Francis D.K. Starbucks
Walking into Starbucks for a bite to eat on the way to work this morning, I was taken aback by a few framed drawings on the wall signed by "Frank Ching":
At first I thought it must be some other Frank Ching, not the Francis D.K. Ching, the author of Architectural Graphics, Building Construction Illustrated, Form, Space, and Order and other classic texts that every architecture student has been exposed to. But it looked a little too much like the drawings in those books to be somebody else.
Then, after only a quick glance at the drawings on the way to get in line, I wondered if they depicted my neighborhood – if they were site-specific sketches. That seemed far-fetched. Both things seemed far-fetched.
Turns out it is the one-and-only Frank Ching, though the drawing depicts Seattle, not Astoria. In fact, per Ching's blog, it's the original Starbucks in Seattle:
[Drawings via www.frankching.com]
This isn't the first time Ching worked for Starbucks (that he did is clear when he writes "a rough pencil layout submitted for approval" in his blog post). He also drew the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. You can see its evolution on his blog.
At first I thought it must be some other Frank Ching, not the Francis D.K. Ching, the author of Architectural Graphics, Building Construction Illustrated, Form, Space, and Order and other classic texts that every architecture student has been exposed to. But it looked a little too much like the drawings in those books to be somebody else.
Then, after only a quick glance at the drawings on the way to get in line, I wondered if they depicted my neighborhood – if they were site-specific sketches. That seemed far-fetched. Both things seemed far-fetched.
Turns out it is the one-and-only Frank Ching, though the drawing depicts Seattle, not Astoria. In fact, per Ching's blog, it's the original Starbucks in Seattle:
[Drawings via www.frankching.com]
This isn't the first time Ching worked for Starbucks (that he did is clear when he writes "a rough pencil layout submitted for approval" in his blog post). He also drew the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. You can see its evolution on his blog.
I walked into the Starbucks in Celebration Florida and wondered the exact same thing... must be some other Frank! I also incorrectly assumed he was dead given that we used his book way back in 2002, and my professors made it sound like they used the same book decades earlier when they were in s hool.Thanks for clearing that up!
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