by Center for Architecture
On Thursday, March 13, architects, designers, architecture enthusiasts, and young professionals will gather at the Center for Architecture for Guess-A-Sketch, an architecture-themed tournament to support the nonprofit’s education initiatives. Emceed by Matthew Bremer, AIA, NCARB, Founder and Principal of Architecture in Formation and AIA New York’s 2023 President, four 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 four honoree sketchers:
Andrew Bernheimer, FAIA, Founding Principal, Bernheimer Architecture
Andrew Bernheimer is a Brooklyn-based architect and Associate Professor of Architecture at the Parsons School of Design. Bernheimer leads an eponymous firm responsible for a wide variety of residential, civic, and commercial projects, including new award-winning multi-unit affordable housing developments across the five boroughs as well as private residences in the northeast region. The studio is also currently the only private architectural firm in the United States with unionized labor.
Bernheimer edited Timber in the City, a book featuring innovative practices in wood construction published by ORO Editions and co-edited the collection Fairy Tale Architecture (ORO Editions, 2020) with his sister, Kate Bernheimer. In 2018, Bernheimer was elevated to the College of Fellows in the American Institute of Architects. Bernheimer sits on the Executive Board of the Institute for Public Architecture in New York City.
While Director of the M.Arch program at Parsons (from 2012–2016), Bernheimer oversaw a graduate program known for its connections between design and practice and a distinct focus on New York City’s communities and their constructed environments. The program includes a signature design-build studio and cross-disciplinary curricular opportunities with graduate programs in lighting and interior design. He currently teaches in both the graduate and undergraduate architecture sequences.
Previously, Bernheimer was a founding partner of the award-winning firm Della Valle Bernheimer.
Brent Buck, AIA, NCARB, Principal, Brent Buck Architects
Raised in the American Midwest, Brent Buck grew up in a family of makers—masons, carpenters, plasterers, and machinists. From a young age he developed a respect for people who work with their hands. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Architecture degree from Yale University. He was awarded the John Stewardson Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania, which he used to travel throughout India to study stepwells. He was awarded the Drawing Prize from Yale University.
In 2018, Buck founded Brent Buck Architects after a decade-long apprenticeship at Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. He has taught and served on juries at institutions such as Carnegie Mellon, Pratt Institute, and Yale University. Buck has also chaired state-level AIA Awards Juries, advocating for diverse voices from across the U.S. His studio’s work has received recognition through various awards, been featured in international publications, and showcased in Open House New York. Recently, he has spoken at symposiums on Mass Timber and its impact on urban environments, including The Architect’s Newspaper’s Renew Reuse Regrow and the upcoming Building Energy Boston: Scaling Mass Timber Construction in Dense Urban Environments.
A registered architect in New York and Connecticut, Buck is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and is certified by NCARB.
Wendy Evans Joseph, FAIA, Founder of Studio Joseph
Wendy Evans Joseph, FAIA, is the Founder of Studio Joseph, an architectural firm specializing in cultural projects and museum installations. With a deep passion for art, culture, and education, Joseph has established herself as a leading figure in museum and library design with expertise in content-driven exhibition experiences. At Studio Joseph, she sets the vision for each project based on narrative as well as broader societal values with a commitment to equity, sustainable thinking, and community.
Under her leadership, Studio Joseph maintains a diverse portfolio of impactful public, institutional, and cultural projects, which have been highly recognized. Her firm works with diverse institutions to create immersive environments that foster shared learning and engagement, bringing a strong conceptual underpinning to form, materiality, and spatial design. Recent projects include a Pet Adoption Center in Harlem, “Sculpting History” at the Valentine Museum in Richmond, a multimedia installation on the Lost Cause, and a welcome center at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.
Joseph’s contributions to the design community extend beyond her exceptional practice. She has been honored with a Rome Prize in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome. She is an Academician of the National Academy of Design, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA,) and a Fellow of the Society of Experiential Designers (SEGD). As a firm believer in the role of architects in advocating for a sustainable, beautiful public realm, she is actively involved in professional leadership. She has held esteemed positions such as President of AIA New York, Chairman of the AIA National Committee of Design, and President of the Architectural League of New York.
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 is a part of, and the people he represents. His aim as Chair of Undergraduate Architecture at Pratt, 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. This work began for him as an extension of his role in practice in Southern California. Borne out of a desire to challenge conventional architectural orthodoxy, and disrupt the commonly held notions of “project” and “client”, he co-founded a four-person, multi-disciplinary design collaborative that pursued work for exhibitions, and has 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 reduce the time to delivery, while increasing speed and precision within the constraints of low budgets and challenging schedules. This work is to ensure that good design does not remain the exclusive province of the affluent, but is inclusive of communities where design and design services has been willfully and woefully inadequate. Working with and for non-profits, community development corporations, and minority business incubators, his 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.