Welcome to My Crib: Professor Terri Meyer Boake

Welcome to My Crib reveals the worlds behind the doors of Waterloo Architecture faculty. Today we enter the office of Professor Terri Meyer Boake.

Previously on Welcome to My Crib, Sparsh & Tomoki, two daring students from BRIDGE, infiltrated the offices of various professors at Waterloo Architecture to bring you the juicy details of what sits behind office doors. This week, they entered (with permission, of course) the well-concealed office of Professor Terri Meyer Boake.

Before becoming a professor, Terri was a student at Waterloo Architecture. At the time, the program featured many more structures courses. That changed when Terri joined the faculty! She founded the Building Construction and Environmental Design streams within the undergraduate curriculum. She introduced new courses as well as a more holistic environmental education.

Before entering her office, one can already see her dedication to the architectural field. A large collection of conference passes and colourful lanyards hangs in her window—a notable one being that for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat conference.

Upon entering her office is a collection of drawing assignments that students have forgotten to pick up over the years. The oldest of these originals may be 20 years old!

Beside the rolls of drawings is another relic: her Apple 2E dating back to 1983!

As an active green building advocate and LEED Accredited Professional, she puts great emphasis on teaching sustainability best practices to the next generation. Her office houses a couple of heliodons that are used to test shading on first year Environmental Design projects.

An entire wall of her office is dedicated to a bookshelf. Here, we find a library of architecture books, including novels from when she was an undergraduate student studying Cultural History (such as Beowulf and Hints on Household Tastes). She also keeps the first and third editions of the Fundamentals of Building Construction textbook still used in first year classes today (now at the sixth edition). We are beginning to notice a reoccurring theme of architecture professors with large book collections!

The top shelf is filled with binders of film slides that she used to prepare lectures in the days before digital slideshow software. She would copy images onto slides that would be placed on an overhead projector or slide carousel.

Accompanying her library is an expanded metal mesh couch, which was designed by her father-in-law’s architectural practice, Crang & Boake, in the 1950’s.

The various Star Wars knick-knacks around the room show her playful side. One of her most prized possessions is her Clockwork Orange poster that was signed by one of the stars during a movie expo!

While Waterloo Architecture was transitioning to Cambridge and counselors were yet to be hired, Terri’s office was known to be a place of comfort through stressful times for students.

Overall, Terri’s fun-filled office reflects her upbeat attitude and teaching style!