Practice Disrupted by Practice of Architecture

How can architects expand their role upstream in project decision-making, and what happens when live massing, area data, and cost metrics replace fragmented, slow feasibility workflows?
In this episode of Practice Disrupted, host Evelyn Lee explores what it takes for architecture practices to show up earlier with clients, entering the room before the brief is fixed and the budget is locked. She is joined by Brad Sara, Principal and Digital Services Lead, and Anton Shaw, Senior Associate, BIM Manager, and Automation Lead at Warren and Mahoney (WAM), a 70-year-old practice named one of the 10 most innovative architecture firms in the world by Fast Company. Together, they discuss how WAM developed Quick Stack, a feasibility playbook enabled by Arcol that brings real-time cost, area, and zoning metrics directly into massing models.
Brad and Anton unpack the traditional friction of early feasibility phases, where teams constantly cycle through disconnected tools like SketchUp or Rhino, Excel spreadsheets, and InDesign reports. This fragmented workflow creates version drift, manual data errors, and delayed answers during fast-paced client negotiations. By implementing Arcol within WAM’s "One Studio" approach, connecting 350 staff across offices in New Zealand and Australia, the firm enables live, single-environment updates. The moment a design or massing shape changes, the numbers update instantly for the entire team and client.
The discussion dives into the business and relationship benefits of swimming upstream. Brad and Anton share how co-designing live with clients and cost consultants builds deep trust, eliminates the traditional "starving artist" dynamic, and enables WAM to generate fees for pre-concept feasibility work they previously couldn't capture.
"Architects don't need to become developers. They don't need to become cost consultants or software companies. But we do need to become more fluent in the decisions our clients are making before that project becomes a project." - Brad Sara
They also share practical advice on change management, explaining how targeted rollouts, solving real workflow pain points, and letting computers handle tedious tasks allow architects to focus on strategic judgment and design quality.

Guests:
Brad Sara is a Principal and Digital Services Lead at Warren and Mahoney. Over a two-decade career spanning New Zealand, Australia, the UAE, Asia, and the US, he has advocated for digital transformation and strategic client partnerships across all stages of project delivery.
Anton Shaw is a Senior Associate, BIM Manager, and Automation Lead at Warren and Mahoney. With a background in technical delivery, he specializes in building internal systems, automation workflows, and digital tools that improve project efficiency and overall design quality.

This episode is especially for you if:

✅You want to learn how Warren and Mahoney uses ArcOL and Quick Stack to unify massing models, area metrics, and cost data in one live environment.
✅You are interested in "swimming upstream" to engage clients earlier during site selection and pro forma testing before project briefs are locked.
✅You want to explore how live, collaborative feasibility sessions build deep client trust and unlock new revenue streams for early-stage design services.
✅You want practical change management strategies for introducing new technology into multi-office practices without causing friction or tool fatigue.
✅You want to eliminate manual data entry, version drift, and slow iteration loops between modeling software, spreadsheets, and design presentations.
What have you done to take action lately? Share your reflections with us on social and join the conversation.
📍 Show Links:
Learn more about Warren and Mahoney
Learn more about Arcol

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What does the data tell us about the real path to becoming an architect, and how is NCARB shifting its model to build a more adaptable, modular roadmap for future candidates?
In this episode of Practice Disrupted, host Evelyn Lee breaks down the 15th edition of the NCARB by the Numbers report. She is joined by Jenny Kawecki, who leads data analytics and research at NCARB, and Gabriella Bermea, a licensed architect and NCARB volunteer who chaired the Experience Committee. Together, they explore the shifting dynamics of the architectural pipeline, unpacking why the median time to licensure has dropped to 12.3 years and what these statistics mean for the future of the profession.
Jenny provides an insider’s view of how NCARB uses this annual data report to track attrition points and actively improve its programs. She highlights major programmatic changes driven by historical data trends, such as retiring the rolling clock and revamping the Architectural Experience Program (AXP) reporting policy to give thousands of candidates their experience credits back. Gabriella adds an on-the-ground perspective, explaining how challenging past assumptions about rigid timelines helps eliminate systemic barriers and re-engages candidates who have stepped away from the path.
The conversation also digs deeply into NCARB’s massive "Pathways to Practice" initiative, a multi-year effort to pivot away from a single, rigid route toward a highly modular, competency-based framework. They address critical pipeline pinch points, including firm culture support during the AXP and the stark demographic pass-rate disparities within the Architect Registration Examination (ARE).
"Instead of pushing everyone through the same path, how can that path meet the needs of the individual? How can it be customizable almost to the candidate so that it aligns with your background, your career path, your educational path, your social path. We want there to be a licensure path that exists for you." - Jenny Kawecki
Finally, they look forward to how a more flexible, customizable licensure path can help mitigate the steep financial burdens of higher education and foster a significantly more diverse, representative body of architects.
Guests:
Jenny Kawecki is NCARB’s Assistant Vice President of Data, Analytics, and Research, where she leads a team that analyzes industry trends and oversees publications like NCARB by the Numbers and Baseline on Belonging. Before joining NCARB in 2016, she wrote for Barnes & Noble and SparkNotes, and she holds a degree in Media, Culture, and the Arts from The King's College.
Gabriella Bermea, AIA, is a Senior Associate and Architect at Perkins Eastman with more than eight years of experience in educational design, stakeholder engagement, and community-focused solutions. A fifth-generation Tejana, she is a passionate advocate for educational equity and community empowerment and currently serves as Chair of NCARB’s Experience Committee.

This episode is especially for you if:

✅You want to know why the median time to licensure dropped and how policy changes like eliminating the rolling clock shifted the needle.
✅You are curious about NCARB's "Pathways to Practice" initiative and how a modular, competency-based framework will offer diverse alternatives to the traditional degree path.
✅ You want to explore the primary pinch points in the licensure pipeline, from firm culture barriers during the AXP to pass-rate disparities within the ARE.
✅You want to learn how the revised AXP reporting requirements allow candidates to receive 100% credit for hours up to a year and 75% credit indefinitely.
✅You are interested in how scholarship programs through NOMA chapters and state boards are helping candidates facing financial and institutional adversities stay on the path.
What have you done to take action lately? Share your reflections with us on social and join the conversation.
📍 Show Links:
Learn more about NCARB
Learn more about NCARB by the Numbers report
Learn more about Pathway to Practice

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How can architecture firms unlock decades of buried institutional knowledge, and what happens to the apprenticeship model when every detail the firm has ever drawn is just a single query away?
In this bonus episode of Practice Disrupted, host Evelyn Lee dives into a conversation created with Pirros, exploring how technology bridges the gap between historic firm data and daily production workflows. The episode features Ross Wagner, who leads sales at Pirros, alongside Xander Ellenbogen, a senior BIM manager at Clark Nexsen. Together, they explore how firms can transition from hunting through endless subfolders to operating with an intelligent, centralized knowledge base.
Ross shares his trajectory from designing high-rise residential projects to riding the technology wave at PlanGrid and Autodesk, eventually joining Pirros to help firms maximize their workflow efficiency. Xander provides an on-the-ground perspective from Clark Nexsen, discussing his evolution from a traditional architect and the firm’s first commercial drone pilot to managing advanced BIM workflows. He explains how his firm used Pirros to adapt to a post-COVID, discipline-based model, allowing team members across multiple offices and states to access vetted, high-quality details instantaneously.
The conversation digs deeply into the broader implications of AI in the AECO space, specifically addressing the common comparison to the historical CAD-to-BIM shift. While the CAD-to-BIM transition still resulted in flat 2D drawing deliverables, the guests argue that AI represents a fundamentally different leap focused on data portability and knowledge preservation across an entire firm. They also tackle the crucial element of change management in a trust-driven profession, outlining the "sandwich effect" required to achieve widespread software adoption from leadership down to production staff.
"We're not here to flatten creativity and just be a place where you copy and paste. It's a place where you learn, you mentor, but also ensure that you don't go through the tedious tasks of reinventing the wheel each time and basically spend a bunch of hours hunting for something that you are trying to learn from." - Ross Wagner
Finally, they look ahead to the future of design with recent tools like Mira, a Revit agentic copilot, and discuss how firms can maintain the critical thinking required in the traditional apprenticeship model while letting AI do the tedious heavy lifting.
Guests
Ross Wagner, Assoc. AIA, began his career in architecture before moving into design technology, where he helped scale PlanGrid from under $10M to over $100M in ARR before its acquisition by Autodesk. Now Head of Sales at Pirros, he helps AECO firms improve productivity by transforming historical design content into trusted, accessible knowledge.
Xander Ellenbogen, AIA, is a licensed architect and Senior BIM Manager at Clark Nexsen, where he leads BIM standards, Revit workflows, and reality capture initiatives across the firm. With a background spanning architectural design and BIM leadership, he is currently directing a firmwide template rebuild as part of the JMT merger while continuing to serve as an Associate Principal.
This episode is especially for you if:
✅You want to understand how Pirros captures a firm's historical work into an intelligent, AI-based search engine to prevent team members from redrawing existing details.
✅ You are curious about the "sandwich effect" in change management and how to secure software buy-in from both firm leadership and production staff.
✅ You want to explore why the CAD-to-BIM shift failed to move past 2D deliverables and how the AI shift focuses on data portability instead.
✅ You want to learn how firms can preserve the traditional apprenticeship model by using AI to handle 70% of the baseline work while keeping designers focused on the remaining 30% of critical problem-solving.
✅ You are interested in the potential of agentic workflows in Revit, such as Pirros' recently released chatbot copilot, Mira.
What have you done to take action lately? Share your reflections with us on social and join the conversation.
📍 Show Links:
Learn more about Pirros
Learn more about Clark Nexsen

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How can early-stage startups drive true transformation in the AECO space, and what happens when AI-native tools are designed to amplify human intent rather than replace the architect?
In this bonus episode of Practice Disrupted, host Evelyn Lee explores the intersection of corporate acceleration and cutting-edge startup innovation. The conversation brings together German Aparicio from Trimble Ventures alongside Yiping Goh and Carlos Banon, the co-founders of Formas.AI.
German walks listeners through the Trimble 0-60 accelerator program, which was recently named Built World's Accelerator Program of the Year. This 12-week, historically equity-free program invites early-stage startups to build on top of Trimble platforms like SketchUp and showcase their live integrations at Trimble Dimensions in Las Vegas this November. Herman outlines how Trimble acts as a system of record, searching for partners to create systems of action and intelligence across three key pillars: connected data, connected design, and the connected field. He also defines what "early stage" means for the program, targeting companies founded within the last five years, making under $2 million ARR, and operating with a couple of early customers looking to scale.
The spotlight then shifts to Formas.AI, a participant in the current cohort operating in the connected design space. Co-founders Yiping and Carlos explain how their AI-native design workspace is bridging the gap between an initial sketch, reference image, or floor plan and a buildable 3D model in hours instead of months. Carlos, an architect and professor, shares how the tool was born out of personal frustration with fragmented interfaces and broken workflows that detach designers from the joy of creating. Yiping provides an entrepreneurial lens on the broader AEC industry, noting that while it represents 13% of global GDP, it remains one of the least digitized sectors, heavily reliant on legacy software and restricted by the slow timeline of physical building processes.
Together, the group tackles the critical challenges of technology adoption, highlighting trust as a core barrier for practitioners who have invested heavily in traditional tools. Rather than replacing human designers, the founders argue for a democratization of design through guardrails that preserve creative authorship and intent. As Formas.AI navigates its 12-week acceleration path, they aim to leverage Trimble's ecosystem to deliver a validated, highly precise design experience that brings excitement and joy back to the craft.
"We are believing in the future of design being more human led, less or not even about human replaced. That the winners of AI are the ones that really can give people more creative power, not less." - Yiping Goh
This episode serves as an inspiring look at how industry giants and agile startups can co-create workflows that amplify human intuition and make design fun again.
Guests
German Aparicio runs the Zero to 60 accelerator program at Trimble Ventures. As a trained architect, he focuses on scaling early-stage software and hardware innovations that connect data, design, and job sites across the full project lifecycle.
Yiping Goh is the co-founder and CEO of Formas.AI. She is a tech entrepreneur currently scaling her fourth company, with a professional background spanning a real estate degree, venture capital, corporate venture building at McKinsey, and multiple successful company exits.
Carlos Banon is an architect, computational designer, and professor who has taught design in Singapore for the last 13 years. A self-taught coder since age six, he is the design and technical mind behind Formas.AI, having built its foundational versions to streamline creative workflows.
This episode is especially for you if:
✅ You want to understand how the Trimble 0-60 accelerator helps early-stage startups scale by integrating directly into established industry platforms like SketchUp.
✅ You are curious about how Formas.AI closes the gap between a rough sketch and a buildable model using natural language and multimodal AI tools.
✅ You want to explore why trust, legacy tools, and authority code submissions present unique adoption challenges within the AEC space.
✅ You believe that AI technology should amplify a designer's creative intent and preserve human authorship rather than generate generic, unmeaningful variations.
What have you done to take action lately? Share your reflections with us on social and join the conversation.
📍 Show Links:
Learn more about Trimble
Learn more about 0-60 accelerator
Learn more about Formas.AI
Listen to the previous episode featuring German Aparicio

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How can architects protect and monetize their creative work with the help of intellectual property (IP) laws?
On this episode of Practice Disrupted, we’re joined by Ana Juneja, an award-winning intellectual property (IP) attorney and founder of Ana Law® – the first law firm offering flat-fee, 100% guaranteed services for patents, trademarks, and copyrights. In our conversation, Ana explores the essential role of IP in the architecture field.
First, Ana breaks down the four main types of intellectual property: copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. She explains how each type applies to architecture and protecting creative works within client relationships and employee contracts.
Then, we dive into the intersection of AI and IP rights. Ana shares advice on protecting your designs, tools, and software created with AI and outlines the steps to securing patents and trademarks for your work.
You're investing in your trademark in order to protect your name, your marketing, and your branding. If you're building up this brand, you're putting in so much time, money, energy, and effort into doing so – you wouldn't really want to lose it…Whereas copyrights and patents are things that, for architects in particular, are incredibly valuable avenues to monetize your brand. It is really protection for your own investments that you're making into your business. - Ana Juneja
To wrap up the conversation, Ana highlights common IP mistakes architects make and offers practical tips to avoid them. She emphasizes the importance of understanding IP laws, using strong contracts and NDAs, and taking proactive steps to safeguard your work.
Tune in next week for an episode about
Guests:
Ana Juneja
As an award-winning intellectual property attorney and the founder of Ana Law®, Ana Juneja helps celebrities, athletes, influencers, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and corporations secure + monetize their brands and ideas in the US and abroad. Ana Law® is the first and only law firm that offers flat-fee, 100% guaranteed patent, trademark, and copyright services. Ana has a 100% success rate and often speaks on important topics such as emerging legal issues surrounding security, AI, and social media.
Additionally, Ana has extensive experience with social media intellectual property infringement issues. Ana’s insider connections with premier media agencies allow her to have direct access to key social media platforms, such as Meta (Facebook/Instagram), TikTok, and Twitter. These essential services are an important component of brand protection strategy for Ana’s celebrity, athlete, & influencer clients.
📍 Show Links:
Connect with Ana on LinkedIn
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