It was like entering the townhome of a 19th-century explorer who had brought pieces of the world back with him. Statuary, drawings, maps, globes, heritage area rugs, architectural fragments and curious objects reveal themselves from room to room. Moldings and casings frame each passage.

Last Thursday, AIA Cleveland's Sketch-n-Sip crew gathered at the offices of Richard L. Bowen + Associates for an evening that was unique in its program and setting.

Thank you to Gregory Aliberti for giving us his all, for welcoming us into his studio, and for sharing not only his work, but the stories, process, humor, and history behind it. After 20 years at The Hildebrandt, his fingerprints are not only on the tiles he creates, but on the creative life of the building itself.

That is one of the beautiful things about architecture. In celebrating the life and work of one architect, we are reminded how many hands shape the built environment over time. We inherit spaces, adapt them, layer new uses into them, and sometimes transform them completely. Sometimes, we are the ones that lay the foundation others work wiith, as is the case with much of [Philip Lindsley ] Small's work. The built environment is not static. It changes as we change, and at different moments, each of us has the opportunity to become part of that story.