Since the weather has been pretty horrible this past week, we haven’t been able to get some quality pictures of the Buchanan courtyards. We were given a document by Dean when we met on Friday, and inside the document there was a computerized picture of the site. Keep in mind, the document he gave us only included information leading up to the development of the courtyards, but from our tour with Dean, we can safely say that this picture is almost identical to what the courtyards look like.
Buchanan Courtyards
We will be working on getting some of our own photos of the site once the weather makes a turn for the better.
Last Friday (the 13th of January), we met up with our client, Dean Gregory. Dean is the landscape architect for UBC. We quickly introduced ourselves, and then Dean gave us a pleasant tour of the new and improved courtyards at Buchanan. Despite the torrential, we really enjoyed the tour. Dean seemed extremely excited to have us doing this project for him. We were already excited ourselves to have the opportunity to work on an engineering related project, but seeing Dean’s enthusiasm made us even more inspired. Dean showed us all the aspects of the courtyards that were designed in order to maximize sustainability. He also explained that our main task of this community service project is to compare the work done on the courtyards with the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SSI), and then report back to him with the results. The results would basically let Dean know how much sustainability the courtyards achieve according to the guidelines of the SSI. We are in the process of getting all the necessary documents so that we will be able to start our testing!
If you want to check out Dean Gregory’s blog, follow this link!
Here is another link that has some information about Dean. Also, if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see a short slideshow of some of the projects Dean has worked on, including the Buchanan Courtyards.
Yesterday, we also had a short meeting with Brenda Sawada. Brenda is the founder and coordinator of the UBC SEEDS program! She will be helping us progress forward in our project, and we are extremely looking forward to working with her!
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have. Head on over to the “Contact Us” page to find a list of our group members with their corresponding email addresses.
Our team is extremely excited to get started on this community service project! Head over to the “About Us” page if you want to get to know a few fun facts about our team!
Later today, we will be visiting the work site at Buchanan Courtyards. Stay tuned for updates on our first impressions of the site, a meet and greet with our supervisor Dean Gregory, and some pictures of the site!
