In the latest installment of our Columbus Creatives: A Day in the Life series, we talk with Meredith Garda, a designer at an architecture firm here in Columbus. When she’s not helping clients bring their visions to life, Meredith loves taking advantage of all that our city has to offer.
Hi Columbus family! My name is Meredith Garda and I’m a designer at Berardi + Partners Architects in Grandview. My job is to design, model and visualize the projects that clients bring to us. In other words, I bring their vision to life. I do this through a ton of hand sketching, modeling, rendering and post-production. I have a not so secret ambition to bring communities closer together through design, specifically through architecture.
I’m blissfully married to a wonderfully hilarious man and we are proud owners of a 120-year-old home in Old Oaks. We love the south side! I am a Cincinnati native but after going to Ohio State for both my bachelors and masters, I decided I couldn’t leave this incredibly creative city.
Morning
Mornings are my downtime. I’m not a morning person and I love to take my time and relax before the craziness of each day. My routine usually consists of waking up and having some quiet time. I use this time to journal and reflect. I’ve been trying lately to think about how I want to approach each day. Recently I’ve been making myself smoothie bowls with recipes from one of my favorite places on the south side, Alchemy Juice Bar. While getting myself ready, I’m probably listening to one of my favorite podcasts, You Must Remember This or My Favorite Murder. I’m a true crime fanatic…I know, it’s weird. Finally, I’m out the door, most likely jamming out to 105.3 as I drive to work.
Afternoon
Afternoons are always different for me. I could spend all day in meetings with clients or be at my desk sketching for hours to prepare for a presentation. My desk, like most other creatives, is a hot mess of hand sketches, trace paper, colored pencils, etc. (organized chaos as I like to call it.) My favorite days are the ones where I have time to sit down and put my hands to paper. I’ve been challenging myself to stay off the computer if I can. Of course, I’ll grab lunch in with a friend or co-worker at Sweet Carrot or The Grandview Café. I travel a lot which I love. Mainly to Detroit where I work with a lot of non-profit clients who share a similar vision of bringing communities together through design. I’m a huge advocate of work-life balance so I prioritize, making sure to get my work down so that by 5 o’clock I’m on my way to spend time debriefing with friends, my husband, or doing something I love.
Evening
Evenings depend on the season. During the winter, I tend to hibernate a bit more, either relaxing with my husband, attempting to cook, painting or drawing with my favorite Copic markers. During the warmer months, however, it’s a different story. My husband and I are extremely active so if you’re looking for us you will most likely find us at the Audubon or at Schiller park playing tennis, volleyball, spikeball, badminton, you name it. We can make a competition out of anything, and we do! No joke, for the first four months of our marriage we opted for a ping pong table in our dining room instead of an actual dining room table. We’ve since starting adulting a bit more, buying ourselves actual furniture. All that activity keeps us hungry, so we will most likely end up at Brassica, Arch City, or Dewey’s Pizza. I love live music so and so on Wednesdays you’ll likely find me at Brother’s Drake for Jazz night and on Sunday we try to catch the Hoodoo soul band at Rumba Café.
