Olson Kundig

On February 10, principal and owner Alan Maskin delivered a lecture at University of Washington titled “Drawing the Pictures in Your Mind.” This lecture, in which Maskin shared his lifelong connection to design through drawing, kicked off a year-long series of workshops being offered through the UW Department of Landscape Architecture. Sponsored by GGN, this workshop series focuses on developing students’ skills in hand-drawing. Fittingly titled “Drawing in Design: Exploring the Hand,” the series is open to UW students and professionals. Maskin was selected to lead the first workshop in the series, which was held February 11 and 12.

Over the course of the weekend workshop, conducted at Olson Kundig’s offices, Maskin along with colleagues Jerome Tryon and Laura Bartunek led participants through a series of exercises, all designed to build their facility in using hand-drawing during the design ideation process. Workshop participants included students from landscape architecture, architecture, real estate, urban planning, and construction management, as well as four professional landscape architects from GGN. The result was a diverse crosspollination of students and professionals.

Many of the exercises were collaborative, with participants tasked to create single drawings by incorporating many individual hands. Opportunities for discussion were woven throughout the workshop, where participants explored the many meanings and applications of drawing. The stimulating and highly participatory environment that emerged over the course of the workshop was very much in keeping with Olson Kundig ’s larger values, where collaboration and community engagement are touchpoints.