Arthur B. Gallion, FAIA

Arthur B. Gallion (1902–1978) was the inaugural recipient of the James Harrison Steedman Fellowship in Architecture in 1926. His selection was unique because nearly all the early winners were students of the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. Gallion had studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning a B.S. in Architecture in 1924.

Arthur B. Gallion, portrait (Gallion Collection).

After graduating, Gallion moved to California to work for Richard Neutra. Between 1924 and 1926, he contributed to his monumental urban design proposal, Rush City Reformed.

His Steedman travels took place between 1927 and 1928, when he visited essential European sites akin to the "Grand Tour" during the 17th to 19th centuries. It was a longstanding tradition for elite education. For years, it was considered essential for American architects to travel and study in Europe before the advent of modernism. While in Europe, Gallion attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, obtaining a certificate.

Gallion was an excellent researcher and talented draftsman. He took the fellowship seriously, documenting his travels through extensive drawings and photographs. Eight albums of his sketches are in the Gallion Collection at the University of California at Berkeley. He produced beautifully rendered maps depicting his travels, showing the locations, modes of travel, and surrounding geography.

He traveled with his wife by automobile for portions of his travels in Europe. He had a remarkable ability to sketch and draw, capturing the essence of street scenes like this one from Nuremberg.

Nuremberg Sketch., c. 1927–1928 (Gallion Collection).

Arthur B. Gallion with his wife, c. 1927–1928 (Gallion Collection).

In 1930, he proposed a modernist chapter house for the Delta Zeta sorority at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, revealing the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian period. It remained unrealized.

Proposed Delta Zeta Chapter House, 1930.

Gallion practiced architecture in California and Hawaii. He taught at the University of Southern California and was Dean of the USC School of Architecture for fifteen years, from 1945 to 1960. He established the school's Industrial Design program, headed by Raymond Loewy. Deborah Howell-Ardila's thesis, Writing out own program: The USC experiment in modern architectural pedagogy, 1930 to 1960, discusses his tenure at the school.

In 1951, Gallion co-authored a book on urban design, The Urban Pattern: City Planning and Design. Eisner, Simon; Gallion, Arthur (1951). The 450+ page book became a dominant textbook on the subject. Five editions have been published, the most recent being published in 2019.

The Urban Pattern: City Planning and Design.

One of his notable project was the Raymond Joseph Sedlachek House on a hillside in Los Angeles. Sedlachek was both the client and contractor for the house. The project was photographed by Julius Shulman and featured in LA Times Home Magazine in November 1949 and House and Home in April 1952.

Raymond Joseph Sedlachek House, Los Angeles, 1949.

In 1957, he was elevated to Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. When he died in 1978, his obituary was published in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

The epigraph of the Fifth Edition of The Urban Pattern.

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The primary research for this material was gathered by Carlos Cepeda Gómez, Special Researcher, Steedman Centennial Committee in July 2024.