This Saturday you can catch a lecture downtown about modern skyscrapers and then later a walking tour of the examples we have in Buffalo. Sounds good. I was thinking Jack Quinan would be doing it or someone I really enjoy hearing from. But no, its my architecture professor, Irene Ayad from last semester who put all 300-something of us through hell. Never worked so hard in a class before, and never got so low a grade either.
But she is a nice lady (I guess) and knows her skyscrapers. Enjoy, because there is no confusing/impossible exam afterwards.

There is a career fair going on at UB today. I looked at the list of employers that will be there and only HSBC and an architecture firm is from the city of Buffalo. There are more companies from Syracuse than there are from Buffalo at this fair but Amherst does have a pretty solid representation. Companies from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are even here and Buffalo is barely noticiable for its’ own major university job fair.

Tells you all you need to know.

It’s actually my dorm hall of males between the ages of 18-21. I’m very proud of my peers and their knowledge of bathroom etiqutte. Sadly, the sign has made little difference.

Well, maybe thats not always the case (in fact it usually isn’t). My friend Alex wanted to do donuts with his ‘88 Volvo in a big parking lot so we decided on the one near the Larkin@Exchange building. While spinning around and leaving asphalt circles in the snow-coated lot, I noticed a huge brick wall in the back corner of the lot so i said

“Like OMGZ thats FLW’s 1st office building!”

because I’m basically a dork.

So we pulled over and walked around with our friend Abhishek. Not gonna lie, I tried to see if there were any loose bricks…but there were none…but still excited nonetheless (as you can see in the picture)

Afterwards we decided to pull up to Central Terminal.


As you can see, Abhishek knows that its polite to dress like the locals.

I, on the other hand, am just awkwardly giddy.

CT at night is always pretty creepy…which is fun but it was Wayyyyy to windy to walk around though (as you can tell in the picture below)

On the way back we yelled random party slogans as we drove down Chippewa and then took Main Street back up to UB and all agreed that UB was beyond stupid for not putting a campus downtown.

Buffalo might be down, depressing, and decrepid amongst other things but goshdarnit…Buffalo can be fuckin cool as hell while being all of those things…something Amherst can’t.

My BuffaloNiagara by Design professor, Bob Shibley who I’ve mentioned a couple of times before and is the uber planner of this region, presented UB’s downtown plans to BuffaloPlace yesterday.
That article pumps me up like whoa. Up to $28 million in construction for 20 acres of a UB Downtown Campus?! Hopefully it actually does happen and when it does, its going to be amazing.
It’ll be pretty much impossible to build anything ugly there either (sorry North Campus), the standards are pretty high with the Bio-Informatics center and the award winning Hauptman-Woodward.

An Urban Planning Senior at UB is extremely dissapointed with the Planning program at UB. He and his associates have made a petition. So far I have no problem with the program. The planning department has opened up my eyes to a lot of great things I never understood or even saw before then. To a certain extent, just taking PD111 with Beth Tauke forever changed my outlook on UB, Buffalo, and myself.
The school of architecture and planning seems to be one of the few innovative and progressive programs at UB so I’m suprised to see that a decent amount of students have some serious problems with it. Regardless, they do and here is the petition…

FIX UB’S URBAN PLANNING SCHOOL:

Improving UB’s Environmental Design Program
Student Petition – December 2006

As students pursuing excellence in the undergraduate planning program at the University at Buffalo, we request that the faculty, staff, and administration of the Planning Department consider the following suggestions for the improvement of the Environmental Design program:

- Please offer more electives. Of the twenty-seven undergraduate 300- and 400-level elective courses listed in the Environmental Design program catalogue, only ten were offered this year (#1). Similarly, coordinate course offerings with related programs, such as Geography, Political Science, and Environmental Studies, to provide students with diverse educational opportunities.

- Please boost faculty involvement in the undergraduate program. Of the thirty-seven professors and affiliated faculty listed on the Planning Department website, fewer than half (15) taught courses in the undergraduate program this year (#2).

- Please ensure that experienced faculty members teach the major studio courses and the senior capstones. These critical courses should not be taught by graduate students or unqualified adjuncts.

- Please ensure that the three studio courses teach skills integral to practical planning, including information analysis, geographic information systems, neighborhood and site design, physical planning, economic and community development, environmental assessment, and fieldwork. Currently, two of the three studios focus primarily on poster creation and aesthetic concerns; content should not take a back seat to fonts, color palettes, and line hierarchies.

- Please ensure that the undergraduate program adequately prepares students for entry-level planning careers following graduation. Many of last year’s graduates were unable to find jobs in planning and related fields (#3). While theoretical and abstract concerns are important, many students feel that practical planning skills are much more useful. Because many students cannot afford to pursue graduate study, the undergraduate program must provide skills that offer graduates a competitive advantage in the job market.

- Please offer more opportunities for fieldwork and community outreach. Many undergraduates wish to contribute to the Buffalo Metropolitan Region, which is a fiscally, socially, and environmentally troubled region. Interaction with the community boosts our knowledge, creativity, and motivation.

- Please integrate critical planning literature into our coursework; as planning students, we are somewhat surprised that we are rarely required to read the works of Jacobs, Mumford, Calthorpe, and others. In addition, we would like to learn how to use, adapt, and implement planning ideas of current import, including New Urbanism, Smart Growth, comprehensive planning, disaster planning, affordable housing, accessibility, and sustainable design.

- Please offer clearer advisement concerning the program’s requirements and restrictions. Several undergraduate students, after receiving poor advice, were forced to spend an extra semester at the university in order to complete the necessary degree requirements.

I always hated school throughout life, even my freshman year of college until I started taking Planning and Architecture classes. This semester my two big papers are about the “Canal Side” development downtown for my Planning class, and then the other one is comparing the Public Safety Campus and the Hauptman-Woodward building for my Architecture class.
Oh and not to mention that planning extrodinaire, Robert Shibley teaches my Buffalo-Niagara by Design course.

It’s like UB was thinking about me all along!

Bucky Badger was busy today as they beat the UB Bulls *ON NATIONAL TV* by a score of 35-3.
That might seem bad but to be honest with you-I feel pretty good about the whole thing.
1. We get $600,000 for doing this
2. Wisconson is the #12 team in the nation
3. Madison is a tough place to play in
4. We get exposure. Any publicity is good publicity

We’ve played Auburn, Boston College, and Wisconson and we haven’t looked embarassingly awful except for maybe the BC game (40-0). It was pretty cool to watch UB play a big team on TV and for the 1st time ever I saw a commercial for UB-you know-like the college ads you see during football and basketball games. Little things like that make UB a little more important.

The results might not show it but with Turner Gill at the helm and with Starks and Roosevelt leading the offensive attack, I don’t feel too bad about our future.

WE WANT THREE WINS IN ‘07! WOOOOOOO!

The Bills finally got back on track with a nice 24-10 victory today. The defense came up with some big plays, which almost always means a win for the good guys. Clutch Evans-Losman hookup in the 4th followed by the A-Train Anthony Thomas getting better as the game went on, locking up the win for Buffalo who goes into Indy next week with a 3-5 record. Moorman was amazing and Losman barely saved himself a quarteback controversy.

An hour later, the Sabres took on the Rangers and for a while it looked like they wouldn’t come out of NYC with a point. Lots of penalties cost the Sabres but the better team prevailed in the 3rd by scoring a couple nice goals to tie it up.
We finally avoided a shootout and won it on a nice goal by Briere. Biron played well but most importantly…he has a super-spiffy new helmet. Next game is Friday downtown against Florida

And yesterday UB kicked some major Kent State ass yesterday with a 41-14 win. NFHS graduate James Starks ran for 162 yards. Of course that’s the one UB game I miss this season.

No seriously, no one saw it…look at the picture. Okay, 500 people.
38-31 to a struggling Miami (OH) squad, which means a 1-5 record for the Bulls heading on the road for the next 3 games.
We’re losing like we always have, but at least we look better when we lose…kinda.

My roomates and I went because it was “mini-helmet” day and ummm the mini-helmet was a bit too mini…kinda fits the thumb nicely.

Oh yeah, Gary Rice was suspended for a game by the team (think that has anything to do with previously mentioned desire for an orgy?…just sayin’)

*Photo courtesy Boris Bystrov