[Andrew Harvey]

Hi,

I have a BA, double major in English and Liberal Arts, from Concordia, took a couple of courses in landscape as an independent student at U de M and I ended up going to U Manitoba for an MLA.

With your academic background, I would suspect you would easily be a candidate.

1st thing you need to know:

it is extremely unlikely that you will graduate from a Canadian MLA programme within the prescribed time. Took myself about 2.5 years for the course and studio work, including two summer studios, plus almost an additional three years to complete my practicum. This was pretty much the norm at U Manitoba. When I was at U de M and the graduate programme was strictly academic, the same was true, but I do not know what will come of the new MLA programme that started this year.

2nd thing: 

As I am sure you already know, Montreal doesn’t have the greatest job market and in landscape architecture there’s a fair amount of competition given the high number, 35~45 annually or so?, of graduates from the BLA programme. This doesn’t mean you won’t find work, but conventional routes are easier in places like Laval and South Shore.

3rd:

Get involved now! CEUM, Eco-Quartier, CCA, Sustainable Concordia, Santropol, Pousse-Urbaine, etc. Volunteering and networking with any of these orgs can lead to some interesting projects that will help build your portfolio.

4th:

Autocad, Autocad, Autocad. Most entry level jobs and internships you will get in Canada are landscape technician positions. You will need to pump out CAD drawings at a quick pace.

[Andrew Harvey]

Thank you both for your input.

Keeping things simple organized, and pure is indeed necessary.

True, Xrefing doesn’t allow for Civil functionality. Just two or so persons in my office use Civil 3D to it’s fullest. The rest of us in the office, myself -the new guy- in particular, focus on 2D drafting, creating standardized layers and styles without modifying the base plans. It’s not a perfect system, but work flow is smooth with 2012.

2013 is a different story, though there’s enough talk on Autodesk forums that I assume they are following the talk and trying to fix things.

[Andrew Harvey]

If Civil is leading the project, we work from their base files and reload as they send updates.

We always attach survey and civil drawings as Xrefs, and if necessary adjust line weights &/or opacity of the Xrefs without ever modifying the original files. That said, some projects will have standards requirements that every office involved must follow.

Now the only consistent problem I and others in my office have had, especially with Civil 3D 2013, is that Xreferenced base files sometimes lose their WCS origin. Whether this is a 2013 bug or drawings are sometimes not set up properly, I’ve yet to figure out. I do however know that switching from Layout to Model space in 2013 often screws up the UCS. Though this can be reset manually, it would be nice if AutoCAD resolved this issue.

[Andrew Harvey]

Thank you both for your replies.

I will take a look into Pinnacle.

Our office is going through a transition period, and though most are quite comfortable with Civil 3D, proper setup and standardization is taking some time, and I am very new to it.

It is an LA office, though we work pretty closely with Civil offices.

[Andrew Harvey]

Hi Dan,

I think I started a thread on the main forum a lil’ over a year ago. Though I’ve since been in touch with Architecture for Humanity, they haven’t expressed much interest in soliciting my services as I am not in Tohoku (was in Osaka and am now in Montreal). That said, I do know they’re looking for volunteers in San Francisco to help on Tohoku projects, and I may offer to be of service again this coming winter as I will be back in Japan for a bit.

よろしくおねがいします。

[Andrew Harvey]

http://architectureforhumanity.org/updates/2011-03-27-sendai-update-moving-from-relief-to-recovery

[Andrew Harvey]

Have been meaning to reply to this post, but with work & the countless “Are you OK/radioactive?” messages…

At any rate, I by and large agree with what’s been written.

I’d just like to emphasize that there exists in Japan a very long standing tradition of “rebuild it”: the 30 year renewal of Ise Shrine, 20 year rethatching of Gasho house rooves, replastering of walls, and of course “rebuild it” after catastrophes. Rebuilding, renovating, cleaning, etc. carry significant meaning and take up a significant role in any design project here.

That said, contemporary rebuilding often seems to be approached with technological and statistical solutions to structural problems specifically/only; very few projects offer intelligent constructs attuned to complex (PESCE) contexts. Of course, this is not only true of rebuilding after a catastrophe, but the number of places built in this way seems remarkably high in Kobe.

Time will tell, but I certainly hope that Tohoku will pick up soon enough, and grow intelligently.

[Andrew Harvey]

http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/SBA_NEWS/SBA_news_5.htm

[Andrew Harvey]

tks!

[Andrew Harvey]

for animals (not sure if dolphins are a priority at the moment but hey):

http://www.arkbark.net/?q=en%2Fnode%2F2901

 

& if you don’t mind the religious affliation, i’ve been told that this organization does a better job than red cross & others at getting a large portion of your donation to those in need:

http://secure.gbgm-umc.org/donations/umcor/donate.cfm?code=3021317

[Andrew Harvey]

Thanks all for your input.

 

I’ll try contacting Architects for Humanity shortly, as well as the architect Shigeru Ban’s office. Ban has worked on numerous relief projects.

 

I’ve been residing on n’ off in Kobe, Japan- the once booming port city most affected by the Hanshin Quake in ’95- for the past 3 or so years.

During this time I have made some observations and have heard several accounts concerning Kobe’s recovery, most notably that the authorities did next to nothing to help rebuild the city quickly enough for business and indeed life to resume. So most industry picked up and moved to other active and competitive Asian ports, Kobe became nothing much more than a satelite of Osaka (sorry Kobeans reading who may take offence to the satelite comment), and the neighbourhoods that were most gravely impacted, destroyed really, were snatched up by developers, leveled, and more often than not inappropriately scaled high rises and shopping centres built. The results: municipal and prefectural governments have enormous debts, the tax base is now almost entirely residential/property, very few jobs are available, there’s a very high rate of vacant commercial/office space, and traditional neighbourhood life- the social component found in public spaces and shopping streets specifically- has vanished. I have also heard that elderly survivors of the Hanshin Quake who had little choice but to move from their old neighbourhood homes into new high rises became isolated and to this day suicide rates are alarmingly high amongst them.

My account here is simplified and turse, there are other underlying socio-economic and environmental factors, but my basic point is that more sensitive, planning, design and development could have helped Kobe and I am sure can help Tohoku in the long run.

 

Of course, at this stage water, food, shelter, clothing & medicine is most needed, but I will try to look ahead a bit and think about what can be done to help Tohoku recover and restructure. From the various comments people have left on this forum, I have no doubt that landscape architects can contribute greatly. Keep posting!

 

At any rate, off to donate blood & $ now. Will do my best to contact other Land8 members in Japan soon.

 

 

[Andrew Harvey]

tks!

i’m looking into various posibilities. language barriers is the 1st of many hurdles for me over here, so i thought i’d post here and see what fluent Japanese speakers & Nihonjin might have to say.

 

[Andrew Harvey]

Nice! do you know what the taller white flowers are in the background?
If this is a ski resort, is this a photo of the ski slope & are these plants evasive or pioneer species?
I was in Kibune, Kyoto-fu yesterday, so about 1/2 to shiga maybe;)

[Andrew Harvey]

#1 Partly enclosed grotto in the mountains between Fushimi Inari and Tofukuji, Kyoto
#2 Shigemori Mirei’s garden’s at Tofukuji, Kyoto
#3 Miyajima, Hiroshima
#4 Peace memorial, Hiroshima
#5 Ise Jinja, Mie
#6 Tsukiji Market, Tokyo
#7 The recent improvements to Dotonbori and other canals in Osaka
& more!

[Andrew Harvey]

not off the beaten track, but i found the underground library at Bibelplatz, by the opera & Humboldt University, quite evoking.

[Author]

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