Architectural Writing: Writer Sean Joyner on Finding His Voice, Advice to His Peers, and Kinship
By Julia Gamolina
Sean Joyner is an independent writer based in Los Angeles. His essays and articles explore themes from history, pop culture, and philosophy and how they connect to architectural theory and thought. His most recent work explores the importance of narrative and story in architectural discourse. He is an adjunct faculty member and Director of Communications at Woodbury School of Architecture in Los Angeles, CA. Sean is a former editor and staff writer at Archinect. In his conversation with Julia Gamolina, Sean talks about finding his way to writing and acknowledging his perspective, advising those just starting their careers to not be shy about pursuing something untraditional.
JG: How did your interest in architecture first develop?
SJ: I’ve always had a multidisciplinary mind and I’ve been a ferocious reader my whole life. In my younger years, I wanted to be a detective, to be like the characters in the books I read. There was something about solving a mystery that intrigued me — I was always trying to figure things out. Then I wanted to be an astronomer, then a fighter pilot, then a spy. As I got older, I thought I’d be a mixed-martial artist, but I soon fell in love with Jazz and began playing the electric bass. For years, this was my intended vocation, but then I met my wife, Shelby, in high school and began to think about the reality of having a family as a professional musician.
I had already felt that music wouldn’t satisfy all my interests and one day, Shelby and I were talking on the phone and I told her that I would try out architecture. That’s really it. There was no far off dream as a child where I knew that I would pursue architecture. It was just a random thought that I decided to go with. I figured something like architecture would allow me to explore many different things.
Sean’s personal journals for fiction sketches and notes.
Sean’s home library.
Walk me through how you got to what you’re doing now.
So, one day, in my senior year of high school, this architect comes to visit the school. He taught at College of the Canyons (COC), the local community college where I lived. He gave a presentation about architecture and brought a bunch of models and showed us photos from his years in college. I thought this guy was so cool, and I loved what he showed us.
He became my teacher at that community college the following year. I spent two years at COC and then transferred to Woodbury University where I earned my B.Arch. I did a few internships while in school and upon graduation, I started working in firms. But, after about 3 years, I could see that the firm setting wasn’t for me.
I didn’t mention this before, but my biggest dream throughout my life has always been to be a writer. In my youth, I always wrote about all those interests I had or I would create stories with characters that did the things I dreamed of doing. And so, after three years in firms, I decided to quit the traditional path in architecture to pursue a career in writing. I became a full-time staff writer at Archinect for about two years and began teaching at Woodbury a year ago. Now, I am writing independently, still teaching, and working as Woodbury School of Architecture’s Director of Communications.
Who mentored you along the way? Who do you mentor? How do you choose who you mentor?
I’ve had many mentors throughout my life. In addition to familial and spiritual mentors, I’ve had several important intellectual and professional mentors. Once I started college, I always latched onto certain teachers, many of whom I continue to keep in touch with.
I have mentored many people throughout the years and continue to do so. Typically, younger people will reach out to me for career advice, help with writing, or just overall guidance or insight for certain areas in their lives.
“My approach is always to do my best to empower the person to walk their path independently, doing my best to give them some tools for thinking through something rather than offering what I think they should do.”
My approach is always to do my best to empower the person to walk their path independently, doing my best to give them some tools for thinking through something rather than offering what I think they should do. But, sometimes, a particular person and situation fits well for me to give my own advice. If I can’t, I try to connect them with someone who I feel can do so. It’s important to me that people are encouraged to make their own decisions and even allowed to make mistakes. I’ve had my share of people I look up to try to dictate which direction I should go in my life, and it’s always made me feel stifled and discouraged.
I’ll usually take time for anyone who reaches out to me. It’s the ones who follow up or do something with the advice that I give that I tend to invest in more fully. But all in all, if I feel the person is sincerely trying to grow and find direction and if I believe I can provide value, then I will engage with them.
In addition to being a writer, you are also a father. Talk to me about parenthood.
Being a father is wonderful. Shelby and I have always been partners in life and becoming parents has propelled us to a new level of love, trust, and commitment to one another. We love our son and are up for the challenge of raising him. If anything, becoming a father has taught me to be more selfless. The whole process of supporting Shelby during the pregnancy and taking care of our son once he was born has shifted many perspectives in my life. Namely, that my focus is to raise him to be someone of good character and that, as his father, I’m here to guide him through life.
We have another little boy on the way soon, so he will have a new partner-in-crime!
Sean’s home library: biographies, science, essays, and self-help. Artwork: The DJ by Justin Bua.
Congratulations Sean! With this in mind, how do you approach the integration of everything into your life? What else do you do, outside of your work in architecture, that makes you who you are?
Good question. I’m fortunate to have the kind of work that allows for a great deal of flexibility. This was one of my gripes with working in firms — I felt like my entire life was monopolized by work. My wife and I have a shared family calendar on our phones, and we are intentional about scheduling family time and time where just her and I can be alone — without the boy! We love being parents, but we think it’s important not to become “coworkers” or “roommates” and for us that means having date nights and doing other things where we focus on each other.
The schedule is mainly for me. Shelby would be the first to tell you that my mind is always off spacing out about something. In my free time, I’m almost always working on my writing or reading books, both of which almost never have to do with architecture, and if I don’t have any constraints, I would do that all day.
I’ve been working a lot on fiction writing, something that I haven’t shared with the world yet, and a lot of time is spent on that. Time with the family is the other big part of my life, playing with my son, and going on walks with both he and my wife. We try to cherish the small day to day things, something that this pandemic has helped us embrace more fully.
What do you think needs to be done for further equity in our field? What would you encourage your male peers to do?
I think about this question at a more individual level, which I think would provide good fruit at a larger level. My biggest problem with our field and discussions about equity is what seems to me to be a huge lack of grace, mercy, and patience. I mentioned I’m a spiritual person. There is a Biblical saying that goes:
“You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
I see a lot of my male peers getting defensive when issues of equity come up or when things are pointed out, especially when it has to do with inequities attached to gender. Including me! I am guilty of being slow to listen and quick to speak and try to defend myself. Here’s a story: Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, the Dean at Woodbury’s School of Architecture told me one day that she noticed how most of my essays referenced men and that I hardly mentioned many women. I often talk about historical figures in my long form writing, and she was critiquing these particular collection of pieces.
“Most certainly not!” I thought. “Surely I’ve written about women. In fact, I know that I have.” But here’s the thing — Ingalill didn’t demonize me or make me out to be this wicked man who hates women. She just pointed out something that happened to be true. Something that I didn’t even realize. But because of our polarizing cultural landscape, I was quick to defend myself, and not hear what she was trying to point out.
“...build your skills, even if it means delaying recognition. In the end, the payoff is much better.”
We ended up having a wonderful conversation in which I shared my experience being raised by a single mother and the struggles my mom had to face as a Black woman raising two boys. And I shared my constant searching for what it meant to be a man in the world, growing up without my father in the home, and how I looked for some of those answers in books about men I admired. We both learned more about each other, and I walked away with a new revelation on where I could begin to be more mindful in my reading and writing.
Most of the discussions I see happening around gender equity in architecture are simply people, mostly women, pointing out true things, but for some reason this makes some men so upset! So, I think I’d humbly suggest for my male counterparts to drop the defense and recognize that we have benefited by simply being men in this world. I continue to do my best to acknowledge this myself. I don’t think this in any takes away from the hard work and dedication many successful men in the profession have put in, which is often what seems to be perceived as being threatened. But women have worked just as hard, and often much much harder, and the scales should be balanced.
I think if we had more of a sense of kinship with one another instead of an oppositional default, things could begin to take shape in a new way.
This is a question I’m so curious about - how do you choose how to present yourself to the world? How do you decide what to wear to the office, to events, to special occasions, etc? Women always get asked about what they wear, and men often don’t.
This has always been kind of an intuitive thing for me. I don’t consider myself to be fashion-oriented in the way that some people might be, but I’ve always been very picky about what I wear. I definitely know what I don’t like, and often there will be a certain “look” that I am drawn to that I just try to emulate. For the longest time, that has always been some kind of chinos with leather shoes and a button-down shirt of some kind. Then I wanted to get a little bit more casual and started doing just plain t-shirts, but still the chinos and leather shoes, and then I started adding sneakers to the mix. Honestly, I think as I’ve gotten older, I take myself less seriously. I mean that in a good way. Now, I’m not so much trying to have a certain look to impress people like I was when I was younger. Now, I just dress for myself and what I dig at the time.
Special events where I have to “dress-up” are probably one of my least favorite things in the world. I am an extremely introverted person, and these kinds of gatherings are almost more like punishments to me than anything else! Because I don’t own a lot of formal wear I usually have to go and buy something. But, if I can get away with my ordinary look, then I’ll just do that. I would probably just switch the t-shirt for a button-down and the sneakers for the leather shoes. If I never have to wear a tie again, I would not shed a tear.
In October 2020, Sean wrote a personal essay exploring Black Tokenism in Architectural Practice. The essay uses two novels from African American literature to investigate the issue.
Sean on a Content Creation panel at the 2019 inaugural Young Architect Conference. © Timothy Niou Photography.
Who in the industry do you admire?
In architecture, I think I’d say Demar Matthews and Wandile Mthiyane. They are both young guys close to my age who have practices that utilize architecture to serve the community. These days, I don’t find myself admiring the big names in architecture. Nothing against them, I just think that phase has passed for me.
However, most of my time is spent studying writing and more recently, literature. In those spaces, I admire people like Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Flannery O’Connor, and Ralph Ellison. For more nonfiction contemporary writers, I particularly admire Malcolm Gladwell and Robert Greene, two people who I feel communicate complex concepts in creative ways. Also, I’ve always loved the work of Glenn Murcutt.
What’s the best advice you’ve gotten along the way? What advice do you have for those starting their careers?
I am not sure if someone told me this, but the biggest lesson I’ve learned so far in my career is that the “tried and true” path is not always the “right” path. For most of my life, the advice I received from people was given in a way that pushed me along a traditional career path. Anytime I differed from the status quo, it was usually seen as foolish or rash. Or I was seen as being “naïve” or “impulsive.” Obviously, there are foolish decisions, but people can also change their minds and it not be the end of the world.
My advice to those starting their career is kind of paradoxical: you should follow your heart, even if it seems crazy to other people, but you also have to do your work. It takes time to become good at something. I still consider myself an average writer. I have a lot to learn. I look back at the writing I’ve done the last few years and I want to delete it all and start over. I always urge young people to be patient, and that is often accompanied with my pleading that they forget about social media if it’s causing them to compare themselves to others.
I always think it’s better to build your skills, even if it means delaying recognition. In the end, the payoff is much better.