Lukas
J.
Weidner
Architect, Artist, Designer & Maker
Building things. Drawing things. Writing about both.
The Practice
We call it "practice" for a reason. I embrace the daily pursuit to expand my understanding, mastery, and curiosity. The ultimate goal is the mighty synthesis of intention - that place where thoughts are given form. This is where we change the world.
We are all looking for answers. What matters most in the end is learning how to ask the best questions
Registration
Registered Architect — Commonwealth of PennsylvaniaArchitecture
New Jersey Statehouse
Entry Pavilion & Capitol Restoration - 2023
The New Jersey Statehouse Complex underwent a robust restoration & renovation. I supported in the reprogramming of several components of the site, including the design and documentation of a new secure entry pavilion serving access to all personnel and visitors.
Georgia State Legislative
Office Building
A new civic building within the State Capitol Complex in Atlanta, Georgia — 260,000 square feet of public space, legislative offices, event and educational programming, parking, and a pedestrian bridge connecting the new building directly to the historic Capitol. The project sits on a prominent site adjacent to one of America's great neoclassical statehouses, demanding both civic authority in its own right and a careful material argument about how a contemporary building earns its place in that company.
The facade system — precast concrete with marble cladding — was developed in direct dialogue with the Capitol's stone coursing. Panel dimensions, joint widths, and reveal depths were calibrated to the existing building's rhythms, producing a material conversation that operates at the scale of the hand as much as the skyline. The pedestrian bridge, clad in matching stone with arched glazing bays, extends that logic across the street to the Capitol's rear facade.
Sketches & Urban Study
I draw as a means to remain grounded not only in analog modes of design thinking, but as a reminder to remain present and look at the world for what it is. Building is a titanic undertaking. We should consider what has been built an informative artifact of human progress.
"This building provides very few clues to its organizing order or structure. Is it the architectural spiritual equivalent of the game Marble Works?" — field note, MAXXI Gallery, Rome, January 2020
Polargraph Drawing Machine
The machine began as a solution to a reproduction problem. Working extensively in watercolor, the challenge of iterating compositions across multiple paintings — maintaining consistent linework while allowing each piece to breathe — led to the construction of a polargraph: a wall-mounted drawing robot guided by stepper motors and a suspended pen.
The apparatus worked. And then it became something else entirely. As AI tools matured into capable technical collaborators, the polargraph became the endpoint of a generative pipeline: compositions developed through dialogue with AI, translated into Python scripts, and executed by the machine onto paper.
The result is a body of robotic drawings that sit precisely at the boundary this practice has always occupied — between the systematic and the spontaneous, between the algorithm and the drag of a nib across cotton rag.
Writing
Writing is added as it is completed. More soon.
Contact
Whether it's work or connection, it all begins with a dialogue.
Available for architectural commissions, public art projects, generative art collaborations, and speaking on the intersection of computation and craft.
Registered Architect — Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.