Issue No. 22: 2025 Quarter 2
Left: (fig. 5) Urbansketch done at a layover. Above: (fig. 6) Reference photo. little things. Things that, while in school some would say were overkill, or superfluous, I realized made my designs seem more human and more mine. Now as a licensed architect, part owner and design principal at a firm, I still have to remind myself that those hobbies I have are good. They’re not a waste of time, and can actually provide more help than my training in some instances. Something else I loved growing up was gaming. I’ll always remember that Christmas, getting my turquoise Gameboy COLOR with Pokemon Blue and immediately spending the next 12 hours, a packet of AA batteries, and all my willpower on training my Charmander to catch them all! It never clicked that my love of gaming grew into my tinkering with computers. Another leap in time brings us to COVID, when I decided to build my own gaming computer. That rekindled that hobby and now, that love of computers has placed me squarely in the role of IT director at my office. It has also led to me handling more of the detailed and difficult modeling (fig. 3) as well as doing all of our renderings in-house (fig. 4).
try and keep that mentality, I ended up joining the New Orleans chapter of Urban Sketchers and starting my own Instagram account, @gallions.sketchbook, so that I feel as if I’m being held accountable, both in person and online, in continuing this hobby. What amazes me is that doing this has led to some cold calls, interesting conversations, and clients asking about certain things. My posts of live sketches, thought processes, and design processes have garnered some attention. My desire to keep growing as a live sketcher has led to new connections in the profession. They don’t always pan out, but the connection is there and the recognition among the right crowds is always positive. I’d say if you don’t already have a creative release, I would encourage you to think about picking one up. My string of friends and acquaintances tend to find joy in cooking, furniture design, woodworking, sketching, stand up comedy, home brewing, gardening, and photography. These creative outputs will continue to mold you as a person and a professional (even if you’re not an architect). For me, creation breeds innovation and self reflection, a sense of accomplishment and above all else accountability.
Above: (fig. 4) Interior render of a recently completed ADU. All of my creative hobbies have shown back up over time. These three are just some of the most obvious examples in my life. Even now, I feel as if every time I pick a hobby up again, it teaches me something else about myself. I recently got back into live sketching (fig. 5 & 6). It has shown me I need to slow down; things take time and a sure hand is better than an erratic one. To
Calvin Gallion III, AIA, NOMA Calvin is an architect and design principal at studio^RISE in New Orleans. He serves as EDI Chair for AIA NOLA, Louisiana’s YAR and as a graphic designer for CONNECTIONS.
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