The Site Planning Studio class just turned really uninspiring these past weeks. In the class, we are all given a site in downtown Kitchener, and our task is to rework and develop the site by considering urban design and sense of place theories, while also satisfying the wishes of the client.

Our client is a third-generation Chinese lady. She is an exact replica of Matet Nebres, a reporter on CFTO local news. Her family’s history dates back to the days of the construction of the railroad and the imposition of the Chinese Head Tax. Listening to her story was like watching an episode of ‘???????’ or ‘Stories from Afar’— a Hong Kong documentary series about Chinese people from foreign places around the world who have experienced unique lives.

Her grandparents were apparently the first Chinese families to have settled here in Kitchener. Perhaps systemically, they owned the city’s first Chinese restaurant.

The existing structure of the Chinese restaurant, which has been out of business, is included in our project, as well as two adjacent land parcels. It is quite sad to see the rather shabby conditions they lived in. There is this really rundown shed in the back of the structure that were used to house immigrant cooks. They apparently stayed in makeshift beds in cubical like structures inside the shed.

Anyway, there were lots of ideas in my head, and all seems very neat and interesting until we realized that our client wishes to place a parking facility right smack in the middle of the three land parcels. Say goodbye to nice views.

Sadly, parking makes quite a lot of cash in downtown Kitchener. So parking it is. Now it’s a matter of disguising this bugger as much as possible. But seriously dampens the any sort of grandness in the project.

I’m also very nervous about working in groups. I’m sure all planners are very used to group work by now, but urban design group work feels very different. This is my first urban design group project that I don’t have the company of Shima. It feels so different; I feel inadequate. Team Success has unfortunately been dismantled. Anyways, because of my passively controlling ways, I feel really anxious when I cannot play some leadership role. And because my group consists of third years, who happen to know each other fairly well, I will definitely have to take a backseat for this one. The team seems pretty good, but I hate to feel uncertain about the outcome of our project.

Call me a queeny uptight bitch, but whatever. Someone find me a steering wheel.