Archispeak Podcast #382

Title: AI, Meetings, and the Architecture Grind
Date: December 1, 2025
Hosts: Evan Troxel & Cormac Phalen

Episode Overview

Evan Troxel and Cormac Phalen candidly tackle the modern realities and frustrations of practicing architecture: from the relentless grind of meetings (virtual and otherwise), the clash of digital productivity tools, and the rise of AI in daily workflow, to the deeper purpose, joys, and difficulties of design mentorship, iteration, and professional life. Sharing both pain points and hard-won optimism, they explore how tech both helps and hinders, the struggle to shield genuine creativity from endless busyness, and the continual challenge of inspiring students while keeping themselves motivated in a field notorious for its demands.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Relentless Pace and Meeting Culture

• Feeling Overwhelmed After Time Off

  • Even short absences from work result in massive catchup and inbox overload—sometimes more than seems logical.
  • “It feels like I’m behind three months.” (00:15, Cormac)

• Virtual Meetings and the Myth of Efficiency

  • No commute or hallway small talk, yet calendars are more packed than ever.

  • The expectation is both 8 hours of meetings and 8 hours of "real work."

  • “There’s not even time to work.” (01:25, Evan)

  • Social media reels joke about how meetings leave no time for actual tasks, reflecting a real pain point.

• AI Bots as Meeting Replacements

  • Rise of AI note-takers and companions in meetings, sometimes to the point that the only human is the host.

  • “They were the only actual person there. Everything else was an AI note taker.” (02:15, Evan)

  • Concern over what junior staff lose if AI does all note-taking—traditionally a key learning task.

  • “It teaches you how to be present in the meeting... Which is difficult when you’re writing or typing.” (03:18, Evan)

• Gratitude vs. Anxiety about AI

  • AI allows better engagement and presence in meetings, but also fosters disengagement and can hollow out the learning process.
  • “I am so 100% thankful for the AI companion... It now offers me the ability to actually be present in the conversation.” (03:52, Cormac)

2. Battles of the Productivity Platforms: Teams vs. Zoom

• Deep Preferences (“Religious Wars”) Between Platforms

  • Zoom is preferred for direct, sketch-based collaboration; Teams is seen as unwieldy and buggy.

  • Common problems: inability to smoothly share screens, persistent compatibility issues, even on Microsoft hardware.

  • “You don’t need... bots to take the notes. But what good is an intern if you have an AI taking notes for you?” (03:17, Cormac)

  • “Teams is a piece of hot trash.” (07:20, Evan)

  • "The client will chime in and say, you don’t know what you’re asking for. You’re just like, great, now I’m the butt of a joke." (08:39, Cormac)

• Larger Reflection: Tech That Should Help But Doesn’t

  • Tools supposed to increase productivity often add friction, especially when not implemented intelligently.
  • “Some of the productivity tools are anti-productivity tools because they’re not implemented correctly.” (10:35, Cormac)

3. The Avalanche of Communication & Information

• Impossible Expectations of Availability

  • “Out of office” barriers are routinely ignored, especially for leaders and PMs.
  • “There’s an expectation by everybody that you’re on call. You’re just on call all the time. You’re fully connected.” (15:23, Evan)

• Everyone’s Inbox (and Head) Exploding

  • Much vital knowledge is unmanageably scattered: mailboxes, calendars, Zoom, Revit, Bluebeam, and especially in people’s heads.
  • The “seven layer dip” of communication layers leads to redundancy and confusion.

• Tech Makes Everything Amplified

  • The volume of information multiplies exponentially, and the sheer noise often impedes actual productivity and clarity.
  • “The amount of information that a firm produces every year... it’s a magnitude more, probably... The challenge is getting more difficult to deal with.” (19:12, Evan)

4. The Case for Analog: Sketching & Conversation

• Tech Failures Can Be Opportunities

  • When digital tools go down, real conversation and analog sketching fill the gap and can be more productive.

• Pedagogical Value of Drawing

  • Analog tools foster richer communication and creative thinking, especially in design education.
  • “There was more conversation, there was more interaction, there was more sharing of knowledge and ideas with just the simple stroke of a pen.” (20:19, Cormac)
  • Quoting Foster/Renzo: the "connection between your brain and your hand" makes thought more tangible.

5. Design Process: The Importance of Iteration

• Digital Tools Can Short-circuit Process Thinking

  • Modern modeling software (Revit, Rhino, SketchUp) can tempt students (and professionals) to lock in ideas too early, skipping essential iterations.
  • “You’re committing so quickly to an idea without iterating that idea... That seems too permanent.” (33:29, Cormac)

• Iteration Defended

  • Showing design process and versions isn't "wasteful," but strategic—vital for communication with clients and for discovering better outcomes.

  • “Why do you show all these different iterations... Well, think about if you’re having a conversation with an owner and you present your idea and they’re like, did you think about this?” (28:16, Cormac)

  • “Your first idea is usually not the best;... you have to actually try to break your ideas with new ideas.” (37:07, Evan)

• Emotional Attachment vs. Creative Rigor

  • Students often treat initial ideas as 'precious', resistant to “breaking” them for the sake of better solutions.
  • Value in rigorous, even sometimes painful, self-critique and experimentation.
  • “Don’t treat ideas so precious because clients aren’t going to treat your ideas precious.” (36:36, Cormac)

6. Realities of the Architecture Profession

• The Grind vs. The Joy

  • There’s pride and romance in the impact architects have, but also long stretches of “slog” and routine.
  • “You want people to be excited about this profession, but there’s a lot of times that the profession’s not that exciting.” (44:47, Cormac)
  • Small moments of joy must be savored—“the times that you get those bed of roses and then the rest of the time when you’re getting the thorns, it’s worth it.” (45:00, Cormac)
  • “What really kicks you is the fact that you got to do it in the first damn place.” (47:14, Cormac)

• Architecture (Still) as a Privilege

  • The reminder that to participate in shaping environments for others—affecting lives and memories you’ll never see—is a powerful motivator.
  • “Think about what we really get to do and how many lives we affect that we never know.” (48:35, Cormac)

• Preparing (and Warning) Students

  • Academic box-checking vs. professional passion—joy is an essential ingredient for enduring and excelling long term.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "If I could get [AI] to just attend the meetings... that would be awesome." —Cormac, 02:00
• "There's an expectation by everybody that you're on call. You're just on call all the time." —Evan, 15:23
• “The amount of information that a firm produces every year... it’s a magnitude more, probably. So what's that, 10? It's a lot more every year. And so the challenge is getting more difficult to deal with.” —Evan, 19:12
• "I preach... the importance of sketching, even if you're not that good at sketching... to capture a moment in time when you're having a free flow conversation." —Cormac, 22:46
• "What really kicks you is the fact that you got to do it in the first damn place." —Cormac, 47:14
• "It's very much like you have to actually try to break your ideas with new ideas and see if they work." —Evan, 37:07

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:15 – Catching up after time away; the never-empty inbox
• 01:43 – Jokes and pain of idea that “AI could just do the work”
• 03:02 – AI note-takers, loss of internship learning opportunities
• 05:52 – Team vs. Zoom "religion" and hands-on sketching collaboration
• 08:39 – Frustrations with digital meetings; Microsoft hardware fails
• 10:35 – The productivity tool “dance” and its frustrations
• 14:27 – Firm culture: urgency, availability, and the “architectural emergency” myth
• 19:12 – Communication overload and information management challenges
• 20:19 – Analog communication: value of hand-sketched discussion
• 28:16 – Iteration and versioning: showing the design process is vital
• 33:29 – Iteration loss: modern tools leading to premature design commitment
• 36:36 – Students’ emotional attachment to first ideas
• 44:47 – The grind and the joy of “the architecture life”
• 47:14 – The privilege of architectural influence
• 50:03 – Inspiring students, joy vs. box-checking

Closing Tone

Direct, honest, and sometimes sardonic, Evan and Cormac offer both comic relief and sobering reality. They don’t shy away from the profession’s grind or technology’s overload but remind listeners of the enduring privilege, creative joy, and duty to inspire—both for students of architecture and for themselves.

Final Words:
"Have hope, have belief, have faith. You chose this for a reason." —Cormac (51:39)