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Archispeak

Archispeak

By: Evan Troxel & Cormac Phalen
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Archispeak is one of architecture's longest-running podcasts — 383 episodes of honest, unfiltered conversation about what it's actually like to work in the profession. Since 2012, architects Evan Troxel and Cormac Phalen have been exploring design, career, firm culture, tools, work/life balance, mentoring, generational differences, and job hunting — everything that comes with building a life in architecture. This isn't a highlight reel. It's the conversation architects actually have — about the hard parts of practice, the moments that define a career, and the things no one tells you in architecture school. Built for architecture students, emerging architects, and seasoned professionals who want honest perspective on the profession. Topics include architecture career and job searching, design process and critique, firm culture, work/life balance in architecture, architecture tools and software, mentoring and professional development, generational differences in architecture firms, and candid interviews with architects and industry leaders. 375+ episodes. Since 2012. Visit archispeakpodcast.com for more.Archispeak Podcast. All rights reserved. Art Career Success Economics
Episodes
  • #390 - From Idea to Execution: Heliomorphism

    #390 - From Idea to Execution: Heliomorphism
    May 26 2026
    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 of building-integrated photovoltaics get assigned to 17 different facades based on orientation and performance data, and what a sewage wastewater energy exchange system has to do with a tunnel under a parking lot.This episode is especially relevant for design architects and architecture students who want to understand how computational tools actually interact with design judgment — and for anyone who's ever wondered what it looks and feels like to sit inside a building where the facade is doing real work. The shadows move. The light is soft. The algorithm found a non-intuitive answer, and then the real design work began.Episode LinksGuestSven Shockey on LinkedInSven Shockey at SmithGroupSmithGroupSmithGroup websiteSmithGroup on LinkedInSmithGroup on InstagramVirginia Tech Academic Building OneProject page — SmithGroupVirginia Tech Innovation CampusFirst building nears completion — Virginia Tech NewsAlumnus plays large role in designing the campus — Virginia Tech NewsVirginia Tech's Striking New Building Pays Homage to the Sun — Interior DesignVirginia Tech Innovation Campus Academic 1 Building — Architect MagazineA Window to the Future — Inform MagazineDesign centers on sustainability & connectivity — SmithGroup (2020)First building nears completion — SmithGroup (2024)AwardsInterior Design Best of Year 2025 — Dual HonorsAIA Virginia 2025 Design AwardsContext: Virginia Tech & Amazon HQ2Virginia Tech Innovation Campus key to attracting Amazon HQ2 — Virginia Tech NewsRelated Work: DC Water HeadquartersDC Water Headquarters — SmithGroupPutting Wastewater to Work — SmithGroup PerspectivesDC Water HQ earns LEED Platinum — DC Water SmithGroup-----Thank you for listening to Archispeak. For more episodes please visit https://archispeakpodcast.com.Support Archispeak by making a donation.
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • #389 - I Want To See Tears

    #389 - I Want To See Tears
    May 1 2026

    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-build logic that makes real-time problem-solving both efficient and indefinitely slow.

    This episode is especially relevant for architects and designers who've ever started a hands-on project with a realistic-sounding timeline and found themselves months later still fitting cedar lining around corners that aren't quite 90 degrees, holding a saw, and refusing to call it good enough.

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    Thank you for listening to Archispeak. For more episodes please visit https://archispeakpodcast.com.

    Support Archispeak by making a donation.
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    36 mins
  • #388 - Frank Lloyd Wright Lemonade

    #388 - Frank Lloyd Wright Lemonade
    Apr 24 2026

    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 found something almost no other manufacturer will attempt: a fully miterless, corner-glazed insulated glazing unit. He also saw a project where a developer printed the image of a demolished historic building onto the glass facade of its replacement.

    Evan and Cormac dig into what "punch ready" is supposed to mean, whether we can still build at the level of FLW's Prairie homes, and what it costs (in time, travel, and patience) to hold a project to the standard it was designed to. This episode is especially relevant for project architects and CA practitioners who know the exhaustion of traveling to a site review only to walk away with another rejection, and who still find genuine awe in what the industry is technically capable of building, even when the job itself won't let you use it.

    Episode Links:

    • AGNORA - glass manufacturer website
    • FLW’s Darwin Martin house

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    Thank you for listening to Archispeak. For more episodes please visit https://archispeakpodcast.com.

    Support Archispeak by making a donation.
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    39 mins
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