
In my day job as an architectural illustrator, I am honored to get to work with some amazing architects and their wonderful projects. This week, 3 of those projects earned Seattle AIA (American Institute of Architects) awards! These teams work for YEARS to nurture these projects along, and I am thrilled to have contributed in some small way, usually by producing images for fundraising purposes during the very early stages of design. It’s exciting to get an early preview of what buildings might look like years down the road.
This is the new Burke Museum, the Washington State museum of natural history and culture, by architects Olson Kundig, which received a top Honor Award Monday night. The concept is an inside-out museum that provides access to things that are usually hidden, the vast stores of birds, baskets, bones, and more.
I produced 6 images over a few years, and very early pencil sketches years before that. It was a thrill to drive by the site and see them on the construction fence as the building took shape! Congratulations to Olson Kundig and the Burke Museum!!!!

Next I’ll post the interior views.
Incredible! What an honor!
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Thank you! I am so fortunate to get to work with such talented designers!
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Congratulations to you, Shari! You are amazing!! Beautiful work!!
On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 3:51 PM Drawing Perspectives wrote:
> stephanieabower posted: ” In my day job as an architectural illustrator, I > am honored to get to work with some amazing architects and their wonderful > projects. This week, 3 of those projects earned Seattle AIA (American > Institute of Architects) awards! These teams work for YE” >
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Thanks, Jane…but it’s not my award, I just got to work on the project a bit.
And I’m Stephanie, but it’s a nice complement to be called Shari! 😉
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Beautiful work! It is so much more evocative than a 3D render, I find my eye travelling through looking at the detail, which I don’t in the cad renders. Love the exhibits seen through the window, very hard/laborious to achieve this with cad !
Would love to know the size of paper you worked on and materials.
Thank you for sharing !
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Hello Fi! Thank you for the kind words. I also love the quality of hand drawings–they leave more to the imagination!
I work on 11″x17″ paper, so it’s easy to scan and reproduce. Watercolor paper, watercolor.
S
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Always so proud of you and love you my friend!
On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 3:52 PM Drawing Perspectives wrote:
> stephanieabower posted: ” In my day job as an architectural illustrator, I > am honored to get to work with some amazing architects and their wonderful > projects. This week, 3 of those projects earned Seattle AIA (American > Institute of Architects) awards! These teams work for YE” >
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Awesome illustrations! Fabulous architecture which I’d like to visit someday.
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Congratulations!! And beautiful drawing 👌👌
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Thank you so much!
S
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