to share your knowledge with the next generation. Or you’ve always felt a calling to teach the next generation of the profession? Maybe you just want to try something different and it seems like an easy transition? Well today Bob and I are breaking this topic wide open and revealing some of the elements invo...
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Middle management is not usually the part of a career anyone dreams about, which is probably fair since most dreams do not involve inheriting more responsibility while time and authority stand nearby pretending they were not invited. Still, there is something important that happens in that space if you are paying attention. You start to see how decisions move through a firm, how unclear expectations become someone else’s burd...
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May 3, 2026 66 mins
Ep 200: Hate to Love You looks back at favorite episodes, hard lessons, great guests, and the conversations that made this podcast worth your time from day one.
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April 19, 2026 65 mins
Ep 199: Conflict Resolution explores how architects manage tension, stay useful under pressure, and move hard conversations toward better outcomes.
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April 5, 2026 60 mins
Ep 198: The Creative Process | Why creativity in architecture depends on process, judgment, and knowing which ideas are worth pursuing
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March 22, 2026 61 mins
Ep197: The Knowledge Gap: As veteran architects retire, the profession risks losing hard-won knowledge, mentorship, and judgment no handbook can replace.
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March 8, 2026 58 mins
Ep 196: Do Architects Retire explores why architects work longer, what comes next, identity shifts, and how money choices that shape retirement options.
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February 22, 2026 63 mins
Designing Your Own House explores why architects hesitate to design their own homes: pressure, endless choices, ego vs livability, money, and what it reveals.
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February 8, 2026 59 mins
Being your own boss isn’t about starting a firm. It’s about control, momentum, money, and owning the tradeoffs shaping your career long before you noticed.
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January 25, 2026 66 mins
Ep 193: The Client Experience, looks at why client relationships feel adversarial and why architects have more control than they think.
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January 11, 2026 63 mins
Have a Plan is a reflective conversation about why pausing to think matters and how intention can help you move off square one this year.
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December 21, 2025 70 mins
Architects ask the questions they actually want answered as Bob and Andrew dig into careers, practice, and the occasional absurdity.
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December 7, 2025 59 mins
The Truth about Titles explores why architectural titles matter, why they don’t, and how their meaning shifts over the course of a career.
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November 16, 2025 61 mins
Discover the ultimate Holiday Gift Guide for Architects – curated picks, tools, and books that every designer will actually want to unwrap this season.
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November 2, 2025 59 mins
At some point in every career, the path ahead stops looking like the one behind it. The work that once defined you begins to shift, not because it lost value but because you start to see yourself differently within it. For architects, that realization can be complicated because we build our identities around what we design, who we work with, and the roles we play in the process. Change has a way of testing all of that, forcing us t...
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October 21, 2025 59 mins
Architects explore the stories behind objects of design that remind us why design matters — revealing creativity, purpose, and meaning in everyday things.
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October 5, 2025 57 mins
Every rule was made to be broken, except in architecture, where even the act of breaking rules seems to come with its own set of rules. Modernism promised liberation from the past, but it quickly wrote its own commandments into the story—flat roofs, open plans, white walls, and exposed structure became the expected vocabulary. A movement that arrived as rebellion soon carried the weight of convention, and those conventions st...
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