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Columbus Circle, Steamboat Springs & the Queens Museum. When computers began to be used in architectural offices, they were unstable and relatively primitive. I lived through that period of frustration, elation and work-a-rounds.   This is just one of a number of posts I want to write about it – partly, just to leave a record of the work, but mainly as an example of mixing the digital with the hand. In the early 1980s 3D computer modeling was not an option in architectural offices. Just buying a computer with the requisite memory and graphics was way too expensive. But in 1985 the office in which I worked bought an early CAD computer and a very early version of AutoCad, which was used for Building Department submission drawings. Simple diagramatic drawings were created, with much computer crashing and gnashing of teeth.   The simplest 3D modeling was a faint glimmer in the recesses of that early software.    The layout above was done for the Columbus Circle Comp...

Before Photoshop there was photo retouching or “airbrushing” (named for the best tool for retouching photos). Photography was an expensive and iffy business, and expert artists did “post-production” by hand, cleaning up the mistakes which showed up in the darkroom. Blemishes had to be removed from centerfolds, backgrounds had to be cleaned up, and commissars had to be, ahhh, liquidated. I never did photo retouching for a living, but there were a few architectural rendering jobs that ended up being just that. I was once approached to paint a couple of preliminary views of a hotel to be built on Broadway just north of Times Square. The client needed a night view of illuminated signs, and it seemed impossible to do it on their tight budget. However, they had a couple night photos of the site, and I suggested that I paint the new building into the photographs, saving the time and effort needed to create the context. Since the point was to illustrate generic signage (this WAS Times Square ...

You might think that straight lines are, well, straight…but… Paris Opera, Plan There is a bit of a paradox in the world of perspective… Paris Opera, Escalier D'Honneur, Elevation When you think as an architect, the world is made up of straight parallel lines and simple geometry. But as a perspectivist, I see the world as straight converging lines with orderly parallels only where I want them. And if that weren’t enough, I know that the world of perspective is threatened by distortion if my field of view is too wide. Paris Opera, Escalier D'Honneur, Perspective Ah, distortion! Paris Opera, Escalier D'Honneur, Photo As long as you are viewing a limited window (say, 30 degrees total) you can ignore distortion. This was discussed in a previous post.   If you want to take a very wide view (say, 45 degrees or larger) you can either accept the distortion of linear perspective, or use curvilinear perspective. Curvilinear perspective is theoretically like the human eye, which has ...