News

What does it mean to live rurally in the 21st century? This is the foundational question asked during each episode of Rural Routes Podcasts. The online podcast program was created in 2015 through a partnership between the Leslie Harris Centre for Regional Policy and Development and the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation. In Episode 12, Dr. Ryan Gibson of SEDRD shares his experience meeting with researchers at the Cold Climate Housing Research Centre in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Second year BLA and MLA students participated in a day-long design charrette on November 4, 2016 with the City of Guelph staff. The focus of the charrette was the complicated Guelph intersection of MacDonnell, Wyndham, Wellington, Arthur and Elizabeth streets, where one also encounters two rail crossings. All this, and the Speed River corridor with associated bike paths and trail system, made for a complex and difficult design problem which we labelled "The Knot".

The second year Master of Landscape Architecture students were given a tour last week of the Westminster Woods Subdivision Greenway System by the City of Guelph's Engineering Technologist Rachel Ellerman. The greenway stormwater system is an innovative approach through the use of large-scale bioretention facilities. In developing the design, the City, consultants and developers worked together to ensure the success of these stormwater features, which have the added benefits of a native plant corridor, providing both habitat and aesthetics.

The Atlantic Provinces Association of Landscape Architects (APALA) and the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation (LACF) have awarded the 2016 Peter Klynstra Memorial Scholarship to Emma Tarbush, a 2017 Master of Landscape Architecture candidate at the University of Guelph. 

Congratulations to landscape architecture students Julia Taucer in the Master of landscape architecture program; and Andrea Graham in the Bachelor of landscape architecture program who are the recipients of the André Schwabenbauer award for 2016.

The Winter 2017 SEDRD Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA) positions have now been posted. The deadline for applications is November 22nd, 2016. In order to be considered for a position, you must apply online at www.uoguelph.ca/sessional_ta/.

Heather Schibli’s Master of Landscape Architecture thesis research was presented at the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation annual 2016 conference in October; this year’s theme was Building Vibrant Rural Futures: Mobilizing Knowledge and Informing Policy. For her thesis, Heather had investigated Bioregional Design for Multiple Aggregate Extraction Site Rehabilitation in the Oak Ridges Moraine.

Congratulations to Open Learning and Educational Support, with collaboration from the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, and instructor Marianne Staempfli, who submitted the online undergraduate course EDRD*4010 DE – “Tourism Planning in the Less Developed World” to Quality Matters (QM) for course review.   This is the first Canadian course that has achieved the Quality Matters (QM) Certification Mark and the first one at the University of Guelph to be certified.

In May, 2015, Professor Larry Harder, a faculty member in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, participated in a workshop called the "E-scape Workshop", supported by the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) in Bar Elias, Lebanon.  Organized by Dr.