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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