Frederick Fisher: Thinking By Hand

A building is a spectacular act of optimism, creating something of permanence and resilience where there was nothing. But for the architect, faced with the challenge of filling that “nothing,” how does he or she start the conceptual process? For architect Frederick Fisher (recent projects: Annenberg Beach House, Santa Monica; Information Science and Technology, Cal Tech), it starts with drawing and watercolor painting: elemental images that make the initial gestures towards what will become the solid and void, the shadow and light of a building. You can see Fisher’s watercolors, currently on show at Ed Cella Art + Architecture gallery , through May 22, 2010. And on this Saturday, May 1st, starting at 1.00PM, I’ll join Frederick Fisher, who recently returned from a year spent as a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, in dialogue about his drawings and their connection to the design process. For more about Frederick Fisher, read Christopher Hawthorne in the Los Angeles Times, and, for his early careers and influences, Socal architecture historian and blogger John Crosse. Or, listen to this broadcast of DnA when Frederick talked about the role of memory in the design of the Annenberg Beach House.