January 11, 2023
by Center for Architecture
Guess-A-Sketch 2023 graphic
Design by: Studio Rainwater

On Thursday, March 9, architects, designers, architecture enthusiasts, and young professionals will gather at the Center for Architecture for Guess-A-Sketch, an architecture-themed, pictionary-style tournament to support the nonprofit’s K-12 education initiatives. Hosted by Kim Yao, AIA, Principal, Architecture Research Office, five architects will live sketch iconic buildings from around the world on stage as competing teams guess to win. Audience members are also invited to guess, with the opportunity to win a selection of items generously donated by our prize sponsors.

Try your luck at Guess-A-Sketch >>

Meet this year’s five honoree sketchers:

 

Michael Arad, AIA, LEED AP, Partner, Handel Architects

Michael Arad’s design for the National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site was selected by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation from among more than 5,000 entries submitted in an international competition held in 2003. Arad joined Handel Architects as a Partner in April 2004, where he worked on realizing the memorial design as a member of the firm.

A native of Israel, Arad was raised there, the UK, the United States, and Mexico. He came to the United States and earned a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College in 1994 and a Master of Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1999. Arad became a resident of New York City following his studies. He worked for Kohn Pedersen Fox before joining the Design Department of the New York City Housing Authority, where he was working during the memorial competition.

In 2006, Arad was one of six recipients of the AIA Young Architects Award. In 2012, he was awarded the AIA Presidential Citation for his work on the National September 11 Memorial. That year, he was also honored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council with the Liberty Award for Artistic Leadership. His work on the memorial has been recognized with honor awards from AIA and ASLA. In 2017, Arad was selected to design a memorial to the victims of the 2015 Charleston church massacre at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

 

Andrés Jaque, PhD, Dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Founder, Office for Political Innovation

Andrés Jaque is Dean of Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he has been teaching advanced design studios since 2013. He is the founder of the Office for Political Innovation, an architectural practice based in New York and Madrid. Office for Political Innovation has been awarded the Silver Lion to the Best Research Project at the 14th Venice Biennale, the Dionisio Hernández Gil Award, the London Design Museum’s Designs of the Year, and Architectural Record’s Designers of the Year.

Jaque’s publications include PHANTOM. Mies as Rendered SocietyDifferent Kinds of Water Pouring into a Swimming Pool, Dulces Arenas Cotidianas, and Everyday Politics. Their work has being featured in numerous publications including A+U, Bauwelt, Domus, El Croquis, The Architectural Review, Volume, and The New York Times, and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, London Design Museum, MAK, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, RED CAT Cal Arts Contemporary Art Center, Z33, Schweizerisches Architektur Museum, Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine de Paris, Hellerau Festspielhaus, and Princeton University SoA.

Stephen Slaughter, Chair of Undergraduate Architecture, Pratt Institute

Stephen Slaughter’s role as a designer, educator, and administrator has always been to leverage his talents, privilege, and position to bring value to the communities he’s a part of and the people he represents. His aim as Chair of Undergraduate Architecture at Pratt Institute is to continue this work for the benefit of the culture, the impact of the school, and the amelioration of the built environment, both in Brooklyn and beyond.

Born out of a desire to challenge conventional architectural orthodoxy and disrupt the commonly held notions of “project” and “client”, Slaughter co-founded a four-person, multi-disciplinary design collaborative in Southern California that pursued work for exhibition and was shown in venues throughout the world. Throughout his career in practice and in academia, he has worked to bridge the chasm between advanced design and an underprivileged clientele by utilizing contemporary fabrication techniques to increase speed and precision within the constraints of low budgets and challenging schedules, ensuring that good design does not remain the exclusive province of the affluent but is inclusive of communities where design and design services have been willfully and woefully inadequate. Working with and for non-profits, community development corporations, and minority business incubators, Slaughter’s focus has been to listen, learn, create, and give agency to those the profession has failed, and in so doing strive to improve the built and natural environment through sustainable and conscientious design.

 

©Ben Salesse.

Andrea Steele, AIA, Fonding Principal, Andrea Steele Architecture 

Andrea Steele is the Founding Principal of Andrea Steele Architecture (ASA), a New York-based practice that believes the scale of architecture is not measured by its physical size but by its positive impact. With over 26 years of experience, Steele has led a wide range of complex urban design projects throughout the United States. She served as partner and principal of TEN Arquitectos’ New York office for more than eight years before renaming the studio in 2019. As Andrea Steele Architecture, the studio continues the design rigor and excellence with a heightened focus on institutional, cultural, and community-oriented projects.

ASA recently completed NASA’s new research hub at their Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH. Current projects in construction include a cultural heart for downtown Brooklyn comprised of new cinemas and a film archive for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a production studio for the Brooklyn Public Library, galleries for the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, and performance venues for 651 Arts. 

Steele received her Master of Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. She has taught at Cornell University, City College of the City University of New York, and the Catholic University of America. She has hosted workshops for the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, lectures widely throughout the United States, and is a frequent participant in academic juries. Steele is currently an advisor to the Urban Design Forum and Pioneer Works.