The first of many.

To the people that may want to learn about what DuaneDesign is all about. I will keep an on going journal of design philosophy and processes from my experiences over the past thirty-six years.

In actuality my interest in design on the land and buildings started in my very earlier years as a young child. I built homes, other buildings, and walls using blocks, Lincoln logs and stone. The home site I grew up in Lansing, New York was an old quarry. It had large boulders, water basins from springs that allowed me to create whole villages made from rock and water. When my dad brought in loads of soil to be used in our yard for spreading out to make the areas for lawn, I would create a road and drainage systems, added building sites and played for hours in the piles of soil in the summer until dark.

In high school I continued my interest in buildings, land, and plants. I also loved to draw. The drawings were either space ships, my other interest, or buildings. My biggest influence in the field of design, buildings and the land was the wonderful opportunity to travel with my Mother and Father, Cay and Matt Christopher, in Europe for six months when I was eleven to twelve years old. Looking back at those long months, even though sometimes it may have seemed boring, the boring that was happening was going into my brain. The buildings from all the large cites and country sides were making imprints on my memory that will be used in my design profession of the future.

When I was a junior in high school I need to make my career decision, either astronaut and the military or design with architecture or landscape architecture. Before my final descision was made I visted Cornell and went to several lectures by Marvin Adelman, the newly appointed director of the Landscape Architecture department in the fall of 1972. When I heard Professor Adelman speak and show his slides, I said yes. I chose Landscape Architecture because of all the diverse elements that it incorporates. The profession included drawing buildings, designing on the land, my streets, houses, drainage and my love of plants. I missed the path to space travel, but watched it every step of the way. The college I would choose would be one in my "back yard", Cornell University. The choice of Cornell was also one of the wisest decisions I have ever made in my early adult life. So then I entered Cornell as a freshman in the fall 1973.