Landscape Architecture Symposium

To side track a bit from my Off Campus Project, I wanted to share a public event that will be free this week from October 16th to October 17th: The Landscape Architecture Symposium here in Buffalo, NY. There will be eight featured speakers discussing about the examination of changing landscape of architectural patronage.

The symposium will open Oct. 16 with a panel, “Student as Instigator,” at 5:30 p.m. in the Greatbatch Pavilion, 125 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo, on the site of the Darwin Martin House. It will feature guest speakers and UB architecture students in a discussion about the role of emerging young designers in a shifting landscape for practice.

The schedule on Oct. 17 will begin at 9 a.m. in Harriman Hall, South Campus. Events will include a series of panels organized around the emerging roles of the architect—as an advocate actively engaging new client bases, as a detective uncovering hidden conditions and spaces, and as an initiator forging entrepreneurial and innovative business models for architectural practice. A catered reception will follow at 7:30 p.m. in Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo. For more information and reservation to this event, please click on the links below:

http://www.buffalo.edu/ubreporter/2012_10_11/martell_symposium

http://beyondpatronage.wordpress.com/rsvp/?contact-form-id=14&contact-form-sent=294&_wpnonce=2f01e5471e#contact-form-14

- Edward L

Crossing the Border

Canada’s minimum wage is on average $10. I found that number to be very fascinating in comparison to the $7.25 that America has. The trip this weekend to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and the city of Toronto was eye-opening and most defiantly a new experience and additional to this Off Campus Program. The toll was $3.25 to cross the bridge to the border of the U.S. into Canada with no additionally toll to come back. There was also the $1 toll to cross Grand Island from Buffalo there and back. So a round trip with a car as your mode of transportation cost a total of $5.25.

First of all, one of the most important things to know is that Canada uses a different metric system and secondly a different currency. Once I drove in Canada, I notice the green sign on the right of the highway that stated that the speed limit was 100. I thought to myself 100 is quite fast and realized that it was 100kmph, which is equivalent to 60mph moments after. The currency of Canada is also different and it seems to me like people in Canada see U.S. dollars as change and not so much as a dollar bill with any value. That is because 1 U.S. dollar = 0.9796 Canadian dollars. The American dollar is worth less than a dollar in Canada. The smallest bill Canada has is a $5. The value of $1 in Canada is a gold coin. I also had to close my cellphone because of international fees and thus had no phone to use. However, as a surprise there are a few payphones in the streets of Toronto. After visiting Niagara Falls in Canada, I drove on the QEW and an hour and a half later arrived in the bright busy streets of Toronto. I visited the small neighborhood of Chinatown and saw that there was a trolley used as a bus system with streets constructed in cobblestone material. Canada is very different from the city of Buffalo, but at the same time reminds me much of New York City.

- Edward L