Level Design Podcast: Recent Episodes
Scott Zurn
A podcast for Architects and Engineers.
Join Scott Zurn, Professional Engineer with over 3 decades of experience and Founder of Level Design Partners, in exploring the in’s and outs of the design industry, bringing new thinking to outdated systems, and restoring value and honor to the unique people who choose to be designers, engineers, and architects.
We’ll be discussing how Architects and Engineers can thrive in this industry by creating more freedom, flexibility, and financial security as a design professional, regardless of their current situation.
In this conversation, Miles and Scott explore the technical and non-technical skills that design professionals should focus on, such as keeping up with technology and developing strong people skills.
The conversation highlights the changing business model in the industry and the need for engineers and architects to adapt to new technologies like AI. Overall, the conversation emphasizes the importance of preparation and continuous learning in order to thrive in this field.
Timestamps
0:19 Settling Around Waterways in the 1660s
3:02 Drinking and Wasting in the Same River
5:35 Cold Winters and Lack of Amenities
8:23 Building Codes and Urban Fires
11:22 Technical and Non-Technical Skills for Design Professionals
19:00 Specialization and the Changing Business Model
20:57 The Need for Technical and People Skills
23:43 The Importance of Communication Skills
26:13 The Impact of AI and the Future of the Industry
28:33 The Ripple Effect of Being a People Person
30:32 Preparing for a Thriving Career in Engineering and Architecture
Keywords
US infrastructure, history, tradespeople, engineering, architecture, mentoring, environmental protection, shortage of engineers
Connect with us:
The Level Design Podcast is a podcast for Architects and Engineers who want to thrive in this industry by creating more freedom, fulfillment and financial security.
Join us in uncovering how to restore value and honor to the unique people who choose to be designers and caretakers of our built world and why it’s essential to the future of our society, our industry, and our planet.
Podcast website: https://www.leveldesignpod.com
Get involved: https://leveldesignpartners.com
Why are Architects & Engineers leaving the industry in the US while the market is increasing and our country is in dire need of more designers?
Scott shares his journey in engineering, why many of his peers (especially younger generations) are leaving, the need to restore value to the profession, and what we’ve been working on for the past 10 years to solve this problem.
Scott describes how his company (Level Engineering & Architecture) is gradually shifting the culture of designers in the US to impact the planet and increase the value of the designer and why this is imperative to our future.
They discuss the growing value of tradespeople, challenges with water and sanitation, the limitations of government in environmental protection, as well as the 1650’s in their ongoing “How We Got Here” History series.
Chapters
03:00 The Value of Tradespeople
06:00 Challenges of Water and Sanitation
10:00 The Importance of Human Convenience
12:00 The Limitations of Government in Environmental Protection
16:00 The Motivation for Creating Level Engineering and Architecture
22:00 Scott's Journey in Engineering and Architecture
26:00 The Decline of Enjoyment in the Industry
30:00 Restoring Value to Engineering and Architecture
35:00 Mentoring and Passing on Knowledge
36:00 Future Episodes and Behind-the-Scenes of Level Engineering and Architecture
Keywords
US infrastructure, history, tradespeople, engineering, architecture, mentoring, environmental protection, shortage of engineers
Connect with us:
The Level Design Podcast is a podcast for Architects and Engineers who want to thrive in this industry by creating more freedom, fulfillment and financial security.
Join us in uncovering how to restore value and honor to the unique people who choose to be designers and caretakers of our built world and why it’s essential to the future of our society, our industry, and our planet.
Podcast website: https://www.leveldesignpod.com
Get involved: https://leveldesignpartners.com
In this conversation, Miles and Scott discuss the history of infrastructure in the US in the 1940s, increasing complexity of building regulations, AI’s impact on construction projects, improving existing buildings, and the shortage of engineers and architects in the US and the impacts of outsourcing.
Where is there more opportunity and job security for A&E’s? Should we be focusing on new and exciting projects, or fixing and maintaining existing infrastructure?
Are existing projects more important than new projects?
Is AI going to take our jobs or create new jobs?
Are A&E’s excited about their work?
Chapters
00:48 How we got here (1640s)
01:18 The Growing Code Industry and Regulatory Environment
12:12 The Potential Impact of Outsourcing Engineering Work
25:27 The Importance of Maintaining and Improving Existing Buildings and Infrastructure
Keywords
US infrastructure, history, regulatory environment, engineering, architecture, code industry, timber-framed buildings, shortage of engineers, outsourcing, AI, maintaining existing buildings
Connect with us:
The Level Design Podcast is a podcast for Architects and Engineers who want to thrive in this industry by creating more freedom, fulfillment and financial security.
Join us in uncovering how to restore value and honor to the unique people who choose to be designers and caretakers of our built world and why it’s essential to the future of our society, our industry, and our planet.
Podcast website: https://www.leveldesignpod.com
Get involved: https://leveldesignpartners.com
After 17 episodes, we took a break to refocus on business. Now we’re back with a completely new format.
You can expect 2 episodes a month (Audio + video) with a new cohost (Miles) and some incredible guests.
We’ll be sitting down with engineers, architects, business leaders and entrepreneurs, city officials, and infrastructure experts to explore how we got here, what’s happening today, and how to build a better industry and world.
We’ll also be discussing some new and exciting opportunities for design professionals to dramatically change the way they work.
In this conversation, we explore the cost of neglecting infrastructure and the ripple effect it has on so many areas of our lives.
We also discuss the responsibility of design professionals and the economic impact of infrastructure investment. The conversation delves into the need for a shift in perspective and the potential solutions to address the expanding knowledge gap.
We Cover:
Introducing Miles as the New Co-host
Bringing a Different Perspective
The Importance of Understanding Infrastructure History
The Cost of Neglecting Infrastructure
The Ripple Effect of Infrastructure on Cost and Convenience
The Current State of American Infrastructure
Whose Responsibility is Infrastructure?
Advancements in Materials and Physics in the 1630s
The Impact of Trade Routes on Infrastructure
The Influence of Rivers on City Planning
Connect with us:
The Level Design Podcast is a podcast for Architects and Engineers who want to thrive in this industry by creating more freedom, fulfillment and financial security.
Join us in uncovering how to restore value and honor to the unique people who choose to be designers and caretakers of our built world and why it’s essential to the future of our society, our industry, and our planet.
Podcast website: https://www.leveldesignpod.com
Get involved: https://leveldesignpartners.com
Scott sits down with Wade Williamson and his team at Axium Inspections.
Colorado's #1 inspection company and growing nationally.
Over 20 Certified Home Inspectors who offer full-service home and commercial inspection services, including radon testing, sewer scopes, well & mold inspections, lead testing, asbestos inspections, drone inspections and more!
So what are inspections? Why do we need them? How did we get here?
Axium Inspections website: axiuminspections.com
Level Engineering website: levelengineering.com
We're hiring: https://www.levelengineering.com/jobs
A lot is changing in our industry. One thing we know won't work is to fight that change. Instead, how do we use technology and model changes to our advantage? What issues com from the old model? What can we learn from the Surfside condominium collapse in 2021? What needs to change, what's changing, and how can we evolve as Architects, Engineers, and Designers?
617,000 bridges across the United States.
Currently, 42% of all bridges are at least 50 years old, and 46,154, or 7.5% of the nation's bridges, are considered structurally deficient, meaning they are in “poor” condition.
Ben Kenney, P.E. owner of Engineering Operations joins Scott and Murray to discuss some fascinating topics
- Corporate barriers
- Bridge Inspection
- Price of a bridge
- Some serious mistakes we’re making with bridges and other infrastructure
- Infrastructure challenges we currently face
- Potential solutions
- A diving story that will make you claustrophobic
- And much more
https://engineeringoperationsco.com/
https://engineeringoperationsco.com/about/benjamin-kenney/
Source: https://infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/bridges/
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leveldesignpartners.com/podcast/
Join Scott Zurn and Murray McBride as they discuss:
- Update on LDPI
- Flipping the business model on its head
- Outsourcing and the race to the bottom
- Entrepreneurship
- Personal growth and success
- Collaboration
- Peace of mind
- $2 Trillion infrastructure bill
- What’s right for our community?
- The zero-emission marketing lie
- And much more...
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leveldesignpartners.com/podcast/
In this episode, Scott & Murray discuss:
- Environmental consciousness
- Half of our environment impact is just “building stuff”
- Let’s take a conscious look at what we’re doing
- Is money always the driver for the design community
- Free, independent & flexible thinking
- Picking up where we left off in the early 1500s
- Climate change
- Greed and power, taking the land vs existing with the land
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leveldesignpartners.com/podcast/
Can we maintain our human conveniences and have less adverse impact on our planet?
Are Architects & Engineers going extinct?
What do we need to revive in our industry?
Join Scott Zurn and Murray McBride as they discuss
In this episode, they discuss:
- The human convenience
- Cost of infrastructure
- Communication challenges today
- Why we need more Architects & Engineers.
- How we can improve the way we pay for and build our infrastructure
- Getting involved locally
- How Engineering, Architecture, and construction relates to your tax dollar
- 57% of our Engineering community quits, why and how to change that
- The one activity in our infrastructure that produces 7% of carbon emissions into our atmosphere
- What the hell happened in Texas
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leveldesignpartners.com/podcast/
Sixty million Indigenous People lived throughout the Americas before European expansion. In a short amount of time, 90% of those people were lost to European disease and violence. An estimated loss of 55 million people; a 10% reduction of the world's population at that time.
What happened to the infrastructure of each of these ancient people and what can we learn from it?
Join Scott Zurn and Murray McBride as they discuss what went wrong when the Europeans settled the Americas. Instead of learning from the Indigenous People and their way of sustainable living, old European ideas were brought here and repeated the same mistakes.
Also, enjoy a new segment where Scott and Murray discuss current events, like the Texas storms that left dozens dead and millions without power over several days.
In this episode, they discuss:
- an LDPI update
- Continued: The history of infrastructure
- the importance of the A&E community's knowledge and our planet’s future
- the struggle between political forces and the public interest on infrastructure
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leveldesignpartners.com/podcast/
There is an impact to our world for every human convenience. Those conveniences are built around our infrastructure, but it’s not in the public’s consciousness.
Why should we care?
Because infrastructure is the most important thing in our world. Our economy, quality of life, and the future of humanity and our planet is intricately tied to infrastructure.
Join Scott Zurn and Murray McBride as they discuss how we arrived at our current infrastructure and why throwing it away for a new one will be devastating for our planet.
They discuss:
- Who planned our first roads
- Think of our world: We must be respectful of the fact that this planet has a finite amount of energy we can use and how we manage our infrastructure knowing that
- Is there an alternative or a better way moving forward
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leveldesignpartners.com/podcast/
Engineers are traditionally men. Why?
- 30% of women who have left the engineering profession cite organizational climate as the reason.
- Only 30% of women who earn bachelor’s degrees in engineering are still working in engineering 20 years later. Source
We need to empower A&E women if we want to build a thriving industry and future. We must evolve our organizational climate.
To celebrate Women’s History Month, we’ve brought on two amazing women, Anya Zurn & Karen Ashworth, co-owners of Level Design Partners.
Our motto: LDPI is freedom of independence; power of organization.
We give our independent design professionals the business education and support to overcome their fear of leaving a traditional firm behind.
Join Scott Zurn and guests Karen Ashworth and Anya Zurn as they discuss why every design professional is welcomed and can thrive in LDPI's unique business model
They discuss…
✅ Their business backgrounds
✅ The gig economy
✅ LDPI’s culture of communication with clients and how it’s leading a front-line change to help the environment through the A&E industry
✅ The need for mentorship for design professionals
✅ How A&E women can thrive in LDPI’s model
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leveldesignpartners.com/podcast/
Engineers are fleeing the industry at record numbers, unhappy with the status quo...so what? Why should we, and everyone else care?
The bulk of human convenience relies on the intellect of the A&E community.
But there’s a gap. A gap between the unique genius that goes into our infrastructure by A&E professionals, and the general public.
In this fascinating episode, join hosts Scott Zurn and Murray McBride as they discuss why this is happening and what we’re doing about it.
They discuss...
✅ how design professionals can thrive outside of the traditional corporate model
✅ character qualities needed to succeed as an entrepreneurial A&E professional
✅ the three founding articles of LDPI as a for-benefit company
✅ environmental impacts of our throw-away culture
✅ how we can create prosperity for design professionals, the industry, and the world.
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leveldesignpartners.com/podcast/
With a combined 70 years of design experience under their belts, Scott and Murray discuss a few common paths that design professionals have today and the future of our industry.
In this fascinating episode, they cover…
- Environmental changes & our responsibility
- What's currently available as far as design career paths today
- The business model we’re building with Level Design Partners
- Entrepreneurship
- The voids that often come with independence
- Mentorship (we need mentors in our industry)
- Why many design professionals struggle to retire
- Creating your own destiny
leveldesignpartners.com
Most of our modern human conveniences are designed and produced by a community of brilliant but unseen professionals, and the public doesn’t know it. Why?
Join Scott Zurn and co-host Murray McBride as they discuss their professional backgrounds and why communication and trust are imperative to understanding our failing infrastructures, and how the A&E community can lead the way in solving our global issue.
We welcome the new year with a new, revamped and reborn, Level Design Podcast. We’ve got a lot in store for the year including special guests, a new co-host, top-notch podcasting equipment, and a team to help us get this message to as many design professionals as possible.
In this episode:
- We introduce Murray, our new co-host
- We discuss the state of Engineers and Architects
- We discuss the state of infrastructure and the public
- We talk about the best path forward as a country and as a design pro
- We talk about what’s changed since COVID-19
- We cover taking risks and making mistakes in our field
- We talk about why many are losing motivation to go into Architecture or Engineering
I believe we are in an employee and employer revolution.
I think we are in a place where there’s disillusionment from both parties about the other.
Disjointed expectations between the two.
The last time this happened at the scale was after the depression.
So what's the solution to this problem?
Let's explore.
Episode Schedule: Every other Monday
Get Involved:
Go to leveldesignpartners.com
Sign up to our newsletter and get information not found anywhere else.
Respond to the welcome email with any insights regarding your unique perspective in the industry. What is working, not working, what you like, disklike, any ideas for improvement.
Every episode we will be sharing these insight with our listeners (anonymously unless requested otherwise).
Scott Zurn's LinkedIn
Innovative business structures are emerging. B-Corporation (For-Benefit) that are legally required to make business decisions based on profit, people, and the planet.
In today's episode we explore how these new models can impact you and the old models are outdated and broken. It's time for a change.
We are shifting our thinking so that Architects and Engineers can thrive in this industry.
✅ The pros and cons of the current business model within most A&E firms.
✅ How For-Benefit Corporations are changing the industry and the world.
✅ How the For-Benefit business structure allows you to thrive.
Episode Schedule: ~Every other Monday
Get Involved:
Go to leveldesignpartners.com
Sign up to our newsletter and get information not found anywhere else.
Respond to the welcome email with any insights regarding your unique perspective in the industry. What is working, not working, what you like, dislike, any ideas for improvement.
Every episode we will be sharing these insight with our listeners (anonymously unless requested otherwise).
Scott Zurn's LinkedIn
The modernization of the business of A&E is going to happen, and needs to happen. In fact, it is happening as we speak. In this episode we look at technology and new business structures that are changing the way we work, collaborate, market, buy, sell and live.
We are shifting our thinking so that Architects and Engineers and thrive in this industry. We take a look at exponential change in other industries that quickly put behemoth companies out of business in a matter of years.
Why couldn't they pivot? Why didn't they embrace technological evolution?
Episode Schedule: Every other Monday
Get Involved:
Go to leveldesignpartners.com
Sign up to our newsletter and get information not found anywhere else.
Respond to the welcome email with any insights regarding your unique perspective in the industry. What is working, not working, what you like, dislike, any ideas for improvement.
Every episode we will be sharing these insight with our listeners (anonymously unless requested otherwise).
Scott Zurn's LinkedIn
How much of your Fair Market Value are you keeping?
Based on conversations with architects and engineers across the country of all different disciplines and ages, we have a pretty good guess.
We've looked at the past 40 years to project the next 40 within the design industry. In this episode Scott discusses the past, present, and future of your fair market value.
How can we keep more of it?
If you feel like you're not keeping much of your Fair Market Value, be sure to listen to this episode in its entirety.
Episode Schedule: Every other Monday
Get Involved:
Go to leveldesignpartners.com
Sign up to our newsletter and get information not found anywhere else.
Respond to the welcome email with any insights regarding your unique perspective in the industry. What is working, not working, what you like, dislike, any ideas for improvement.
Every episode we will be sharing these insight with our listeners (anonymously unless requested otherwise).
Scott Zurn's LinkedIn
In our conversations with architects and engineers across the country of all different disciplines and ages, we have started to hear a common theme. The business of A&E has diverged from the practice of A&E.
Is today's episode, Scott explores the history of our industry, how we got here and what the future holds. If you are an A&E professional feeling more like a commodity than a valued design professional, be sure to listen to this episode in its entirety.
Episode Schedule: Every other Monday
Get Involved:
Go to leveldesignpartners.com
Sign up to our newsletter and get information not found anywhere else.
Respond to the welcome email with any insights regarding your unique perspective in the industry. What is working, not working, what you like, disklike, any ideas for improvement.
Every episode we will be sharing these insight with our listeners (anonymously unless requested otherwise).
Scott Zurn's LinkedIn