Episode 019 - Charlie Portelli

The elusive Charlie Portelli, Assoicate Principal of Computational Design at KPF drops by the studio. We talk Programming, Stevens Product-Architecture Lab, Atari, Beer and the fact that Charlie doesn't drink coffee...seriously? Also, it's incredibly diffucult to find a picture of Charlie on the Internet. Zach found this picture by cropping Charlie out of a photo from a TT Core hackathon. You can find the real image here. He's harder to track down on the internet that J.D. Salinger and Thomas Pynchon.

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Show Notes:

1. Charlie Portelli is the Associate Principal of Computational Design at KPF

2. Brian interned at KPF (NYC and London offices) back in the day

3. One time in Battery Park Brian saw Charlie jogging shirtless in sunglasses with an American flag bandana it was amazing

4. Doc Louis and Mac jogging on the Brooklyn Heights promenade

5. 16 facts about Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out

6. You have to love yourself before you can love somebody else

7. The longer you wait to be an architect the easier it becomes

8. Charlie once gave a presentation to Brian’s CUNY students after getting his wisdom teeth removed earlier in the day

9. Charlie worked directly with Bill Pedersen on a line of chairs called LOOP de LOOP which were manufactured using CNC pipe bending

10. The chairs used a special fabric by Shea + Latone that doesn’t stretch

11. Lua is a programming language that’s basically only used in Ecotect (now defunct) and World of Warcraft

12. Leeroy Jenkins reimagined as a short film

13. David Rutten runs a personal blog called I Eat Bugs For Breakfast

14. What is object-oriented programming (OOP)?

15. MATLAB is good for working with matrices

16. Zach keeps getting error code ID10T

17. Check out this sweet calculator trick

18. 251 words you can spell on a calculator

19. Charlie was in the Stevens Product-Architecture Lab program with the likes of Mark Pollock, Steve Sanderson, and Erik Verboon

20. Alex Pollock and Jonatan Schumacher, former podcast guests, also graduated from, and taught at, the Product-Architecture Lab

21. John Nastasi started the Product-Architecture Lab and has taught at NJIT and Harvard GSD

22. KPF’s 10 Hudson Yards is the first tower to top out in the Hudson Yards development

23. I’ve got a code comment for you, I know just what you need

24. Zach and Brian have 5 cats between them

25. We’re like the Voltron of cat ladies

26. The Simpsons’ Crazy Cat Lady character is actually named Dr. Eleanor Abernathy MD JD

27. Brian ran into Charlie at the AAVSNYC 2015 closing exhibition

28. Zach’s wife Jennifer hates this podcast

29. Boogazine is Zach’s first on-air portmanteau

30. OMA’s Content had balls. Like, literally, a man’s balls were in it

31. SMLXL is unreadable and is only useful for propping up architecture students’ shitty furniture

32. Trent Reznor did Quake’s soundtrack

33. You can’t go wrong with the unbeatable combination of Martin Lawrence and Will Smith

34. BurgerTime (Atari 2600, 1982) was Brian’s favorite Atari game

35. ET was arguably the worst video game ever

36. The legend of the ET and Atari game burial was confirmed, sort of, in 2014

37. And subsequently sold on eBay

38. And, of course, turned into a documentary titled Atari: Game Over

39. Atari systems started as four different standalone single function consoles, also known as dedicated consoles, one of which was Pong

40. The 1976 Atari VCS was renamed the Atari 2600 upon the Atari 5200’s release

41. Which was followed by the Atari 7800

42. Super Mario Brothers on the Atari 2600 made by this guy

43. The first home console was the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey

44. #classicMcCune is a fun hashtag

45. Zach hasn’t seen an RFI since 2007

46. Brian has never seen an RFI and hopes he never sees one

47. The Designalyze podcast is a proto-Skynet

48. Terminator might be a Western

Questions from Slack:

1. Don Rudder: How the hell can you drink all night and still operate normally during the next morning?

   1. Charlie: Skill and talent

2. Michael McCune: How many workshops has Charlie been to in his life?

   1. Charlie: Given? I don’t know. Attended? More than given

Lightning round:

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

   • LEED guidelines

   • Verb Conditioning: The Design of New Atmospheres, Effects and Experiences from ACTAR (2005)

2. What music are you listening to right now?

   • Nine Inch Nails (Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

   • Redlight King (Binbrook, Ontario, Canada)

   • Linkin Park (Agoura Hills, California, USA)

   • Disturbed (Chicago, Illinois, USA)

3. What’s your favorite sci-fi film?

   • Doesn’t like sci-fi but he thought Ex-Machina was interesting

4. What’s your favorite retro-game?

   • Pitfall (Atari 2600, 1982)

   • Donkey Kong (Atari 2600, 1982)

   • Wait, is that a pre-Nintendo Mario?!

   • Yes, the arcade version of Mario was named Jumpman and he appeared in many consoles and systems including Atari and Commodore 64

5. What’s your favorite childhood cartoon?

   • Anything Hanna-Barbera

   • Captain Caveman

   • Hanna-Barbera AVP’d the Flintstones and the Jetsons

6. What’s a great beer you’ve had recently?

   • Any beer out of Portland

   • Brian still thinks Milwaukee is the country’s best beer city

   • Thrillist agrees with Charlie but WTF does Thrillist know it’s hipster link bait

7. Describe your productivity ritual.

   • Run and bike ride and gym throughout the week

   • Get into work around 9 and leave around 7 or 8

   • NO COFFEE - If you enjoy what you’re doing you don’t need stimulants

   • Meetings are the worst. Almost as bad as emails

   • Day to day schedule is a juggling act

8. What’s the latest app you downloaded on your phone?

   • Uber

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

   • Advances coming out of medical industry

10. Who is behind Banksy?

    • Theory: Whoever they are, they’re a pretty cool dude

    • Theory: Could be a dog

11. WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE???!!! In one sentence.

    • Architecture is the design of safe and beautiful spaces for human habitation