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There鈥檚 no question that creating buildings requires creativity, but ask professionals where they draw the line between art and architecture, and the answers are as mixed as the mediums.

鈥淎rt is for yourself, or about trying to express an idea and the purity of that idea,鈥� said Lucas Posada, a designer at . 鈥淏ut I think design really is more about solving a problem and very rarely is it a problem for yourself 鈥� it鈥檚 a problem for a client.鈥�

Increasingly, that problem-solving process involves the conceptual world. Whether through watercolors, physical models or 3-D building information modeling systems, Portland鈥檚 buildings are taking creative forms before becoming concrete and steel.

For Posada, architecture is the bridge between art and science, concept and calculation. He said the process is a combination of many mediums coming together to tell a story, from the graphic design in preliminary renderings to photographs of a finished facade.

鈥淎nd then you need to work with good writers who help you express your ideas through the written word,鈥� Posada said.

For Dawn Carlton, an architect at who specializes in watercolor renderings, art is an avenue for the expansion of architectural ideas.

鈥淚 use it for process studies and early design work, as a medium to explore ways of presenting and looking at the project,鈥� she said.

Carlton recently won an award from the for a watercolor rendering she painted of the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation鈥檚 new engine house. Through shades of gray, green and blue, the rendering focuses on two large locomotives and a handful of visitors. ASAI will feature the painting in an exhibit in Baltimore in October.

But technology now has the industry鈥檚 full attention.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 kind of wild right now is that we鈥檙e finally seeing a full shift to 3-D design tools in architecture that has been long in coming; where instead of drafting, architectural designers are really truly modeling their spaces as they design,鈥� said Donald Newlands of in Portland. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a complete shift of tools and thinking.鈥�

Newlands鈥� company specializes in creating 鈥減hoto-real鈥� virtual renderings of architectural projects. His initial interest in mapping the contextual design of sculptures grew into a passion for larger, built structures.

Over the course of its 24-year history, the company has developed a complete, working 3-D model of the entire Portland area. It鈥檚 visible on KGW鈥檚 nightly weather report.

鈥淚t looks like a helicopter photo,鈥� Newlands said. 鈥淵ou probably wouldn鈥檛 know you鈥檙e looking at a 3-D model.鈥�

Newlands said the introduction of BIM systems and software like Google鈥檚 SketchUp 鈥� an easy-to-use 3-D design tool 鈥� have completely changed not only how an idea is developed, but how it is sold.

鈥淲e can create a photo-perfect world with everything exactly the way we want to, and set the light the way we want to, and the sky the way we want to, and populate it the way we want to, and create the environment in a way that stages clients鈥� projects exactly the way they want them staged,鈥� he said.

Newlands and Co., for example, created renderings for 鈥� design of the Mirabella building in the South Waterfront District. The renderings鈥� details extend to reflections of trees in the building鈥檚 windows.

But Newlands said sometimes a project needs a more stylized approach. The company recently created renderings for a road project that used more of a cartoon-like signature.

鈥淲e came up with something that I think was sort of beautiful but didn鈥檛 beg the issues that hadn鈥檛 been designed yet, which is a real issue with photo realism,鈥� Newlands said.

Certainly, traditional design methods still hold appeal.

鈥淚 think hand work in general is so important to architectural design,鈥� Carlton said. 鈥淭echnology has moved so far forward that most work is done on the computer. I think any chance that we get as designers to go back to hand work, whether that鈥檚 pencil or mixed media, there鈥檚 a real connection level of thought process that that supports.鈥�

Carlton, who has painted with watercolors most of her life, said the medium lets her focus on the intent of a space rather than its dimensions.

鈥淚 think the softness is also appealing to a lot of clients, versus say a black-and-white image or other opaque paintings that make it difficult to express the detail,鈥� she said.

Brent Linden, a senior associate at and a past visiting professor at the University of Oregon, also believes in using art to explore a building鈥檚 purpose.

The company, founded in 1994, is known for its abstract physical models that often bear little resemblance to the eventual buildings. Linden described a model of the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver that featured a solid, wooden beam of Douglas fir with mini pylons and cubed spaces carved into it.

鈥淎nd so taking this physically solid thing and then having one act, which is the act of biting into it with a router that makes both spaces 鈥� both the landscaped space and the interior space 鈥� is for us both an exploration and a communication of the fact that it鈥檚 one experience,鈥� Linden said.

The model could seemingly fit in someone鈥檚 living room, but Linden declined to say whether it should be considered a piece of art or a tool.

鈥淚鈥檝e been there for 10 years and have been through numerous processes of working with these things, and I don鈥檛 know that I鈥檓 qualified to call any of the work we do art,鈥� he said, 鈥渕ostly because that鈥檚 an open question for me about what even art is and what act can be described as art or not.鈥�