Saturday, May 8, 2010

Katy Weidel has been FOUND!

Carol Greetings:

How wonderful to receive your card. It really brought back many fond memories looking at all the old (very young) faces. I identified a few – hopefully correctly. I would LOVE to attend the reunion but unfortunately we are having a graduation party for my son that weekend. What’s so interesting is we were @ Amherst just last month attending a Williams vs. Amherst lacrosse game.

Please keep me posted as to the activities – maybe I can take a ride up on Sunday June 13th. Here’s my contact information:

Katy Weidel

Work

New Jersey Meadowlands Commission

1 DeKorte Park Plaza

Lyndhurst NJ 07071

201 460-4667

Love to stay connected.

Cheerfully,

Katy

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

William Green has been found!

Hi Carol,

I am alive as you know and am chair of landscape architecture at URI. I will try again on the blog, but if I failed the first time, it can happen again. Keep me posted.
Cheers,
Will


--
Will Green, ASLA
Chairman, Department of Landscape Architecture
University of Rhode Island
94 W. Alumni Ave. Room 201
Kingston, RI 02881
401-874-2142

Sunday, April 25, 2010

George Frantz has been FOUND!

Carol,

Thanks for the post card reminder about Cornell Reunion. I plan to make it to Reunion, if I am in Ithaca.

Since graduation in 1980 I have migrated into land use and environmental planning after going on to get a Masters of Regional Planning from Cornell. I left Ithaca for a few years to work in Pennsylvania before returning in 1988 to work for the Town of Ithaca. After a 12-year stint I left government work and went into private planning practice here in Ithaca. I’ve worked for Tetra Tech Architects and Engineers here in Ithaca, taking care of their environmental impact review and State Historic Preservation Office compliance, as well as a principal of my own firm, George R. Frantz & Associates.

One of my areas of expertise is agricultural land protection strategies and economic development. I do consulting work for American Farmland Trust. Currently I am also working for a half-dozen towns across New York to draft agriculture and farmland protection plans, and new zoning regulations to better protect agriculture and enhance economic opportunities for farmers. In September I will be speaking on the topic at the ASLA Annual Meeting & Expo in Washington D.C.

It appears that I am coming full circle: at Tetra Tech I was officially nested in the Site/Civil section and about half of my time was spent as a landscape designer. As a result I have begun the process of becoming a registered landscape architect in New York, and have passed the first three of five exams. I also have on the boards (OK ,the hard drive) small scale cluster subdivision designs for two clients here in Ithaca and a subdivision/site plan for an urban infill site.

In addition to my private planning practice I am a visiting lecturer in the Department of City & Regional Planning, where I teach one course per semester. Because I am a practicing planner I teach one of the planning field workshops – courses that place the class in a real world community, with a real world client. Currently I am teaching a class that is completing the inventory component for a new master plan for the village of Cayuga Heights next door to Cornell, but I have taken classes as far as the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans (Spring ’06, Spring ’08) to help complete recovery plans for ACORN and other neighborhood groups.

I’ve made a total of 8 trips to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast since Katrina, four with students from the field workshop courses and four with student volunteer work teams that have gone in to do actual clean-up and reconstruction. My Spring’ 08 undergraduate field workshop trip was featured in the May ’08 Cornell Alumni Magazine. (Author Dan Baum shadowed us during our Feb. ’06 trip to the Lower 9th and mentioned us in his story “The Lost Year," that appeared in August in The New Yorker.)

I’m not totally sure at this point if I will be in Ithaca for Reunion, as I may be representing Cornell in Shanghai during the first half of June. There I will be teaching in a joint Cornell University/Tongji University urban design workshop for three weeks. The project is pending the receipt of funding, but I will know within the next two weeks. Although I will have to bring myself up to speed very quickly for the Shanghai workshop, I will be able to tap about 10 years of research on urban form in cities in Vietnam as well as research on Clarence Stein, Ebenezer Howard and the Garden Cities movement.

Overall I’ve had quite the adventure since graduation in 1980. My teaching appointmentis only a quarter-time position so I am not on campus on a daily basis, but I do have occasional contact with Landscape Architecture people.

Since the early 1990s I’ve also collaborated with Prof. Sherene Baugher on a project utilizing pre-emptive archaeological surveys as a land use planning tool. Since wrapping up a project in the Inlet Valley south of Ithaca we’ve co-authored several papers and collaborated on a design studio project focuses on two new public parks designed to highlight Ithaca’s Native American history that were established in the wake of our archaeological project.

I see Peter Trowbridge on occasion as we cross paths in our respective consulting work

In March we also alerted the Town planning board to the potential for archaeological resources on a site proposed for a new Ithaca Beer Co. brewery. They are fortunately in the very early stages of design, and Sherene and I are now working with Ithaca Beer to ensure any cultural resources are protected. (and the brewery gets built!)

I did run into (Prof.) Bill Green in October 2006 at the ASLA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. He is on the faculty at Rhode Island School of Design. I was there to speak on the abovementioned Inlet Valley archaeological survey.

I hope all is well with you, and barring a trip to Shanghai hope to see you in June.

Best regards.

George Frantz

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Karen Williamson has been FOUND!

Hi, Helen -

It's good to hear from you. Yes, I got the postcard from Carol, but am not
sure that I can attend the 30th reunion. I kept in touch with Ginger for a
number of years, but we eventually drifted apart. The last address that I
have for her is from our class directory which was printed in April 2000:
110 Hollywood Avenue, East Orange, NJ 07018-4104. No phone number was
given. It would be nice if we could contact her too.

I visited your work website and it looks like you are doing well. It is odd
that we were in the middle of a bad recession when we graduated and we find
ourselves in the middle of another bad recession at our 30th anniversary.
Just our luck! Will have to check out the blog to learn more about how our
classmates are doing and what ideas they have for the reunion. Should be
interesting...

Talk to you again soon...

Karen

Hello Karen,

Hope all is well with you, may have received a card from Carol Kroehnke
Lattman that the class is trying to get as many together as possible for our
30th reunion in Ithaca in June 10-13th this summer. I'd love to hear back
from you either at this email address or at my work address. My firm's
website is www.udkstudios.com and there's contact info about the firm and me
and some bio there too. The Urban update feauture newsletter is about 6
months old but I'm in there and some of my current projects. We don't
update it too often but should. From viewing your site it seems there's a
few of us involved in various regional planning aspects. But Carol has set
up a blog so I'll point you there first.

http://cornelllandscapearchitecture1980.blogspot.com/

I found Tracy Pearl Finn today and she should be posting there shortly too.

Have you kept in touch with anyone?? Ginger is really the last of the
undergrads we have no trace of. Did you two stay in touch??

Let's get back in touch and if you think you can make it to reunion come on
up!!

Warm regards,

Helen

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Pamela Page has been found!

Carol,

What a surprise to receive the old and alive card! I often wonder where everyone ended up after deviating from academia. I do keep in touch with Chris Capone Sandy, currently in Myrtle Beach, and have heard occasionally from Melanie Davies in Seattle. The reunion most likely won’t be possible for me this year as I am pushing to complete another masters thesis due June 18th. However if it progresses ahead of schedule I would like to attend if the group will be reuniting. Please catch me up on your endeavors for the past 30 years! I spent the first decade after graduating in private sector landscape architecture and land planning. My second decade was committed to nonprofit social conscience passions. This past decade has been devoted to public service. Trying to decide if I will remain in public service or dabble in academia or a mixture of both for the next decade. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks for pulling us back to our roots. Would love to have everyone’s emails as they surface and please feel free to share mine. Pam

Pam Page

ASL, CPRP, CPM

Assistant Director

Parks & Recreation

City of Lakeland

228 S. Massachusetts Ave

Lakeland, FL 33801

Monday, April 5, 2010

Group Picture from Helen


Was a photo in the Cornell Chronicle.

Left to right I can recognize: Bill Green, Paul P., Tom McG. , ??,Kirby?, Bob M. , Pam P.?, Alice? ,Karen W., George F., I’m in the yellow jacket with the rake,??,??, and Tom Johnson.

Are you in this photo? I’m sorry if I missed you , we were all so drenched looking.

We should plan on taking some group photos at reunion with whoever meets up there.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Tracy Finn has been FOUND!

Hi Carol,
You found me! That postcard cracked me up! How's it going with you?
Let me give the brief 30 year (really??) summary. I married my Cornell-Risleyite boyfriend David Finn June '80 right after graduation. Lived in Hoboken. I worked in NYC for about 6 years for Bond Ryder Architects, minority firm. Hired to work on Morningside Park renovation, and went on to do drafting & rendering work for them...the peak of my career there was having my renderings of Battery Park City published in Progressive Architecture.
Then had 2 daughters, in '86 and '87, and started painting full time. You can check out some out my work on my website, www.tfinnstudio.com Although it hasn't been updated in a while.
At age 40 I finished nursing school and got my RN, and have been working as a psychiatric nurse ever since, while painting part time. I worked for several years on an in-patient mental health unit, and for the past 6 years have been the psych nurse for a drug/alcohol rehab facility.
Dave is one of 3 partners in a small company in NJ doing all manner of corporate communications. Back in '90 we moved up to the exurbs (Orange County, NY) on a property next to a large farm, and never looked back. So this year is also our 30th wedding anniversary!
Had one trip back to Cornell when we were college shopping with the girls, was great to be back on campus. (but alas, neither daughter went there....Schuyler graduated U of Rochester 2 yrs ago and Rose graduated from Skidmore 1 year ago)
Unfortunately, I'm not able to make it up for the reunion. I had a disastrous botched gall bladder surgery July '08, with a lacerated liver, pancreatitis, and permanent damage to my stomach, and have been plagued w/severe nausea ever since. Have been going to Temple Univ Hosp in Philly for treatment since this winter, they have a premier GI clinic, do a lot of research there....so have been gradually working my way through the various treatment options. May eventually end up w/a gastric pacemaker.
So at the present my activities are pretty limited. Only working one day/week. Not up to traveling. Just started a new anti nausea medication this week, and have my fingers crossed that we're getting somewhere.
Please give my best to all my fellow Larchies. Would love to see pictures of the reunion!
Take care, & would love to hear what everyone is up to. Feel free to share this e w/our classmates.
Best,
Tracy

Friday, April 2, 2010

Old Pictures

Landscape Group LABASH
PETER
PETER
TOM
Nancy

William
Pamela
Tracy
Helen