Check out the 2012 winners, runner-ups, and a few of the most creative entries from the annual Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest.
Winner, Registered Architect - Geoff Parker, Architect, 308 Design Collaborative, Oklahoma City, OK
Geoff Parker, 38, an Oklahoma City native who recently joined 308 Design Collaborative, teaches first- and second-year studio art courses to undergraduates at the University of Oklahoma, where he received his B.Arch. and M.Arch. Parker spent about 10 minutes on his sketch, which he says is a quick doodle of an imaginary cityscape. “I was playing around with perspective and trying to generate some depth,” he says. The architect drew the sketch using a fountain pen and colored pencils and explains, “I was intentionally trying to see how fast and loose I could draw it and still make it read.” With a father who is also an architect, Parker says he’s known from childhood that architecture was his calling.
Winner, Non-Registered Architect - Brian Droste, Intern Architect, Wight & Company, Marina City, Chicago/Bertrand Goldberg
The winning sketch by a nonprofessional was drawn by Brian Droste, 25, an intern at the firm Wight & Company. While enrolled in the five-year architecture program at Notre Dame, Droste studied in Rome, where a professor introduced him to light-and-shadow drawing studies, the inspiration for his sketch. Droste says he has always been fascinated by the work of architect Bertrand Goldberg, and his Marina City (1964) in particular, because of the way light bounces across the buildings, emphasizing petal-like forms. Droste completed his sketch in about 10 minutes using a fountain pen. “The pen bleeds so quickly—it makes you go so much faster,“ he says. “You have to commit and not go back, almost like a watercolor.”
Runner-Up, Registered - Hany Hassan, Architect, Beyer Blinder Belle, Washington, DC
Runner-Up, Registered - Chad Alexander Smith, Architect, CAS Architecture, Grayson, GA
Runner-Up, Registered - Christian Ceci, Architect, Los Angeles, CA
Runner-Up, Registered - Bruce Ball Allen, Architect, Allen Milo Associates, Salt Lake City, UT
Runner-Up, Registered - Tony Costello, Architect, Costello + Associates; Ball State University, Muncie, IN
Runner-Up, Non-Registered - Subhojit Sinha, Design Staff, RTKL Associates, Dallas
Napkin Sketch Title: Colosseum, Rome
Runner-Up, Non-Registered - Eduardo Pintos, Designer, Loisos + Ubbelohde, Alameda, CA
Napkin Sketch Title: Dancing House, Prague/Frank Gehry
Runner-Up, Non-Registered - Kerri Ferrara, Designer, Mufson Partnership, New York City
Napkin Sketch Title: Saint Mark's Square, Venice
Runner-Up, Non-Registered - Lalima Chemjong, Designer, bKL Architecture LLC, Chicago
Napkin Sketch Title: Aqua Tower, Chicago/Jeanne Gang
Runner-Up, Non-Registered - Maksin Koloskov, Designer, Gensler, Houston
Best Firm - Rich Cogburn, Architect, Cooper Carry, Atlanta, GA
Napkin Sketch Title: View from Punta della Dogana, Venice
Best Firm - Marina Michael, Designer, Cooper Carry, Alexandria, VA
Napkin Sketch Title: Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA/Louis I. Kahn
Best Firm - Tanna Stephens, Marketing Assistant, Copper Carry, Alexandria, VA
Best Firm - Jason Albers, Architect, Cooper Carry, Alexandria, VA
Best Firm - David Kitchens, Architect, Cooper Carry, Alexandria, VA
Napkin Sketch Title: Washington, D.C. Monuments
Specially Invited Entries - Antoine Predock, Antoine Predock Architect
Napkin Sketch Title: American Heritage Center, Laramie, WY
RECORD solicited cocktail-napkin sketches from two well-known architects, just to show that leaders in the field still draw. Eugene Kohn, chairman of Kohn Pedersen Fox, largely submitted sketches of various New York cityscapes, while Albuquerque-based Antoine Predock drew various iconic buildings, including his own.
Napkin Sketch Title: UNM School of Architecture and Planning, Albuquerque, NM
Napkin Sketch Title: Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, AZ
Napkin Sketch Title: Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Napkin Sketch Title: The Pantheon, Rome, Italy
Specially Invited Entries - Eugene Kohn, Kohn Pedersen Fox
Napkin Sketch Title: New York City
AIA Convention Winner - Alvin Oei, Designer, Randall/Baylon Architects, Los Angeles, CA
RECORD hosted a mini Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest in May at the AIA Convention in Washington, D.C. We received submissions from 30 entrants and selected one winner: Los Angeles-based designer Alvin Oei of Randall/Baylon Architects.