Practice Disrupted by Practice of Architecture · 2026-07-23 · 51 min
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.
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