Phil Bernstein, creator of terrorists

June 9, 2006
Talking with Phil Bernstein, Autodesk's BIM guru, among other things, is always such fun. He's smart, opinionated, accomplished, visionary and, best of all, has a sense of his place in the world that's a combination of cynicism, humanitarianism and baby-boomer-era rebellion.

I decided to forego our usual "professional" style "interview" today and just get to know him a little better in kind of a free-form conversation. What a treat! Some things I learned about him: He's the oldest of six kids. He's been married for 23 years to a woman he describes as "a saint." His screensaver on his baby-sized computer (oh, how envious I am after lugging around my Dell D410) is a happy picture at Glacier National Park of her—smiling BIG—with their four girls, ages 13-18. (And they only have one bathroom, can you imagine?) They just adopted the two youngest—sisters—from Russia four years ago.

More: He loves watching reality TV shows like "Project Runway" and "Top Chef." "It's like being back in school," he says, "with all the politics and the drama." He doesn't think a reality show on architecture would work because "you can't build a building in a week."

And last: I asked him, as a longtime adjunct professor of architecture at Yale, if he thought students were more equipped to go from school to practice. He said, "I think they're emotionally more prepared and technically less prepared," meaning they understand that to be an architect is less about being a "starchitect" and more about social responsibility, sustainability, etc. He teaches in what he calls "a very hierarchical way," moving from the profession to the practice to the project. And he teaches the rules. But... "I've become increasingly convinced that rules don't work anymore," he says. So he teaches his students to question everything: "why the fee is fixed, why the contractor doesn't get to the table until it's time to bid, why technology is deployed not in the service of outcomes but in the service of risk." He grins that "who-me-I'm-innocent" grin and says, "So I'm creating a generation of terrorists." And that's a very good thing.

Judy Schriener
Managing Online Editor, McGraw-Hill Construction
Editor-in-Chief, Construction.com