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Yuan Lai

Yuan Lai

Yuan Lai grew up in central Beijing, China. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Landscape Architecture and a minor in Law from Beijing Forestry University in the summer of ’09. He came to pursue a Master's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo during the fall of ’09, taking dual-specializations in Urban Design and GIS & Spatial Modeling.

During his undergraduate study, he interned at Turenscape, a top design institute in China founded by Peking University and Dr. Kongjian Yu (GSD, Harvard). As a landscape architect intern, he worked on the landscape design of a canal park. In 2008, he participated as an intern in Project of Da-Ming Palace National Historic Heritage Park in Xi’an, China. Working in the project management office, he accomplished the project presenting material including graphic illustrations and 3D models for the project. With his legal knowledge, he also worked as a volunteer in the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV, NGO) in Beijing from 2008 to 2009.

Studying urban planning at UB, Yuan worked as an intern for “Better School, Better Neighborhood” Community Redevelopment Project in Center of Urban Study during 2009 to know more urban context of Buffalo. During the summer of ’10, he had a two-weeks’ study abroad project in London, UK, focusing on urban sustainability and livability and a comparison research on urban park systems in London and Buffalo. In the same summer, he also accomplished an independent study with Pro. Hiro Hata, concentrating on urban design and physical planning dealing with connectivity improvement and community redevelopment of South Buffalo and Larkin District.

Yuan is currently interested in urban design, landscape urbanism, urban sustainability, GIS and transportation planning. Through his higher education in urban design he hopes to participate in urban planning and design internationally in the future.