Hotel Hotel Hostel

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The Hotel Hotel Hostel is an example of a healthy renewal and reuse of an existing piece of urban fabric in the center of a vibrant neighborhood, within easy walking distance to shops, restaurants, and buses. Established in 2011, the hostel offers reasonably priced accommodations in Fremont, ranging from private rooms with private baths to private rooms and dorm rooms with shared baths. In addition, there’s a fully equipped kitchen and TV room to share and a pizza bar on the street level.

Check out their website at <http://hotelhotel.co/hotel_hotel_hostel> for more info.

Fishermen’s Terminal

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It was 7 years ago—in July 2009—that Gabi Campanario organized the very first meeting of the Seattle Urban Sketchers group at Fishermen’s Terminal, located off of Salmon Bay in north Seattle. Seattle might have been one of the first chapters of the Urban Sketchers movement that Gabi started in late 2008, but new chapters in other cities and regions are being created on a regular basis as the campaign for drawing on location is alive, well, and thriving.

Above is the drawing of Fishermen’s Terminal that I did this morning while below is a similar view that I did back in July 2009.

Playing Favorites

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I am sometimes asked what my favorite work of architecture is. Rather than name a historic or popular icon, I usually respond by saying that I like buildings that help build neighborhoods and communities. But if pressed to name one, I can only narrow the list down to two: the Pantheon in Rome and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Both are ideal in conception and outlook but also enduringly attractive in the way they have aged and adapted to different uses over the centuries. It is only over time that any design can be truly evaluated for its worthiness.

PantheonInt00 PantheonInt13

Scenes from Cappadocia

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After the DCA–E Conference in Istanbul, we visited the Cappadocia region for a few days. This is the courtyard of the Kale Konak Cave Hotel where we stayed. Situated at the base of Uçhisar Castle, the enormous rock marking the highest point in the district, the setting offers a magnificent panorama of the surrounding countryside.

A highlight of our visit was walking through the Göreme Open Air Museum, a monastic enclave dating from the 4th through the 13th centuries. This is a view of the interior of Tokali Kilise, the Church of the Buckle, the largest of the more than 30 churches and chapels carved out of the relatively soft volcanic rock formations. Many of the sites contain frescoes still vibrant after all these years.

Scenes from Istanbul

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Here are a few scenes of Istanbul gathered during our recent trip there for the DCA-E Conference. The first is entering the grand courtyard of the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Mosque of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent and the largest in Istanbul, designed by Sinan the Architect.

The second was drawn while sitting at the outdoor cafe of Istanbul Modern, a museum featuring the work of contemporary Turkish artists. The museum is located within a warehouse converted by Tabanlıoğlu Architects, alongside the Bosphorus in the Tophane neighborhood. This view looks back toward the city and the Nusretiye Mosque, built in 1823–1826 by Sultan Mahmut II.

The third view is from a terrace of the Istanbul Modern, looking out toward where the Golden Horn meets the Bosphorus. It is truly amazing how well the numerous ferries and other ships skillfully navigate and share this waterway.

Istanbul Workshop

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Spent a wonderful day with a group of architecture students from Özyeğin University and other schools in Istanbul. The weather was sunny and pleasantly comfortable. We started off at the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque in the Üsküdar district on the Asian side of the Bosphorus and then worked through the neighborhoods of Kuzguncuk and ended up at Beylerbeyi.

This sketch is typical of the quick demos I do when working the students, drawing either in my own journal or a student’s sketchbook. The second image was done as I was experimenting with using the Procreate app in an iPad, drawing with the Apple Pencil. I found the stylus responded really well, especially compared with stylises that I had tried.

After working with students in various countries and cultures, I have found that they are all so similar in their optimism and enthusiasm for learning.

DCA E-Conference 2016

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Heading to Istanbul to attend the DCA’s European Conference being hosted by the Faculty of Architecture & Design at Özyeğin University. In addition to giving a presentation and conducting drawing workshops, I hope to be able to do some sketching and post a few drawings.

3500 First Avenue Northwest

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This office building at 3500 First Avenue Northwest reminds me of the formal, geometric modernism of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates and other firms from the 1970s. I was told that Barney Vemo designed and built the structure in that same time period. After walking by this place many times, what I recall in my mind’s eye are these fragments that I drew, not the entirety of the whole as shown in the photograph taken from across the street.

Sometimes, visual memories of places consist of single, iconic images. Think of the Pantheon in Rome or the Eiffel Tower in Paris. At other times, what we remember consists more of a collage of partial views rather than an image of the whole.

Line to Color Workshop

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Thanks to all the participants in the Line to Color workshop Gail Wong and I led this past weekend in the Fremont neighborhood and Gasworks Park in Seattle. We appreciated the energy and willingness of everyone to endure the less than ideal weather conditions to draw and paint this weekend. When sketching while traveling or simply out and about, we often cannot control how hot, cold, or wet it is. We can only do the best we can.

After drawing on location for so long, I sometimes forget what it is like to be a beginner. More than a few participants mentioned how mentally tiring it was to draw all day, which, in thinking about it, shouldn’t have surprised me. Drawing, and the seeing it requires, does take effort, especially for beginners struggling to resolve the difference between what we know about something and how it might appear to the eye.

During these workshops, Gail and I rarely have the time to do any drawings of our own except for the quick demos we may do in our sketchbooks as we work with each of the participants one on one. Yesterday, to wrap up the workshop, we gathered at Seattle Center for a final session and I finally had the time to do a couple of sketches. The first is the view looking out from under the canopy at the base of the Space Needle, and the second is a contour line drawing of Space Bloom, an installation that combines art, science, and technology to enable the floral sculptures to sing and dance throughout the year.

Capitol Hill Station

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Sound Transit, Puget Sound’s mass transit agency, is slowly but surely building out a true light rail system for the region. While initial funding was approved by the voters in 1996, the Central Link system running from downtown south to SeaTac airport didn’t open until 2009. These sketches are of the Capitol Hill Station that opened recently along with the next stop at the University of Washington. The Central Link line is continuing to be built northward to the University District, the Roosevelt neighborhood, and Northgate.