+ creating masterpieces
LUCAS STRACK
Turning a Childhood Passion into a Career
When searching for one’s passion or purpose, a common piece of advice is to remember what you loved to do as a child. Lucas Strack – an architectural designer, draftsman, craftsman, furniture maker, and woodworker – has designed a career and a life he loves by embracing the activities that brought him joy when he was a kid. From an early age, Strack has had in interest in buildings, handson projects, and art. He would spend time drawing and sketching and wanted to be either a cartoonist, an architect, or an artist when he grew up. Around the age of 14, Strack learned the basics of woodworking in his father’s woodshop, building bird boxes and Adirondack chairs alongside his dad. He later attended architecture school, where he spent time in the college’s woodworking space. There he designed and built his first coffee table, which gave him practice in joinery and working in mixed media using different types of wood. Coffee tables are still his favorite pieces to design.
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“Coffee tables are so manageable, and the design possibilities are endless,” Strack said. “All my sketchbooks are filled with a gazillion sketches of coffee tables.” Strack realized when studying architecture that he enjoyed designing furniture to fit a space as much as he enjoyed designing a building to fit a landscape. He was inspired by renowned architects such as Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright who designed both buildings and furniture. “I loved architecture, I loved furniture, so I wanted to do both things,” he said. “I like to build things, and I like to design and build things that fit the space they’re going in.” Strack has had full-time roles with architecture firms where he designed and built custom pieces for commercial clients. He also owns his own business, Strack Studio Furniture, which he started about seven years ago. Through Strack Studio Furniture, Lucas has had the opportunity to design and build woodworking projects that are custom made for his clients’ spaces. In some cases, the piece has sentimental value because it was crafted from a tree that meant something to the client. Strack once designed and built a table for a client using wood from a pecan tree that was on the playground at St. Joseph School. After the tree was removed to construct a new building on campus, Strack – who attended school at St. Joseph as child – sawed and dried the wood. “I have memories of playing around the tree and picking up pecans that fell from it,” Strack recalled. “This person went there, too, and wanted a table with some of the pecan wood in it. So, I inlaid the pecan wood in the center and then surrounded it with walnut. It means a lot to them.”
