Chris and Leah's story began long before they ever met. Chris grew up in the small town of Athens, New York, outside of Albany. While Leah grew up three hundred miles away in West Seneca, New York near Buffalo. Although their paths never crossed, Leah traveled almost monthly to New Baltimore, New York to visit her grandmother, only ten miles from from where Chris's childhood home is. Even though they didn't meet this way, they both share a love of the Hudson Valley, Catskill Mountains, and Hudson River. 

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Growing up, both Chris and Leah spent endless hours sketching little ideas for houses and buildings that would eventually lead them both to enroll in school for architecture. Luckily, after graduating high school in 2015, they both decided to start with a two year architecture program at their local community colleges, and later transfer into the program at The University at Buffalo. Had they not both started this way they would have been in different years at UB and likely never have met.

 

They didn't really become friends until their junior year when they were assigned to the same group for a project where they had to design and build a boat. Right from the beginning of that fall semester of 2018 they were inseparable, together morning to night most days. That fall they decided to get an apartment together, still as friends, and somehow spent even more time with each other. 

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It wasn't until the end of their senior year, the winter of 2019, that they finally started discussing beginning a relationship. So, then, the following February they officially started dating. And then came Covid. Now in graduate school and spending all their time in the house together could've gone badly, but they only got closer. 

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Now they live together in the Elmwood village with their two cats, Clover and Amber. They still get to spend all their time together, working for the same residential architect. They like to spend their time biking, cooking, and exploring Buffalo