What’s Up With Main Street
Join the Emerging Professional Group for coffee and great conversation! The purpose of ‘Architects In Cafes Getting Coffee’ is to provide an opportunity to speak with local experts about different aspects of the AEC industry, focusing on a different topic for each session. This time we will be speaking with Community Leaders, Design Professionals, and Construction Teams working on redeveloping the Main Street Corridor and the vision for the future.
1 AIA credit will be provided.
Free
The Spotted Octopus
41 Edward St, Buffalo, NY 14202
Speaker Panel:
Angela Keppel, Buffalo Streets
Angela Keppel is an urban planner and historian living at the juxtaposition between where we've been as a city and where we're going into the future. She currently works as a Revitalization Specialist for the New York State Department of State, where she oversees Downtown Revitalization Initiative, Brownfield Opportunity Area and Smart Growth projects across Western New York. Before this, she worked for Buffalo Place, Downtown Buffalo's business improvement district, where she ran their New York Main Street grant program and helped manage the 2016 -2018 Downtown Access and Infrastructure Study. Angela has a Bachelors from Niagara University and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Buffalo. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and serves as Membership Officer for the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association. She is a Buffalo history enthusiast and runs the blog Discovering Buffalo, One Street at a Time, writing about how the streets of Buffalo got their names. She won the Augsburger Award in recognition of outstanding service for the cause of local history from the Buffalo History Museum in 2022. She lives at the Hotel Lafayette and can often be seen exploring Buffalo on her bicycle, named after her favorite Buffalonian, Samuel Wilkeson.
https://buffalostreets.com/about-me/
Anne Dafchik, Town of Amherst, Architect
As a licensed architect for a local municipality, Anne has nearly 20 years of experience working primarily on a variety of public projects, from courtooms and senior centers, to public works campuses, and police operations to park improvements. As a result, she is regularly serving in a role where a balance between public spaces and administration operations requires careful consideration.
Jeff Panza, LeChase
Jeffrey (Jeff) Panza is responsible for developing customer relationships and pursuing new business opportunities for LeChase across the Buffalo and Niagara region. Jeff first joined LeChase as a project executive in 1999, after almost two decades of experience in the Western New York construction industry. During his time at LeChase, he has also served as the firm’s director of preconstruction and director of the Buffalo office. He was named regional operations manager in Buffalo in 2018 and spent six years in that role before shifting to his current responsibilities in early 2024. Jeff has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University at Buffalo. He is a regional board member for NAIOP – the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, and he also serves as a board member of the Amherst Chamber of Commerce.
You can sign up for the event using the link below:
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