eco travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

The Montreal Expo 67 defined today Montreal as a design spot to watch. Though Montreal isn’t booming quite like Toronto or Calgary, the European stone streets of the Old City are still a favorite of tourists—and of the American under-21 set looking for a beer. Many famous architects have designed university buildings and museums all over Montreal like the Faculty of Music Building at McGill University and several boutiques.

The truth is, Montreal is a place to discover. The people there are very welcoming and if you talk to them they will help you see. There isn’t some organized system to discovering the city as the chambre de commerce presents. I suggest dear traveler going to smaller, lesser-known places, and that’s where you find wonderful food or nightlife. It’s all very organic there, but there’s no system to discovering it, or one place or neighborhood to go. One of the best, most established places  there is Café L’Express and they don’t even have a sign.

Montreal is also an initiative city, which makes a new center in Old Montreal. It’s lovely down there and the stone buildings are amazing, but it’s very touristy by the St. Lawrence. The western part of Old Montreal is developing in a really natural way, though. McGill Street is coming up. The way the west part of Old Montreal is going, it will help re-create the natural fabric of the city.

In the past, the east side of Montreal was Francophone and the west was Anglophone. It’s still that way to some extent, but you will enjoying a moment of harmony there. The new leadership has said that the referendum is on ice for some years in order to establish a healthier, more connected city. This is a wonderful city and it’s the only place I know where everyone really does speak two languages.

You see, Montreal is all about surprise. You come here expecting one thing and then you see a guy surfing in the river. It’s on YouTube.

The record speed for a wind powered vehicle is 126.1 miles per hour! That is the record set by Richard Jenkins this past weekend at the Ivenpah Lake in Nevada, where he finally managed to do what he set out to do 10 years ago – pilot the fastest wind powered vehicle in the world.

The Greenbird is a carbon-fiber composite vehicle that is exclusively wind powered, making it essentially an earthbound sailboat. There were challenges involved, since at high speeds the vehicle tends to, well, take off. To counter this problem the vehicle incorporates specific design solutions, such as wings similar to those found in formula one cars.

The crafts are elegant, sophisticated and futuristic – but are based on familiar aeronautical, sailing and wind technology principles. They use solid sails, much like an aircraft wing. The crafts’ design achieves staggering efficiency. It enables the land craft to travel at between 3 & 5 times the real wind speed, depending on the surface traction.

The Brochstein Pavilion is created as a landmark destination for Rice University’s campus. The garden at the Brochstein Pavilion gives a powerful spatial framework that has transformed an unstructured, underutilized quadrangle into the center of student activity on campus.

Founded in 1912, the Rice University campus is noted for its eclectic Mediterranean architecture, mature southern Live Oaks and a classical campus plan that emphasizes long, formal axes. The university is located in Houston, Texas, United States just near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center.

Inspired by the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, Houston architect Raymond Brochstein and his wife Susan provided a wonderful  donation that allowed the University to achieve this goal. The Brochstein Pavilion is capped by a steel and aluminum trellis structure which protects the building and extends in all directions to cover and shade the surrounding seating terrace. The trellis, consisting of an aluminum tubes, protects the building from the harsh Texas sun.

A series of wide double doors at the pavilion connect the interior seating areas with the surrounding terrace, opening the pavilion to the landscape and welcoming students and faculty. The landscape architect instead chose to address the interstitial space between the Fondren Library and the pavilion. A generous concrete walk connecting the library and the pavilion bisects into garden rooms whose perimeters are defined by plantings of African Iris.

Movable furniture and subtle site lighting allow impromptu gatherings of visitors to enjoy the oasis created by the dense shade and running water day or night. The university is spectacular and gives pleasure for every student to spent their school days in such an environmental Eco space.