Archispeak

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 garage"), and what the 2026 AIA Na...

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 better the architect was listening.

This...

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 finalized, how three distinct types o...

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 piece to compensate, and the design-bui...

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's glass factory, where he fou...

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 architectural vocabulary, why Corm...

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 why the grinding sameness of lo...

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, responsiveness, and service, and t...

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 knowledge to evaluate than the...

In this episode of Archispeak, we catch up after Evan’s trip to New York City and the AECtech conference, where he moderated a panel with design technology leaders who’ve climbed all the way into firm leadership. We also talk about the continuing education grind it takes just to keep our licenses alive, why there’s really no such thing as “architecture without technology” anymore, and how technologists...

In this episode of Archispeak, we pull back the curtain on what modern practice actually feels like when AI, meetings, and the architecture grind all collide. We talk about coming back from travel feeling not three weeks behind but three months, calendars that look like Tetris played on hard mode, and what happens when you join a call and realize you’re the only human in a grid full of AI note-takers. Cormac and Evan dig into...

In this episode of Archispeak, we sit down with architect Anthony Laney to explore the ideas behind his new book, Poetics of Home. We talk about what it really takes to design spaces that feel deeply human and how his team at Laney LA has built a practice around clarity, rigor, and emotional resonance.

We dig into the invisible forces that shape a great project: the trust between architects and builders, the discipline required to s...

In this episode of Archispeak, we talk about that elusive quality that aligns people with great art (and spaces)—but this time through the lens of a real-world architectural field trip. Evan shares his recent trip to Iowa, where he spent time touring projects and hanging out with the folks at OPN Architects. We dive into why the atmosphere of a place, both in architecture and in practice, matters more than most people realize...

In this episode we discuss how taking a step back from work leads to better architecture. We talk about concrete ways to break free from constant busyness, when to pause instead of charging ahead, and how technology can both help and hurt creative solutions. We offer clear, practical advice on finding the right balance between thinking things through and getting work done.

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In this episode of Archispeak, we trade fresh field notes from Cormac’s latest midwestern architecture road trip and wrestle with the title theme: Misalignments of Rigor. Cormac stands in the rain in Toledo to watch a Gehry facade actually perform, peek at SANAA’s elegant double-skin glass and its (imperfect) parapet detail, and then compare all of it to a new addition grafted onto a Louis Kahn building that seems to ig...

In this episode of Archispeak, we dive into the tough reality of how the architecture profession often fails its own. From the way firms accelerate project timelines while under-developing young talent, to the disconnect between academia and practice, we ask hard questions about why architects feel overworked, underprepared, and sometimes completely betrayed by the system they’ve dedicated their careers to. We explore how the...

In this episode of Archispeak, we walk across the street in New Haven—literally and figuratively—to explore two masterworks by Paul Rudolph and Louis Kahn. These buildings, separated by time but connected by place and purpose, offer a rare opportunity to see two giants of architecture in conversation across the street.

We kick things off outside Paul Rudolph’s brutalist Art and Architecture Building, a six-story mo...

In this episode of Archispeak, we walk through the Yale Center for British Art by Louis Kahn and reflect on what makes this building truly great. From its masterful use of natural light and honest materials to the clarity of its spatial organization, Kahn’s final building is both a work of art and a place for art. We discuss what it feels like to experience the space firsthand, how it invites contemplation, and why it continu...

In part 1 of our summer series centered on the 2025 AIA Conference on Architecture, we discuss Evan's first visit to Boston and share his and Cormac's impressions of the city.

Rather than focusing on CEUs or presentations, we explore how the AIA Conference continues to serve as a powerful gathering place for the profession. The serendipity of in-person meetups, the nuance of hallway conversations, and the inspiration found in real-w...