BEHIND THE SCENES

Why Architect Anda Andrei Will Never Give Up Tracing Paper

The celebrated Romanian designer, an Ian Schrager alumni who helped define the boutique hotel phenomenon, sees a sketch as the essence of a project.

Andrei adds notes to a floor plan for the Asbury Ocean Club, a mixed-use resort and residential project slated to open next summer in Asbury Park, New Jersey, surrounded by fabric swatches for the furniture that will fill it. …

Anda Andrei
President, Anda Andrei Design
Anda Andrei Design office in New York

“I still work with tracing paper, and I will never be able to part with it. There’s something about the act of touching the pen, getting messy, piling paper layer upon layer upon layer—in the end, [the drawing] comes out the way you want it. I’ve found that this part of the design process is much harder to do on the computer. A lot of times, that sketch represents the essence of a project, like a movie clip. And once it’s done, it’s very easy to follow: Everything just falls into place.”

 

 

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