Check out the 2015 winners, runner-ups, and a few of the most creative entries from the annual Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest.
Winner, Registered Architect - Samuel Ringman, Architect and Illustrator, Ringman Design + Illustration, Dallas, TX
Napkin Sketch Title: Orbital City/Space Elevator
Samuel Ringman’s sketch is just one of many the Dallas-based architect produces almost continuously. “I have stacks and stacks of sketchbooks and cocktail napkins with conceptual ideas like this one,” he says. Ringman earned his master’s in architecture at Texas A&M, working at HOK in Dallas before establishing his own firm dedicated to design and illustration. Some of his quick sketches—like “a tourist center at the edge of the known universe”—he goes on to develop into proper drawings, while many remain on a napkin. Even so, he says, “it’s fun to constantly record ideas.”
Winner, Non-Registered Architect - Subhojit Sinha, Senior Designer, Callison, RTKL, Dallas, TX
Napking Sketch Title: Sangath, Ahmedabad, India
Subhojit Sinha’s sketch of Sangath, the work—and offices—of architect B.V. Doshi, stemmed from his appreciation for “Indian vernacular architecture in a more contemporary form.” The Dallas-based RTKL senior designer visited the building, located in the state of Gujarat’s largest city, Ahmedabad, during his undergraduate internship in India. “I really liked the building, and I had read about it a lot, but I wanted to experience it,” he says. In Sinha’s own practice, he says he’s “inclined toward hand sketches—that’s where I get a lot of my ideas. It’s always my first step.”
Runner Up - Peter C Sugar, Architect, Peter C Sugar Architect, Lincoln, MA
Napkin Sketch Title: Ravello
Runner Up - Daniel Sauerbrey, Associate Vice President, CallisonRTKL, Los Angeles, CA
Napkin Sketch Title: The Broad Veil on Grand
Runner Up - Alec Yuzhbabenko, Architectural Intern, Clark Nexsen, Virginia Beach, VA
Napkin Sketch Title: Miami Car Park
Runner Up - Trevor James Lord, Senior Technical Designer / Senior Job Captain, Hoffman Planning, Design & Construction, Inc., Appleton, WI
Napkin Sketch Title: Lord Goldberg
Runner Up - Enrique Ramirez, Architectural Intern, Parkhill, Smith & Cooper, Inc., Midland, TX
Napkin Sketch Title: Stepped Section
Runner Up - Lulu Yang, Designer, Foster and Partners, Cupertino, CA
Napkin Sketch Title: Recomposition
Best Firm - Gensler, Houston: Howie Chin, Technical Designer
Napkin Sketch Title: Victory Park
Best Firm - Gensler, Austin, TX: Vineta Clegg, Architect
Napkin Sketch Title: Spinning a Plan
Best Firm - Gensler, Boston, MA: Keith Loranger, Architect
Napkin Sketch Title: Skyline From One Beacon
Honorable Mentions - Most Creative
Kevin Koblik, MBH Architects, Alameda, CA
Aleksandr M. Sheykhet, President, Obermeier-Sheykhet Architecture, Denver, CO