IFLA Plans for Montreal ... Only 2,550 Days Away!

Montreal will host the 54th World Congress of IFLA ... in 2017! Montreal hopes to be named a ''UNESCO City of Design.''

When it comes to long-term planning, international organizations are tough to beat. For example, the International Olympic Committee, as Chicagoans well know, has already selected Rio de Janeiro as the site for the 2016 Olympic Games.

The IOC, of course, long ago determined the site for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games - a city called Sochi in the Russian Federation. Only 1,345 days to go, announces the IOC website! Get you tickets now!

But that's nothing. The IOC Executive Board is meeting in Lausanne June 22-23, 2010 to select the candidate cities for hosting the XXIII Olympic Winter Games in 2018!

Granted, getting 10,500 athletes from 205 nations in one place (Beijing 2008) and all those officials is no small matter.

The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) is no slouch either when it comes to planning international get-togethers. The IFLA, and this hot off the wires, has just selected Montreal to host the 54th World Congress of IFLA ... in 2017! Make your reservations now! Unfortunately, no dates were given, just the year.

In case you missed it, the IFLA 47th World Congress was just held in Suzhou, China, May 28-30, 2010. It was at that meeting in Suzhou the delegates of 32 countries unanimously agreed to grant Montreal the 2017 congress. And it's not every day that a group of more than two people agree unanimously on anything. Imagine unanimity in Congress.

Montreal seeks the designation as a ''UNESCO City of Design.'' The city has a design mission called ''2007-2017 Action Plan - Montreal Cultural Metropolis.''

''The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) along with our Quebec member, the Association des architectes paysagistes du Quebec (AAPQ) look forward to collaborating on the program for this great multidisciplinary project, in keeping with the high standards we set for ourselves at the IFLA Congress in Calgary in 2003,'' said Linda Irvine, CSLA president.

IFLA reports it represents landscape architecture professionals from 62 countries.