Terri Meyer Boake B.E.S. B.Arch. M.Arch.
Professor School of Architecture University of Waterloo

A Walk Down Memory Lane...

A little history:

I could have gone to Rome for the inaugural term in 1979. That was my class and my year. But between being short of cash, and Brian and I had bought and renovated a triplex in downtown Kitchener, and we had tenants, and someone had to mind the house -- well, he went in 79 and I went in 80. I did go over in 1979 for a two week visit and scoped things out. The majority of students (there were only 30 in my class) stayed at the Pensione Arenula. There were 3 nicer rooms that had direct access to a terrace that overlooked the lane behind the building. I had "preselected" one of those rooms. When my roommate, Nancy Cohen (visiting from Nova Scotia Tech for the term) and I, finally made it to Rome at 11 p.m. the night before classes were to begin, the "others", who didn't know us at all, were a trifle annoyed that we had one of the best rooms in the building! I will admit that Nancy and I were late and very burnt, having spent a couple too many days on the beach in Nice... actually pondering just staying there for the fall. The Arenula was located in the Jewish Ghetto.

The front door to the Arenula	Our beloved terrace

The studio was about a 10 minute walk from the Arenula, past some great markets, like the Campo del Fiore, where we bought most of our fresh food.

The door to the studio.	Inside the studio. We each had a 3'x4' desk and a lamp.

It was pretty tight in the studio. We had instituted a no smoking environment (pretty unusual in those days). The smokers (I think there were only 2) went outside to the main floor courtyard to smoke. It was pre-walkman time -- so we had to agree on the music for the communal boombox. There was a lot of Rolling Stones, Van Morrison played, alternating with some Vivaldi for the quiter moments. I used to get in really early in the morning. It guaranteed two things. Firstly, and most importantly, when you are sharing a bathroom with 13 others, and there is only enough hot water for 2 baths/showers... secondly, it was quiet. It was pretty cold, however, so I would turn on everyone's desk lamp to generate a bit of heat.

The first lecture was the now famous Roman forum lecture by Rick Haldenby. I think it was only around 4 hours back then. I hear it has been somewhat "improved"!

Our other classes took place at the Gregorian Institute (I think...). It was a very impressive building. Before we had the thought to reformat the curriculum, this meant that the second mechanical systems course happened in Rome. In our year, Donald McIntyre taught this one.

The field trip south happened in late September, while the weather was still great. We visited Cumae, Sperlonga, Pompeii, Paestum, Capri and Napoli. I will never forget the look on one of my female classmates face when we hopped onto the beach at Sperlonga, to be met by a bronzed, rather naked, jogging Italian in his 20s -- making his way along the beach.

Cuma	Climbing around the ruins at Cuma
Ray Zaback in Sperlonga	A little fun on the beach.
Investigating Paestum	Fun on the beach at Sperlonga. Tom Tittemore, Mary Jane Finlayson and Nancy Cohen, digging.
Ian Godfrey and Greg Crawford, giving those Italian guys a run for their money!	Foreground, left to right: Bill Unger, Cam Burns, Tim Boyd, Brian McLaren

We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in October. By then the good weather seemed to have vanished. We used Don and Bert McIntyre's apartment to do the cooking. We got our chickens from Delfino's, but made apple crisp and potato salad to accompany the feast. Mary Jane Finlayson (Rick's date back then), myself, and some of the other girls, did the cooking. We ran out of gas for the stove one Sunday afternoon, and were astounded when they came and refilled the stove within an hour.

Left to right: Reno Piccini, Ray Zaback, Terri Meyer, Mary Jane Finlayson	Left to right: Terri Meyer, Barry Johnson's wife, Cathy Harrington, Reno Piccini, Sue, Barry's sister, Barb Mizkeil
Left to right: not sure, Doug Lawrence, Nancy Cohen, Jim, Paul McIntyre, Bert McIntyre, Don McIntyre, Malcom Lawrie, Tim Boyd, Bob Pavlich, Dino Krekis.

We had at least one celebrity come and visit us while we were there. Charles Moore was teaching at the American University in Rome, so we had his pleasure on our Vatican Tour (not much else!), and a few of his students managed to hang around with our class for various functions.

Charles Moore, centre, with Rick Haldenby, and a few of the Americans.	Rick's latinist giving us our tour.

Sorry, not many class pictures from the month of November! I was better at buildings than people (going out of my way to keep people out of the pictures!) And the best building shots are still in my carosels for lectures at school. In fact, quite a few of the people shots on this page were taken by my classmates -- copied at the time of our Roma slide show night.

The finale to the term was our ski trip to Cervinia at the beginning of December. Rick, who as you might know is a wicked skier, had promised the non-skiers (I think just me!) that there would be "lessons". No such luck! He and Mary Jane taught me to snowplow and I was on my way to doing 1700 metre runs in the Alps.

Left to right: Bill Unger, Greg Crawford, Nancy Cohen, Reno, Brian McLaren, Barry's sister, Mike Sauber, Cam Burns. Can't make the rest out - Peter Cook and Stephen Hitchcox back right?	Folklore called this the "ski-jacket class" as they were reputed to take off most weekend during winter terms to ski. Not sure it was true, but they were all pretty good skiers...

Ian Marchand and I spent the next 2 weeks travelling around with our First Class rail passes, alternating sleeping on the train and cheap hotels and hostels. Pretty darn cool and rainy...

Back then 4B immediately followed 4A, so it was back to Waterloo for a killer winter term. We made things lively by having quite a few parties... That year we had a Friday the 13th in both February and March, celebrating each quite well. The school had expanded by then to include the new building, 425? Philip next door. Lisa Rapoport and Chris Pommer were in 1B in that space that term if I recall. Sudhatra Murthy was ousted by the "little Green Men" for catching a cat nap at her desk on one of the many all nighters. The campus police made quite frequent visits during the late hours. We had Erland Gustavs and Boris Culjat for our studio profs.

last updated February 11, 2021