What is your favorite building and why?
For me, this changes twice a week because with my teaching career I have given myself the goal of doing a deep dive into at least one building for each lecture I give. It is fun be able to really look into the details and talk about both the beautiful solutions are such as how Fallingwater’s steel window frame die in the stonework and what actually is more enjoyable reveal the awkwardness of details such as seeing Bernini and Borromini use the same, look but don’t see solution, of adding an extra rectangular block of the capital to terminate their balustrades columns into the stringers above at each of their stair cases in Palazzo Barberini.
What could you give a 30-minute presentation on with no preparation?
I would probably take on Steve Jobs’ famous calligraphy story and talk about how different experiences you expose yourself eventually find their way back into your life and become source material for new experiences. I would finish off by using the easter egg that is hidden in the English subtitles of the 1987 Danish Film Babette’s Feast that resolves the topic in the Swedish General’s toast at the end of the film better than I would do or even Steve Jobs did.