Bio: Frank Costantino
Frank Costantino, has practiced architectural illustration for fifty years, and collaborated with preeminent architectural, design, and development firms throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. He is a recipient of the world’s most prestigious award for architectural illustration – the Hugh Ferriss Memorial Prize – as well as many other awards from the American Society of Architectural Illustrators (ASAI). A recipient of the Arthur Ross Award from the Institute of Classical Art and Architecture in New York, he shares the distinction with one colleague as the only illustrators in the world to receive both the Ferriss and the Ross Awards.
His diverse output of illustrations has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most notably at The Art Institute of Chicago, New York’s Urban Center, the Octagon Museum in Washington, D.C., in many venues of home-town Boston, as well as in Toronto, Tokyo, Seoul, Brisbane, Sydney, Berlin, and Lisbon. Since 1987, his drawings or paintings have been accepted into ASAI’s annual juried exhibitions, and artworks from his career have been published in more than sixty books or catalogues. Representative drawings for Chicago projects are included in the permanent collection of The Art Institute of Chicago. Selected works have been reserved for the Library Of Congress Drawings Collection, the Skirball Museum in LA, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Tchoban Museum in Berlin; and are also held in private collections.
His commissions for a stellar and consistent clientele – including AIA Gold Medalists Cesar Pelli, Moshe Safdie, I.M. Pei, Peter Bohlin, Joseph Esherick, Benjamin Thompson, and Jose Luis Sert, among many other notable national and Boston firms – span a diverse range of global projects, including skyscrapers, office buildings, museums, concert halls and aquariums, among others. He has also designed five post cards for the US Postal Service’s Historic Preservation series, and been commissioned by private and civic institutions for unique watercolor artworks.
As one of the founders of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators (ASAI), he helped establish an international network of delineators throughout the US, Canada, England, Europe, Japan, Australia, Korea, and other countries. On behalf of the Society and with his co-founders, Mr. Costantino received Institute Honors from the American Institute of Architects in 1995. He has also received Honorary AIA Fellowship (FAIA) sponsored by the Boston Society of Architects (BSA). Frank is an Honorary Life Member of the Japan Architectural Renderers Association (JARA), Tokyo, a Fellow of Society of Architectural Illustrators (FSAI), Great Britain, and Honorary Member of New York’s Society of Illustrators (SI).
Mr. Costantino is also a Founding Director and Vice-President of the American Society of Illustrators Partnership (ASIP), a consortium of national illustration groups that advocate for the collective rights, royalties and business issues for thousands of US artists from varied illustration disciplines and professional practices.
He has taught at the Boston Architectural College (BAC), the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), as well as guest-lectured at numerous institutions and conferences across the United States, North America and overseas. As a member of the Advisory Council to the School of Architecture at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan, he assisted in the development of the country’s first degree-granting program in architectural illustration.
During the decades of his busy practice, he also conducted – under BSA auspices – seminars in illustration to architects and artists; and also offered courses in architectural watercolor for all levels of experience, with workshops and field sketching programs at locations around the country. As a Signature Member of both the New England Watercolor Society and an elected member of the Salmagundi Club of New York, two of America’s oldest such societies, as well as other regional and local associations, his fine art watercolors have been accepted into national shows and featured in many publications, with numerous works in private collections.
Mr. Costantino is a regular contributor to professional publications about the business practices of his profession, including essays on the subjects of perspective methods and media techniques. He has also reviewed and edited books, articles, and essays for various authors. He continues to assist, in various capacities, in the many affairs of ASAI, including its highly acclaimed annual exhibitions and catalogues, Architecture In Perspective. In recognition of his continuing contributions to ASAI from its founding in 1986, the Society awarded its first Lifetime Achievement Award to Frank for his dedicated commitment to its many activities, and his profession. Mr. Costantino is regarded as one of the world’s most respected practitioners in, and vigorous proponents for, the field of architectural illustration.