Drawings: The Power of Drawings

Over the course of the next year I want to feature some favorite drawings from my design archive. This is an elevation drawing I made for a house I designed in 2002 for a steep site on a lake in Tennessee. (Pen and color markers on paper).

Upon my return to architecture school @ the University of Cincinnati I fell in love with architectural drawings and renderings. Specifically I discovered a fantastic book: “Frank Lloyd Wright Drawings” by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer. In it, Pfieffer published countless wonderful hand drawn plans, elevations and rendered perspectives along with the stories behind them. I also loved the drawings created by people like Herb Greene for the architect Bruce Goff as well as the haunting and then futuristic works of Hugh Ferriss.
I began to understand the lyrical power of drawings and the way they can communicate design intent to people. Despite the prevalence of computer illustrations and animations I have found that clients are delighted to see the depth and character of hand produced drawings.