An Architect's Tool Kit

S. Thomas Kutch Ahhhhhh.... toys of the trade. Thank Gawd you didn't have a pin bar on the desk.

Salero Designs I haven't drawn on boards in years - I gave away my drafting table to a local assessor and my parallell bars to a contractor.

Emily Hurley I concur. Sharpies are the best pens ever.

Ann Smitt Impressed with your Intern. Maybe you could do a piece with your Intern on Feline Architecture (homes with high perches etc.).

Meredith Ericksen I use these every day...I am old school!

xenasmom The stuff you steal from your parents is always the best!

tsudhonimh What? No mechanical eraser?

hasj77 Lazy intern :-)

Pat Gericke & Associates, LLC Yes, I admit I still have all those tools and use them too!!! I saw a drafting table like mine at 1stdibs!

strshp I'd be lost without my adjustable triangle-the one my dad gave me that was his, just before I went away to college 35 years ago, templates and my electric eraser.

latchno A designer NOT using these tools has abandoned their soul. Most obvious thing missing here is an eraser of any kind!

Erika Bierman Photography Love seeing all these tools, over 10 years ago I learned to render and I have great memories of having them.

Means-of-Production Love the photographs.

Randall Mars Architects I have all of these tools and treasure them. However, I seldom use my parallel bar and tape dots - usually when I am making models. The trace is invaluable, but we call it "bumwad". While autoCAD is much less romantic, it expands our horizons and options dramatically.

The French Tradition Thank you for the trip down memory lane. I forwarded it to my older brother who I interned with. I think I was almost as useful as your intern.

longislanddeb I think your intern is a keeper!

Dreamwalls Glass I have an intern that is very similar....

Rick Clarke Design I STILL use my drafting board. That's why they call me a designasour

Darlene Vining All works for me. I'm old school as well and love flushing out ideas with sketches on tracing paper, colored markers make designs come alive.
However, could definitely use the intern!

Loring Interiors I'm a big believer in hand drafting, but for the " furniture challenged" I like to use these magnetic templates. You can play around with the room arrangement before finalizing the plans, then you'll know what pieces will fit perfectly in the space

PamDesigns 3D Ha! What can you expect from somebody who works for kibble! LOL

budesign Love the cat--great segment!! Thank god for drafting dots!

n3ellie love it...especially the intern

hometipster Nice article Jody. Would be interesting to know how many Architects still apply their craft by pen and paper considering the wide use of CAD. I remember with my first build the Architect produced all CAD drawings - I actually used (I'm no architect) Microsoft Viso to create my own floor plan and then gave it to the Architect to create a professional set of drawings.

evsr These are great tools. I am a contractor but still get the chance to "put pencil to paper".

Springer & Ting, Architects Our very dear friend "Architect Yar Kunycia" (recently passed) worked his entire career on small projects, in the NY/NJ area, the "old fashioned way", without computer, internet, etc.

Trevor Hoover Oh so true! Although I think I could live without the laptop!

Melley Nelson Design my favorite is the sketchbook, which we were told we can never rip a page out of..... still can't live without trace and fondly remember hoarding tape dots. Still have some and I am not sharing!

teslim Computer has taken over all those tools and this is the era of Building Information Management (BIM).

Armando Cobo, Designer I have not drawn by hand in 25+ years, no table, no mechanical pencils, no electrical eraser, no templates, no messy ink pens.... come to think of it, I left the horse buggy a while back and now I drive a car… ;-))

drb1022 Hey, that's not an intern, that's a supervisor!!

Amrita Ghosh Toy for Archtects and Interior Designers!!! :D

tkap5 Loooong ago when I was in architecture school, we referred to tracing paper as "onion skin." I think I like that better than bumwad! I still have all my old tools but had to let go of my drafting table. :(

Emery & Associates Interior Design I jokingly tell clients that I learned to draft back in the Jurassic on a board with a pencil. Never learned CAD, but have young associates do it for me. STILL do lots of hand-drawn perspective sketches, and color them in for clients who can afford the cost. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your self. Good to know there are still a few of us out there who do things by hand.

Daniel M Martin, Architect LLC "Trash" is the most magical tool of all.

Pascale Thanks for making me smile this morning! I make a very tiny living as a calligrapher and I make use of all of the above. (I suspect the "Linex" is only being kept alive thanks to calligraphers!) For years I suspected I owned a magic box of drafting dots because it never failed to dispense dots for me - alas, the box recently ran dry, and now I'm finding my local arts shops no longer carry them! Oh, the sorrow! :-(

By the way, here's my intern, enjoying some of the trash that gets strewn around my desk as I work. A very lazy intern indeed....

Becky Harris You brought back memories of always having drafting dots stuck somewhere to my person and all over my house. Also, you have a very sweet-looking lazy intern.

Earth and Sky Architecture Sketching is my favorite way to explore ideas. When I have something interesting, I test it on my laptop to find the problems my sketch glossed over. :-)

shawnaleeah I love these articles. So funny! Makes me want to be an architect :)

Pacific Dimensions, Inc You are speaking my language. While the tech department in my company is on CAD and has been for decades I’m such a tactile person I need my table, land everything else you mentioned.....well except the intern. :)

HomeCheckDallas Just as nostalgic as keeping the old typewriter is for a writer -- somehow I don't think I would be happy without the pad and pencil, the scale sticks and onionskin and, yes, the erasers!

Alan Brookman Drafting dots! Great idea--no corners to catch on your parallel rule, but frightfully expensive. I always used plain vanilla masking tape, which you can de-sticky a bit by pressing on your fingers before applying to the drawing. Alas, I only do the initial sketches on paper now, and do all my actual drafting on the computer, which is not nearly as much fun.

pegiann Love it....

ali_g I think your intern's brother is "working" at my office. He's a terrible typist, but he has an "In" with the boss. Always enjoy these articles, thanks for sharing!

Julie Hendrickson Love Love Love. Cheered me up immensely.

hatay5 Most of these, except for pens /pencils and trace are antique. Who drafts on a board anymore? Want to buy one? Cheap? I should add that I graduated before most firms had fax machines let alone computers with AutoCad!

Jea Makabenta I stole my clutch pencil from my dad too and lost it...it was an antique! I guess its not odd at all that your pictures look exactly like my desk, even your laptop shot :))

dhaun Ahh yes, coffee, markers & a roll of "trace," does it get any better? :-)

Artisan Kitchens LLC Your graphics are wonderful.

After hand drafting for 25 years I have recently converted to CAD. While I do miss the hands-on creativity a little I don't miss all the erasing I used to do!

alebie the good old days !

jojosail2 Sailors use the compass to poke holes in paper charts.

AV Architects + Builders ...just brings back memories from college times....

jacqueliness Thanks so much for this post...in our competitive world, computer aided design is deau rigeur, and professionals are not "up to snuff" without the capabilities. While I've worked on CAD since the early 90s, I still use all of the above. I also use the "eraser bag" - my dry cleaner loves me because there's always some graphite on my sleeves...I am more able to think through the project while drafting. I'm only hoping that this art doesn't fade to antiquity.

the fabric Love it Jody. I use all those tools still, except my intern barks.

Alexandra Williams hahahaha. "The fumes are soothing." I'm sure you meant to say that regarding the coffee. Maybe have that intern sniff the markers, Kind of like the poison testing jester. Purr purr, conk

Kasia Great, down to the point article ...intern looks very content:)

Donna Hargrove As a designer/decorator I use all of those same tools! And I haven't had the drafting board out in ages --- I'm off to dig it out - I miss it!

Coffee with an Architect Thanks for all the great comments guys! Except for the ones that made me feel incredibly old... Let's just use the word "seasoned" from now on, OK?

Zelzer As an architect, my dad used most of these tools(he did not have a cat) and I inherited them when he passed away. I loved reading your list. Thanks!

Savena Doychinov, CKD/Design Studio International Jody, as a kitchen and bath designer, I use and treasure the same tools and more. Computers have greatly expanded our options, but there's something very inspiring to me when I face the blank velum. And 99.99% of my clients love
my hand drawn plans. In this day and age, to see the human hand involved appeals a great deal to many people. Some have actually framed my drawings.
So I'm glad to see you still using the tools of the trade. You probably cherish the connection with your father as well...

And I have exactly the same intern plus a grey one. Not useful, but who's to say
that their grace is not inspiring?

Savena Doychinov, CKD
Design Studio Int'l Kitchen & Bath

Lidia M. Luna At Forge Iron Designs I love to hand draft my wrought iron door designs. Use all this tools, wrought iron looks better by hand. Love your articles.

Dana Veach Though I play on the computer these days, I still love and use the tools I inherited from my father. He used to have a slide rule in a glass case on his office wall with a sign that read: "In case of power failure, break glass." There's nothing like the feel of cool wood and paper under the hand...though like Artisan, I could do without so much erasing!

Adriana Reyes I loved the humor behind everything! Great job

Silver Green Used to own these toys as well.

latchno I still own and use these tools every day! I have access to CAD but prefer my tools.

John R. Shaughnessy, Architectural Designer I'm in my eighties and still going strong with my board and all the tools mentioned. I haven't had a client complain yet that it was drawn in pencil on tracing paper. However, I do use my computer for printing. There are days when my hand isn't that steady anymore.

Rick Clarke Design I have had no complaints either. And besides there are lots of "kids" who can draw it up me if or when I need it. Us designasours know who to hire....to get the job done.

Pacific Dimensions, Inc I love that! Designasours! I’m stealing that one from you! Too funny :D

mmsim LOL This made me laugh. Thx

mmsim My drafting board is calling to me from the back of the garage, i feel so guilty

ottecarlos erasing shield.

Loring Interiors Yup, I still use some of those things. I guess you'd call me a "Designosaurus". I also still use the magnetic furniture planning kit. It's so much easier than a computer.

Kathryn Tegreene I tell those outside the business that sketching is how we communicate in Design. You must sketch to convey an idea so that others can visualize it. There is a Zen of hand drafting that doesn't exist with AutoCAD. I am an AutoCAD girl though. This being my second career, I have never had the luxury of hand drafting and I rarely render anywhere but in Photoshop anymore and gave my drawing board away. I miss it from my school days. Thanks for the memories.

Cindy Chandler_DuSair So glad I'm not the only designer who has all the new gadgets but STILL uses these old-school tools! However, you omitted is the T-square. I abandoned mine 18 years ago for the parallel rule, but it hangs on the wall in my studio... next to my linen pin board!
And... I do agree that COFFEE is our most useful tool. Always relevant...never crashes...never needs sharpening!

miluskapareja Computer wont ever replace creativity but we have to admit it makes our lifes much easier.

Jon Lim_ i still have my scriber!

Jon Lim_ i still have my scriber!

stephgob Hmm.. funny, I don't think I've seen most of these things (except the coffee, of course) since graduating college and starting to work in architecture 7 years ago... sad.

ottecarlos the brush & curves

chicolanog i'll add the ERASER!