Life of an Architect Podcast Ep. 148: Meetings are a Waste of Time

It’s that holiday time of the year. If you are lucky enough to have an architect in your life, and you are wondering what to get this special someone for Christmas, you’ve come to the right place.

What music do you listen to? What’s your design process? What is your favorite building and why? What do you eat for breakfast? All this and more as Andrew and I answer your burning questions where almost nothing is off-limits. Episode sponsor: The Forge Prize 2020

Architecture and skilled craft go hand in hand, but you may not be aware that the number of skilled individuals that are required to bring an architect’s ideas to reality. In today’s episode, Andrew and I are talking about the state of skilled labor in the construction industry. This is not a subject that receives a ton of attention, but one that can have a big impact on the work of an architect. Episode sponsor: CONSTRUCT

If you ever thought about being an architect but thought you couldn’t handle the math, you aren’t alone. At parties across the land, as soon as someone finds out there is an architect in the crowd, there is a story being told about how they wanted to be an architect but since they couldn’t draw or weren’t very good at math they decided to do something else. Episode sponsor: CENTRIA

Since Andrew and I completed our architectural registration exams in a previous decade than the one we are currently in, we brought in someone a bit younger to assist us with today’s topic, someone who has just recently gone through the process of taking the ARE. Welcome back to the show, my former podcast co-conspirator, Landon Williams. Episode sponsor: Sherwin-Williams Coil Coatings

The projects that architects-in-training work on while in school are rarely about solving practical problems and issues—the real objectives are almost always lurking just below the surface. Your projects from architecture school are silly, but for good reasons. Episode sponsor: CONSTRUCT

Do architects have obsessive personalities? I tend to think so, and only partially based on my own behavior. I should throw out the caveat that I don’t think you should have to explain why you obsess over something. Isn’t that the nature of any obsession—that there is some level of irrationality associated behind it? Episode sponsor: NUDURA

Is it the dream of every architect to have their own firm one day? I can recall hours and hours of conversations that I’ve had with other architects throughout my career where this topic was front and center of our discussions. Episode sponsor: Sherwin-Williams Coil Coatings