YAF As-Built: Walking Sketch Tour

Join Blake McDonald, an Architectural Historian at Historic Richmond for a hands-on, 1-mile walking sketch tour through Monroe Ward. Together, we’ll visit roughly 12 historic sites to examine how urban architecture directly impacts human health, safety, and community welfare. Along the way, we’ll pull out our sketchbooks to capture Art Deco and Modern facades while analyzing how entryways, lighting, and building scales shape pedestrian comfort. We’ll also visit landmarks like The Jefferson Hotel to uncover how LGBTQIA+ history shaped the city’s footprint. This interactive walk equips architects, designers, and history buffs of all drawing skill levels with practical strategies to break down spatial barriers, honor community memory, and design safer, more inclusive public spaces.

The group will meet in Monroe Park at the start of the tour.

Submitted for AIA learning units.

Learning Objectives:

Apply lessons from historic community resilience to contemporary practice, articulating how architects and urban designers can actively preserve cultural memory and design more inclusive, equitable civic spaces.

 Analyze the intersection of LGBTQIA+ history and local urban development by identifying key sites, spaces, and landmarks that have historically served as hubs for queer community building, activism, and expression.

Enhance field-sketching and graphic recording skills by translating spatial relationships, architectural details, and character-defining features of historic structures into quick observational drawings.

Examine how the built environment fosters or restricts inclusive public space, evaluating how architectural elements (such as sightlines, boundaries, entry points, and gathering areas) impact accessibility, safety, and community identity.