An appeal has been launched to have the original artist’s impressions that helped secure funding for London’s landmark Canary Wharf development, adopted for a UK museum. The late American architectural illustrator Carlos Diniz (1928 – 2001) made the drawings in 1986, which appeared in prospective brochures and newspaper supplements and led to securing approval and funding for the vast financial-sector development on defunct docklands on the Thames. His estate is now making a bid to find a philanthropic buyer to purchase the selection of nineteen drawings in order that they be placed in one of London’s most important museums, as yet unspecified.

In 2021, the American entrepreneur Marc Cuban purchased a series of Diniz’ drawings for the World Trade Center – drawn in 1963, ten years before the twin towers became operational – and donated them to the Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.

An LA Times article about the drawings and Diniz’s Canary Wharf commission can be viewed here. Diniz said about the drawings, completed when the architectural details were yet to be decided, ‘We helped dream up the neo-classical and post-modern architecture the architects felt might be appropriate to this ancient waterway. We drew our inspiration from such sources as Canaletto’s famous 17th-century oils of the Thames and from prints of the river in Victorian times, to show how the presently run-down section known as the Isle of Dogs could be transformed into an instant urban scenario. The architects relied heavily on our imagination to fill in the blanks in their design.’

A selection of Diniz’ drawings can be seen on the website of London’s A Gallery (see panel, left), which is publicising the appeal.