Episode 017 - Phil Anzalone

Phil Anzalone, Principal at Atelier 64 and professor at GSAPP and CUNY's Citytech, drops by the studio. We talk about teaching, tensegrity, linear algebra, Greg Lynn, and Die Hard. We also have a special guest Tim Dumatrait who came into the office to try and do work, but ended up sitting in, and providing feedback.  

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Show notes:

  1. Phil practices with his partner Stephanie Bayard at Atelier Architecture 64

  2. French stand-up isn't funny

  3. The French love Jerry Lewis

  4. At GSAPP, Phil started the Department of Building Science and Technology as well as their Fab Lab

  5. OSHA has a terrible website

  6. Phil is now teaching at CUNY City Tech's Department of Architectural Technology

  7. Graduate students are the worst

  8. Mark Wigley stepped down from his position as dean at GSAPP at the end of the academic year in 2014

  9. His tenure there followed Bernard Tschumi, who announced his stepping down in 2002

  10. Amale Andraos is the current dean

  11. Did you check your TCP/IP settings?

  12. Phil has taught a lot of amazing students such as David Benjamin of The Living and Joe Vidich of Kin & Company

  13. Special thanks to Sound Engineer Tim

  14. Special thanks to Censor Tim

  15. Special thanks to Free Intern Tim

  16. The Gowanus has Gonorrhea

  17. No, really

  18. At one point Robert Moses wanted to run the BQE over Union Street and wipe out the residences in the block between Penn and Rutledge Streets in Williamsburg, which would have meant significantly less hipsters for present-day NYC

  19. Getting over that 1st hire hump

  20. All of Phil's clients are Russian oligarchs

  21. Thanks, Obama!

  22. The Designalyze podcast is proud to be a part of the Fox News Podcast Network

  23. Special thanks to Fox News Network Liaison Tim

  24. Phil worked on a competition for an incredible Tensegrity Bridge structure with the engineer Will Laufs who is known for his specialization in complex structures

  25. Artist Kenneth Snelson is known for his tensegrity sculptures

  26. Phil worked for Robert Heintges as a facade consultant.

  27. Not to be confused with Robert Hegyes

  28. Will somebody please write a white paper?!

  29. Phil and Brian both presented at TxA Emerging Design + Technology 2014

  30. Phil worked for Michael McInturf and Greg Lynn on the Korean Presbyterian Church and Cincinnati Country Day

  31. MIT OpenCourseWare is a web-based source for almost all of MIT’s course content made free for anyone

  32. An expert system is an AI system that emulates the decision-making abilities of a human expert

  33. Steve Sanderson's Practice 2.0 article The Elephant in the Room examines architectural education’s inability to cope with the real challenges of the industry

  34. Somebody should make a Designalyze Wiki

  35. The Gowanus Whole Foods grows their produce on site using locally harvested sewage

  36. Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens

  37. Mark Twain was a riverboat cry for two fathoms deep, signifying safe waters

  38. They should add IDP credits for use of the Maya Animation Snapshot

  39. CA is never glamorous

  40. Unlike the Dot Com Era

  41. Samuel Morse is the inventor of Morse Code

  42. Check out Primer on Netflix

  43. The greatest sci-fi moment in media history is Steve Urkel's transformation into Stefan Urquelle

  44. The dad from family matters, Carl Otis Winslow, and the cop from Die Hard, Sergeant Al Powell, are both played by Reginald VelJohnson

  45. Die Hard is a Christmas movie

  46. Phil used to watch Steamboat Willie at the penny theater where he had to hand crank the reels himself

  47. Want to be an Architect? Don’t Learn Revit

  48. Exquisite corpse is the collective assembly of words or images

  49. Special thanks to Caricature Artist Tim

  50. Phil grew up in Vegas

 

Lightning round 51:14

  1. What book(s) are you reading right now?

  2. What music are you listening to right now?

  3. What’s your favorite sci-fi film?

  4. What’s your favorite retro-game?

  5. What’s your favorite childhood cartoon?

  6. Describe your productivity ritual.

    • Clear anything weighing on you like emails

  7. What’s something that you think is a critical issue in technology that’s currently being overlooked?

    • Technology has convoluted the design process - how can we make things simpler and have more immediacy from thought to product?

    • The physical drawing as a record of a design conversation

  8. What’s something that recently blew your mind?

  9. WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE?

Architecture is All About that Bass

On Designalyze, we analyze what makes thought leaders in design technology tick through informative, insightful, and often humorous interviews. Designalyze is hosted by Zach Downey and Brian Ringley and recorded in DUMBO, Brooklyn. For design technology tutorials and content visit us at http://designalyze.com

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Zach Downey

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