{"id":10260,"date":"2015-04-07T11:02:01","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T16:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=10260"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:07:14","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:07:14","slug":"drawthistown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=10260","title":{"rendered":"Hobby turned hashtag: UNC alum brings Triangle to life with #DrawThisTown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Hedglin fell in love with buildings while living in China for three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in Shanghai, I was fascinated with riding buses and subways and navigating the streets. It was an exciting place and I wanted to know how it worked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hedglin\u2019s newfound interest brought him back to the United States where he enrolled in the UNC department of city and regional planning master\u2019s program, housed in the College of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cUNC has a strong approach on why people do what they do and design policy around that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a good fit for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hedglin graduated from the program in 2014. He was applying for jobs daily but he wanted something else to do to pass the time.<\/p>\n

So he decided to flex his creative muscles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it would be interesting to go out and draw buildings and get a better sense of the physical space where I lived,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"tumblr_ndjvdl2m1b1ti5d8xo1_500\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And so the #DrawThisTown project was born.<\/p>\n

Every day, Hedglin would travel to a different location in the Triangle with his iPad. Using his stylus, he would make a digital sketch and post the finished product to social media with the hashtag #DrawThisTown.<\/p>\n

Hedglin had three ground rules for all his sketches:\"tumblr_ndhs8iSppq1ti5d8xo1_500\"<\/p>\n

1. Do all drawings on location.<\/p>\n

2. Focus on drawing local businesses and buildings.<\/p>\n

3. Be outside to interact with people and immerse in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re drawing, you have this intense focus on what\u2019s in front of you. I got to learn how people operate on Franklin Street, where people go in downtown Durham and Raleigh,\u201d he said. \u201cI got to tie together planning and drawing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And just as Hedglin was learning about the people, the people began to learn about him.\"tumblr_nduue8IMjg1ti5d8xo1_500\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI had done about two or three drawings and people started retweeting my work and sending me feedback,\u201d he said. \u201cI decided to create the hashtag as a way for people to come back and see all of the drawings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hedglin\u2019s hashtag has gone beyond the Internet. A different #DrawThisTown piece is featured monthly in the Triangle Downtowner<\/em> magazine and Hedglin has begun selling prints<\/a>, with all proceeds going to buy art supplies for local children\u2019s charities.<\/p>\n

Despite the popularity of his project, Hedglin firmly refrains from identifying as an artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do these for fun with the idea that they\u2019re not perfect. I think people would judge me less if they think my work sucks if I say I\u2019m an urban planner that just likes to draw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heglin\u2019s goal is to draw every building in the Triangle; so far, he\u2019s covered about 75. He currently works with the Town of Chapel Hill planning department, assisting potential builders with understanding local regulations and ordinances.<\/p>\n

The #DrawThisTown project reminds him why he decided to pursue a career in planning in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a city planner, you study things like how does homelessness occur. But it\u2019s almost scientific and can feel mechanical and distant,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re on the street, it becomes personal. It\u2019s not some abstract policy that affects people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Click <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> for a link to more of Hedglin\u2019s prints.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Parth Shah ’15<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Hedglin (city and regional planning master’s program ’14) has a goal of drawing every building in the Triangle through his #DrawThisTown project. Proceeds from sales of the prints go toward buying art supplies for local children’s charities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47214,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10260\/revisions\/47214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}