Please join the Chicago ICAA for an evening with Michael G. Imber. He will discuss his latest book, The Art of the Architect, which celebrates the role that drawing and watercolour painting play in architecture. Architectural drawing as we know it dates from the Renaissance, but with the arrival of computer design programmes this ancient art—formed of pen, pencil, and brushstrokes on paper—is sometimes regarded as obsolete.
Whatever the place occupied by photographs, simulations, and visual graphics in the design process of today, hand drawing still facilitates a moment of deeper connection between an architect and his environment. Unlike a snap taken on a smart phone, a hand drawing is an active response to its subject: what is understood about a place in sensory terms cannot help but inform the finished design, creating buildings which maintain the balance between the way we live and the natural world around us.
About the Speaker
Michael G. Imber is a native Texan who grew-up exploring the unique landscapes of the West and the architecture built by its rugged inhabitants. He did his apprenticeship on the East Coast where he worked on projects such as the Deputy Secretary of State’s office and the University of Virginia.
Michael returned to Texas and formed his own firm over twenty-five years ago in San Antonio. Today, Michael G. Imber Architects is internationally known for architecture reflecting landscape and culture.
As well as work spanning the U.S., Michael G. Imber Architects has worked in over a dozen countries. Its projects have ranged from churches and seminaries, colleges, hotels, and town centers to ranches and houses—all a unique reflection of the places in which they are built.
Michael’s work has been widely published and he was recently named one of twenty-five ‘leaders’ in a “Who’s Who in Traditional Architecture” by Traditional Building Magazine. He was the recipient of the Arthur Ross Award in 2007 for his contribution to civic and traditional architecture, and has won six national Palladio Awards and ten Staub Awards. In 2013, Michael released his first book, Ranches, Villas, and Houses serving as a monograph devoted to his work, and in 2022 was named the Robert A.M. Stern Visiting Professor of Classical Architecture at Yale.
Note: Valet parking will be available for $20 cash plus gratuity.