Sketch-n-Sip: Drawing the City

From high above the Flats, on the historic Superior Viaduct, we will gather on what remains of Cleveland’s first high-level bridge. Once the principal connection between the city’s east and west sides, the viaduct offers sweeping views across a layered landscape of river, rail, industry, entertainment, and skyline.From this extraordinary vantage point, the river, bridges, rail lines, warehouses, streets, and skyline on the ridge across the water become more than a view. They become a living section through Cleveland itself."Sketch-n-Sip: Drawing the City" will feature architectural designer and illustrator Vlad Liflyandchick, whose work brings together architectural knowledge, hand drawing, digital technique, atmosphere, and emotional resonance. Over the course of the evening, Vlad will lead attendees in looking more carefully at the city and understanding how sketching can become a professional tool for observation, contextual analysis, design thinking, and architectural communication.This two-hour HSW program will explore cityscape sketching not simply as an artistic exercise, but as a way of seeing. Attendees will learn how drawing can sharpen awareness of urban form, human scale, circulation, infrastructure, material character, public space, and the sensory experience of place. In an age of quick digital imagery, aerial views, renderings, and AI-generated visuals, sketching asks architects and designers to slow down, select, interpret, and understand what is in front of them. The evening will also be a chance to enjoy food, drinks, conversation, and time together with fellow architects, designers, planners, students, and friends of the city. With summer light over the river and views stretching from the Flats to the skyline, this will be a social and creative evening rooted in one of Cleveland’s most memorable urban settings.Come ready to look closely, draw freely, and rediscover the city through the hand, the eye, and the imagination. Bring your sketchbooks. Drawing by hand is about more than creating a beautiful image; it is a way of slowing down, looking closely, and coming to know a place in an intimate way that no photograph, map, rendering, or digital model can fully replace. For architects, that careful act of observation is often the first step toward better design, buildings that respond more thoughtfully to their context, serve people more deeply, and contribute to a better city.