TRXL

In this special Campfire Series episode, Jeff Mottle joins the podcast to tell us the full story of CGarchitect — from a side project launched in 2001 to a 21-year platform, a sale to Chaos Group, and everything in between: the 3D Awards, CGschool, the evolution of archviz from expert-only technical gatekeeping to storytelling, and what COVID revealed when it stripped away all the travel and in-person events that had been keeping him going. We also get into his four years at NVIDIA, the AI wave he'd been predicting for nearly a decade before it hit, and why the AEC industry's instinct to wait for a clear winner may be the costliest mistake it makes.
This episode is especially relevant for visualization professionals, design technologists, and firm leaders watching AI reshape the tools they've built careers around. Jeff makes a direct case that the democratization of archviz didn't start with AI — the last 5% just got sped up — and he's specific about why billing by the hour is the industry's biggest liability going forward and what a shift to outcome-based pricing actually looks like.
To learn more about Jeff Mottle, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/229
To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co
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Episode Sponsors:

AVAIL
AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast
Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

TRXL+ Membership
This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and full access to our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Learn more at https://www.trxl.co/#/portal/signup/
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Sign up to become a TRXL member.
Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
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Steve Burrows CBE joins the podcast to talk about why the construction industry keeps rewarding dysfunction instead of fixing it. We explore the gap between selling time and creating value, why startups keep failing to change construction by trying to change all of it at once, and what the collapse of Katerra actually taught the people who were in the room when it happened.
This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders and engineers who feel trapped in the cycle of meetings, emails, and change orders, and who suspect the system they're operating in was never designed to produce great work. Steve makes a blunt, practical case for starting with what you can control, and his perspective is shaped by decades of working on some of the most complex structures in the world before walking away from the corporate path to figure out what comes next.
To learn more about Steve Burrows CBE, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/228
To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co
_____
Episode Sponsors:

AVAIL
AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast
Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

TRXL+ Membership
This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and full access to our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Learn more at https://www.trxl.co/#/portal/signup/
-----
Sign up to become a TRXL member.
Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

Rachel Riopel joins the podcast to talk about why enterprise transformation keeps failing in AEC and what it actually takes to make it stick. We explore the gap between running pilots and operationalizing technology across an organization, why the industry's obsession with productivity as the primary metric is a race to the bottom, and how cybersecurity is quietly becoming one of the biggest friction points in AEC collaboration.
This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders, digital practice directors, and technology strategists who are tired of watching transformation initiatives stall out after the initial push. If you're wrestling with how to move technology from a siloed initiative to something embedded in your firm's business strategy, or if you're trying to figure out what to actually measure beyond speed, Rachel's framework for organizational readiness will give you a sharper lens for the work ahead.
To learn more about Rachel Riopel, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/227
To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co
_____
Episode Sponsors:

AVAIL
AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast
Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

TRXL+ Membership
This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and full access to our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Learn more at https://www.trxl.co/#/portal/signup/
-----
Sign up to become a TRXL member.
Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

Charles Portelli joins the podcast to talk about what you learn when you leave architecture to build software, and what you bring back when you return. We explore the gap between how buildings are designed and how they're actually fabricated, why the most valuable work inside a large firm is often the least glamorous, and what it would take to build an AI-powered project assistant that actually knows everything about a job.
This episode is especially relevant for design technology leaders, firm principals, and anyone working on the internal tooling side of architecture. If you've felt the tension between chasing the next new capability and keeping everyone from drowning in an ever-growing tool stack, Charlie names that problem clearly and talks about what a more patient, intentional path forward looks like.
To learn more about Charles Portelli, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/226
To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co
_____
Episode Sponsors:

AVAIL
AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast
Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

TRXL+ Membership
This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and full access to our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Learn more at https://www.trxl.co/#/portal/signup/
-----
Sign up to become a TRXL member.
Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

Antonio González Viegas joins the podcast to talk about the open source infrastructure layer he's building for BIM software and why the barriers that have protected legacy vendors for decades are collapsing faster than most people realize. We explore why every BIM company has been forced to reinvent the same foundational technology from scratch, how That Open Company is giving those pieces away under an MIT license, and what happens when AI compresses years of development into weeks. Antonio coined the phrase "nuclear bomb moment" to describe where BIM software development stands right now, and the conversation pushes hard on whether that framing holds up.
This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders, BIM managers, and design technologists watching the AEC software market shift beneath them. If you're weighing vendor lock-in against emerging alternatives, or wondering whether small teams with AI can actually compete with established platforms, this conversation will sharpen your thinking.
To learn more about Antonio González Viegas, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/225
To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co
_____
Episode Sponsors:

AVAIL
AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast
Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

TRXL+ Membership
This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and full access to our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Learn more at https://www.trxl.co/#/portal/signup/
-----
Sign up to become a TRXL member.
Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL