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Introduce Yourself

Daveography

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Thought it would be good to start a thread to help get to know one another, and to give new forum members a starting point that's not construction-related for dipping into.

I've lived in the Edmonton region practically all of my life; first five years in Spruce Grove, the next 21 years in St. Albert - minus one year I spent in Curaçao - and have lived in the city proper since 2005.

General civics nerd, always had an interest in urban development. Might be from playing SimCity at an early age. I'm the Civics Director for my community league (Holyrood), which has been keeping me busy over the last year since I joined.

My full-time day job is a software developer, but I'm also a semi-pro photographer taking paid gigs here and there (as well as generally doing it as a hobby). My wife and I are also into brewing; mostly mead but I've also been dabbling in making beer. Love gardening and cooking. Post-retirement dreamjob would be running a brewpub or a meadery (or both).

You might already know I'm a cyclist; you might not know that I've never had a drivers license. Thinking it might be getting to be time to change that as I approach 40, if only to have some more flexibility to do more photography work, and to share in driving duties when traveling.

Pets: Three chinchillas, one Australian blue-tongue skink, and one cornsnake.

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Good Idea! I was conceived in the middle of a wheat field in Saskatchewan, equidistant between Evesham and Senlac. My first year was spent on the farm and then my parents moved to Edmonton -- so all of my early memories are of that City and my Grandmother's farm back in Sask.. I grew up on 91st Street, one lot south of 120th Avenue. I attended Delton Elementary School for all of the primary grades and then went to Eastwood Junior High for Grade 7. My parents divorced when I was in Grade 5 and I stayed with my mother who remarried to an airforce NCO when I was in attendance at Eastwood (a rough year for many reasons). My reshuffled deck of parents bought a house in what was then considered North Edmonton and so Grade 8 was spent at Killarney Junior High School (shared an athletics ground with Queen Elizabeth High). 132nd Avenue was the end of civilization in those days -- north of that demarcation line was a hog farm (very aromatic). Step-father transferred to CFB Cold Lake (grade 9) then to Zweibrucken, Germany for all of High School. I won a scholarship out of High School that put me in Paris, France for 6 months.

Education became a thing for me so I have attended, in order, the University of Alberta, Carleton University (Ottawa), NAIT, Athabasca University, UCLA (Los Angeles), West Los Angeles College, and Harvard University. Subjects that I delved into, again in order, include Agriculture, Economics, Biology, Architecture, Sociology, Anthropology, Canadian History, Landscape Architecture, Art and Law.

I practise Architecture -- my own company, Design to the Nines -- with my partner and wife, Laura (Landscape Architect and Web/Graphic Designer), based in Oak View, California (very close to a resort town -- Ojai -- and another resort City -- Santa Barbara). Our house is nestled in the Ojai valley (coastal mountains); we are about a 12-minute drive to the Pacific Ocean (City of Ventura).

Attachments to Edmonton? -- my first company venture was with a school-mate, Denis Blackburn, in 1971 (I turn 70 this year -- but I still imagine that I am 19); together we formed Powell Blackburn Design Ltd. with our first office on Whyte Avenue (north side) between 104th Street and Gateway Blvd. The two of us, with another Architect (Gord Thorkelsson) and his partners (Bruce Watt and Larry Taylor), founded the Old Strathcona Foundation of which Gord was the first president. I talked Barry Sparrow and his partner, Dale Cook, into taking a chance on the southside, loaded with historical structures, and open Cook County Saloon there. We all worked very hard to get Old Strathcona to rumble and hum.

In 2011, following up on a City-held competition (MRVAS -- Mechanical River Valley Access System), I formed the Cedar Waxwing Group with a number of prominent Edmontonians and other more distant individuals (architect Doug Cardinal, vertical plant-wall expert Patrick Blanc as examples). 22 members strong and still very active today, we have pitched proposals to the City (Edmonton) for Rossdale, Northlands, CPR land in Strathcona, and a new "living" High Level bridge, adjacent to and on the east side of the existing historical structure.

With my wife, we have three other companies -- Out on a Limb (plants and birds), Art of Dreamin' (custom furniture) and Folio Fantasy (book publishing).

Like Dave, we have a bit of a zoo -- 32 birds (mostly parrotlets), including a very talkative parrot who likes to boss the dogs around and abuse them verbally (Cape Parrot), a Brazilian (and very playful) Caique, an Aracari (Toucan family), a paradise whydah, 2 canaries, two dogs, and 3 fish (Bettas).

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Ted Powell
 

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Great idea Dave!

I grew up outside of Camrose on an acreage about 15 km out of town until moving to Edmonton for school at NAIT back in 2005, I applied to Engineering Design and Drafting Technology late and was on a waiting list. SO instead of working on the rigs for the winter I took Pre-Technology for a year before going into EDDT.

So far I have lived in order South Side (111st-61ave), Downtown (109st-103ave), Northside (91St-167Ave), NW (127st-152ave), Downtown (121st-Stony Plain Rd), East (75st-98ave), NE (54st-122ave), SW (Ainslie Cresent), South (Macewan-119st) and finally built our house in Glenridding Heights.

Hmm pretty sure I didn't miss anything there.

I work as a Project Technologist for a civil engineering firm on the west end, been with the company now for 7 years. I do mainly commercial site design and coordination of construction.
On the side I do photography more as a hobby than anything, but have started to do some infill project homes for an architect friend of mine and a few of his developers.

We have one pet, our Golden pooch named Finn, he will be 1 years old in 12 days! I live with my Fiancee who is a dental hygienist at a pediatric clinic here in the City. We are big mountain bikers, hikers, and snowboarders and more recently I finally got her into Camping.
 
I love this idea! I'm a little late though,

I was born in in Fort McMurray and my family moved to Edmonton a couple years after I was born.

I am currently 20 years old and attending NAIT for software development and am planning to get a job here in Edmonton, I played a bit of football in high school but my main interests have always been technology, architecture, and photography.

I love travelling! I wish to visit every major city in Canada( I was in Montreal, and Quebec City this past summer).

I am currently working a part-time job at save-on foods to put me through college.

I also have a few animals:
3 fire bellied toads
1 bearded dragon
and a couple fish

Pleasure to share this to all of you!
 
Well, I was born in Southwestern Ontario near London, and grew up in and around St. Thomas (a small city south of London). I always had a passion for trains, so when I was 20, I took an opportunity to work as a conductor for CN in Edmonton. I moved out here in 2011, and have never looked back. Since then, I've worked as an Uber Driver, and now as a conductor for CP. I have had a thing for construction and urban planning for about 7 or 8 years now, probably thanks to SimCity. I am excited to see how cities grow and evolve. I especially love seeing this in Edmonton because it has a reputation of not being that developed, especially the core, compared to other Canadian cities. I see it almost as a clean slate. It's very satisfying to watch parking lots disappear one by one.

I'm married with two kids now, four-years-old and five-months-old. I live in Queen Mary Park just north of MacEwan and love my proximity to downtown, but still able to afford a larger apartment for my family. In my free time I love to play simulation games like Farming Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator or Train Sim World. I'm also proficient in PHP, and have made a few web applications... mostly for fun.

So that's pretty much me. Kind of funny that I seem to have the only blue-collar job on here, but that's okay :)
 
"Blue Collars" are the salt of the earth and, generally speaking, make the best friends (a testimony to my best friends). I, too, have a love of railroads (and streetcars -- your streetcar video crossing the high level bridge is the best! -- I like the others taken from your dash cam, as well). I am going to have to check out some of the Sims.
 
We kinda let this one die, whoops.

Backing up and continuing with Archited, a ton of my friends are blue collar and are amazing people for sure. I don't look at white vs. blue collar as a hierarchy or anything, both are needed, both are important and both take skill and knowledge. I know some really book smart people that if you tried to get them to do some of the figuring out people out in various industries have to do while on the job they would be completely screwed lol.
 
I guess it's my turn.

I was born in Red Deer and moved to Edmonton right after I was born.

I am (only) 16, and start grade 12 this September at Ross Sheppard High. I currently live in Westmount, but I have moved around the region a bit. I play Hockey in the winter. I'm learning the guitar. I work part time for the Duchess Bake Shop (mainly at their teaching kitchen) where I wash dishes. They give me free food :). I do not have a license, nor do I want one. And I rely on public transit to get around.

My interest in skyscrapers probably started when i'd occasionally visit my mom's office in Manulife Place. I also played Minecraft and Simcity as a kid and that kept me interested too.

I have two cats, and a chihuahua.

No wife and kids.
 
Hey everyone,

I am new here so it's good to know a little bit more about my fellow enthusiasts here on the forum.

My name is Tyler and I currently live in Vernon BC with my wife and our 2 sons; 3 years old and 1 and a half year old. I lived in Lethbridge AB till I was 11 and I always marveled at the High Level bridge and looked at it nearly every time we went across Whoop up Drive (For those of you aren't familiar with said bridge, i'll attach a picture. ). I also played Sim City as a kid and still play it occasionally today on my mobile phone.

My family moved to Edmonton when I was 11 and I naturally took an appreciation for the city skyline although it always seemed a little underwhelming in comparison to Calgary's. I took up an interest in the Edmonton Oilers in 9th grade which was when they made their miraculous run to the Stanley Cup finals in 2005-2006. Since then the Oilers have been rather dreadful but i've never swayed as a loyal fan. The Arena and Ice District proposal by Daryl Katz really got me excited about the potential changes in downtown and I am excited to continue to follow these developments in what i still consider my home town.
 

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Wow I just found this section!

My Name is Luka. I am currently 14 years old and have lived in Edmonton my whole life.

When I was really young, I used to LOVE playing with wooden trains and pretty much everything else to do with trains XD. I have always liked taking the LRT and going downtown to look at all of the buildings. I loved and still love playing games like Minecraft and ROBLOX and making my own projects on them
.
At around the time of the municipal elections last year, I really started looking deeper into the whole Ice district project, and whenever I would look and see a rendering of Stantec Tower, or Alldritt tower, or any big project like that, I would just get this serene feeling, and I would try my hardest to imagine what that tower would look like in person. I still do! I would like to become an architect, or an urban planner, or an architectural technologist, or even a landscape architect. I just really want to take every idea I have for a building or a park or a mode of transit and somehow just make it REAL. I don't have too many friends my age who have the same level of interest in these things, as you can imagine :).

Some other things about me are that I REALLY love a subgenre of metal called "Djent" (Say it five times fast) and my favourite band is TesseracT. I have a 2 year old hamster and his name is Medo (Croatian for Bear). I have a YouTube channel named Lukaplatinum and the only video on it right now is one of me reacting to my old/unreleased youtube videos. I have a more structured and scripted video talking about my plan for the channel almost done and I will post it soon.

Before I finish, I have attached a picture of a city in Minecraft I have been working on for almost two years now. I call it "The City of Frontier". Not sure it will work because it is a picture off Instagram lol.

Thank you for reading and your stories and amazing, too!;)

Edit: Never mind here is the link to the instragram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BnaTR6fAWTV/?taken-by=readbackwardsluka
BnaTR6fAWTV
 
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@Platinum107, I am going to have to keep an eye on your progress towards entering one of the design fields. I am looking to open (re-open) a design office in Edmonton early next year and your kind of enthusiasm for architecture and related fields is something that, as an employer, I covet. If I can be so bold as to suggest a path for you going forward -- after graduating High School, I would suggest that you look at the 2-year diploma program offered by NAIT in Architecture Technology -- graduating from NAIT makes you immediately employable. Then you could consider the undergraduate degree program offered by Athabasca University, enabling you to work while you advance your studies and also getting full credit for your NAIT courses. I have reviewed Athabasca's curriculum and looked at some of the design, sketching, and modeling work of their students and I can say that both are excellent! I, myself, have taken quite a few Athabasca courses and, compared to other University courses and programs, they stack up very favorably.

While you are still in high school you might consider getting student version design software from AutoDesk, particularly AutoCAD but also Maya and 3DS MAX, and from Graphisoft (ArchiCAD). I am well familiar with all of these -- I taught AutoCAD for 5 years at the Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles and Orange County, California; and in my private practice I use Archicad as my main design software on an Apple Macintosh system. Both companies offer full-blown Design programs for free to students.

If you wish to contact me privately to further discuss, you can email me at tedp@gotsky.com or you can phone me at 805-500-5314 (office) or 310-683-8496 (cell)
 
@Platinum107 Thanks for sharing! Unfortunately it doesn't look like you can link to Instagram photos directly, but you can upload a copy to a forum post. I've also found you can copy+paste photos into the reply box and it uploads a copy that way, too.
 
Thank you very much @archited ! I will look into this, too.
 

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