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Testing the Waters: Potential for Lake Sediment Reuse

2012-03-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Steve Brown, Water Resources Project Manager (Kitchener, ON)

While we don’t typically use the blog to focus on a specific project, per se, I couldn’t help but brag about a particularly cool program we’ve been working on in Kitchener, Ontario. We’re helping the city find a way to reuse the sediment at Victoria Park Lake, which could have a tremendous impact on environmental practices across the province.

Victoria Park Lake was created as part of the original Victoria Park development over 100 years ago and has since become a beloved gathering place for the community. But water quality has been an ongoing concern. So the city asked for our help in reconfiguring the lake to better manage the sediment accumulation, while still maintaining the footprint and cultural heritage landscape.

We are already in the process of removing approximately 60,000 tonnes of accumulated sediment from the lake and transporting it to the Cambridge landfill site. Once there, the sediment will be turned regularly and analyzed over a three-year period to determine its viability as a topsoil product given its nutrient value. The Region of Waterloo and the City of Kitchener are equally partnering over the testing period.

The idea is to turn sediment like this into reusable,
nutrient-rich topsoil

Our hope is that, at the end of the three years, we will be left with a nutrient-rich topsoil product that can have useful applications. This would be a much more sustainable—and cheaper!—solution than trucking the material to a landfill, where it would simply sit and take up space.

One potential use for the rehabilitated sediment could be as a topsoil to cover landfill sites. Currently, trees and plants at capped landfill sites cannot be fertilized, as those added nutrients can interfere with ongoing surface water quality monitoring. But, because the rehabilitated sediment is expected to be nutrient rich, it would help trees planted at old landfill sites thrive, without interfering with essential testing.

If the process proves successful, the implications could be huge. Instead of landfilling this type material each time it comes out of a stormwater pond or other source, we would have a sustainable use for it. It’s a promising environmentally friendly, long-term solution that ideally could be applied throughout the province.

The improvements to Victoria Park Lake will continue through the winter, with restoration expected to be completed for summer 2012. Stay tuned for our testing results!

Who cares about our infrastructure?

2012-02-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Erik Alling, Transportation Designer (South Burlington, VT)

This past Wednesday, the Vermont Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers released its infrastructure report card for Vermont. Similar in format to the 2009 Report Card for America’s infrastructure, Vermont’s report focused on bridges, dams, drinking water, wastewater, and roads. The data were compiled using various state and federal reports. This information was then used to develop letter grades for each of the 5 categories. All of this was accomplished because of countless hours of volunteer time by about a dozen local engineers.

An event to release the report was planned as a press conference and was to be the culmination of about a year of hard work. Over 120 news and media outlets were contacted by national ASCE and invited to attend, as well as a number of state officials and legislators. A conference room was reserved, materials were placed for attendees to take with them, food was laid out and business suits were donned so the report card authors could look official on camera. Only, nobody came. Not one single person.

At first we thought a mistake had been made. Perhaps ASCE national didn’t get the word out or maybe they listed the wrong date or place. But after checking with our contact, we confirmed that all 120+ news outlets were invited.

So how can the complete lack of interest be explained? Government officials are well aware of our infrastructure challenges and are working to address them in the context of often severe budget restraints; we’d more or less be “preaching to the choir” to them. So their attendance wasn’t necessarily expected. The news outlets, however, are a different matter. The stimulus plan a few years ago put a public spotlight on infrastructure, and it was great while it lasted. But, as our failed press conference proves, that interest has waned. New stories—gas prices, Syria, “Linsanity”—have taken its place, despite the fact that the state of our infrastructure remains dire. Perhaps the media is burnt out on infrastructure, but it’s certainly a story when a bridge collapses or a water main breaks.

The purpose of the report card is to raise public awareness, make recommendations on how to improve the current conditions, and provide an assessment of the funds required. The deteriorating infrastructure affects everyone, and the costs of NOT doing anything could be much more damaging than what it costs now to make adequate improvements (see the ASCE’s “Failure to Act” studies for more). It is difficult to raise public awareness, though, when no one is willing to join the conversation.

Q&A: The Importance of Visioning

2012-01-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

Lutherwood Children’s Mental Health Centre is a transformative facility for children aged 12 to 17.But the building’s existing structures, developed between the 1960s and 1980s, were ill-suited for modern treatment approaches. With the feedback from vision sessions with key stakeholders, Stantec designed a new 16,500 sf addition that is more in line with Lutherwood’s philosophical approach to care: It is welcoming, filled with natural light, and focuses on the reduction of client anxiety and de-stigmatization of mental health treatment. Here, two key members of the team, Greg Romanick, client liaison, and Barbara Miszkiel, project manager and principal architect, reflect on the process of visioning.

Visioning was used to develop the open design
of the Lutherwood Children's Mental Health Centre

Q: What exactly is a visioning session?

Greg: Visioning is a process wherein a group of people with a stake or an interest in a project come together to share their thoughts and ideas about what that project will look like—what it will be—when it’s complete. The expression of ideas for a vision should be in the form of a verbalized visual picture, but it can and should include elements of verbal expression around principles, goals, values, and so forth.

Barbara: These sessions are about everyone breaking down barriers and thinking outside of the box. People come out with what is deep within their hearts to share what they ideally see for their project. The ideas from these brainstorming sessions will establish principles and guidelines that are later used as benchmarks to develop the design form concept to detail.

Q: Why are these sessions important to a project’s outcome?

Barbara: They establish the principles and guidelines to develop a concept into reality. So you start with the big picture, but you add a layer of rationale and rigor so the ideas don’t get lost in the detail. It’s how a whole community or group can get together and express what the project means to them and then be able to turn that idealism into three-dimensional space.

Greg: I agree. The vision should be the elements of that future-state picture, which are commonly held by most, if not all, of the participants. There’s a certain power and a momentum created through the vision, precisely because it’s commonly shared. Typically, this power and momentum result in a smoother realization of the vision over time.

Barbara: It’s a bonding exercise. By having a group express their ideals, where they see the project going, you get buy in and camaraderie, a collaborative spirit, and that’s all part of that momentum. We saw that at Lutherwood, from the first session right through until the opening of the building. The vision was not lost. You can see it, not only in the final building, but in the users and their reactions to how their vision was translated into bricks and mortar.

Q: What priorities did the visioning session for the Lutherwood project generate?

Barbara: A big part was the notion of breaking down barriers, creating transparency and normalizing mental health care. That notion of transparency also relates to a recovery model of care, the whole idea that these kids are there for one, two, three, or maybe four years, but care should be delivered to help them successfully transition back into the community afterward. So the addition is open, transparent, warm, and non-institutional as a result. So there’s transparency the moment you enter the main entrance right through to the gardens and soccer fields beyond. That whole spirit of optimism is carried out through uplifting physical features, like the double-high open space when you first come in.

The notion of transparency was a key outcome
of the visioning sessions.

Q: Do visioning sessions work best for a particular type of project?

Greg: Many, if not all, projects can get a lot of value and power out of visioning, whether related to whole cities, areas of cities, or a building. In every session I’ve been involved in I’ve been really struck by how the outcome reflected the vision and the fact that having that vision made it much easier to achieve that “visioned” outcome.

Barbara: From an architectural perspective, we learn in school that it’s all about the vision. If you don’t have a vision at first, any building design can become like a hodgepodge lodge. The vision creates not only the beacon that you’re going toward, but also a conversation throughout the design. I would say it’s important for all kinds of buildings. A lot of development falls short because it lacks a vision. Our society is building a visionless sea of condos with a lack of public/retail space at grade, missing the opportunity to create neighborhoods at street level.

Q: How did the vision for Lutherwood influence the project on an ongoing basis?

Barbara: For example, all the laminated glazing on the second floor was going to go by the wayside during construction. There was a proposal to have drywall with punched windows instead. But that would have eliminated the openness and sense of transparency we wanted to achieve. So the vision would have been seriously compromised.

Q: How common are visioning sessions for projects?

Barbara: They’re common from an architect’s perspective, but they’re not really successful unless it’s treated as a specific task in the process. If it’s too informal and just innate within the design process, it’s not as successful because you don’t have the entire community creating it and, therefore, buying into it. Your design is only as good as the clarity of the vision that comes out of those early sessions. They get the project started off on the right foot.

Greg: Visioning processes are less common for projects that don’t involve professional architects. Saying that, we are seeing more and more efforts by public bodies and businesses to create vision statements to breathe direction and life into projects at their inception.

Making a Difference in Honduras: Engineers Without Borders

2012-01-19T11:07:00.001-07:00

Submitted by Andrew D. Eiland, Jr., PE, Project Engineer, Civil Engineering (Sarasota, Florida)

Andew, right, surveys the progress
on his team's efforts in Honduras

A few years ago I found myself stretched a little thin by some of the “extra-curriculars” (as I’d come to think of them) that I thought were mandatory to my being a good corporate citizen and, let’s face it, climbing the corporate ladder at record pace as my reward for it. I served on an advisory board and did some pretty involved stuff with my professional society, but I found myself unable to articulate the “why” of what I was doing, both for myself or the people affected by it. Just about that time, I heard about Engineers without Borders (EWB) USA, and it wasn’t long before I was diving in head first, helping to grow a recently founded local chapter, and eventually heading up the first project for the group.

Like most projects that come to EWB, this opportunity came from US Peace Corps volunteers already on the ground. We were asked to apply our expertise to help out in the small Honduran village of Segovia—home to some 450 people. Our mission was to deliver something all of us take very much for granted—a safe and secure water supply. The only source of water for the villagers was a hand-excavated open pit well. Not surprisingly, illnesses attributable to water-borne pathogens were common.

After visits to Segovia in 2009 to meet with local officials, assess the situation in person, and survey the site, the project was briefly delayed by political unrest in Honduras. Meanwhile, our team of five developed plans for a system to make use of a new well with a modern pump, an overhead storage tank, and a distribution system to carry water to each of the community’s approximately 75 dwellings.

Once travel restrictions were lifted, we returned to oversee construction. The villagers provided the vast majority of the sweat equity. Under guidance from the team and Peace Corps staff, the villagers dug over a kilometer of trenches into which the distribution piping was laid.

The village of Segovia

My primary challenge was managing lots of moving parts, including training the local residents in the operation, maintenance, and repair of their new water distribution system. Although our Peace Corps contact and one member of the team spoke Spanish, the rest of us made due with a 50-word vocabulary centered primarily on installation of PVC pipe, and hand gestures. The enthusiasm and dedication of the villagers was inspiring; they refused to let us pick up a shovel or a pick axe. Their hospitality as they fed us each day we worked was also welcome. We were given a beautiful home-cooked meal in a different home in the community each day.

While the engineering involved with this project was fairly straightforward, the complexity of the assignment was anything but, involving fundraising, approvals, cost estimates, and coordination with local officials, a missionary group, and the Peace Corps. And, just to keep it interesting, dealing with the political impact of a bloodless “coup” in the middle of the project.

I think what impressed me most about this experience with EWB was meeting people who have next to nothing by our standards, but realizing they are some of the happiest people in the world. And it is especially rewarding to see the impact our project has had to date—health data surveys have already documented a significant decrease in skin rashes and other water-borne illnesses.

My work with EWB has delivered what I sought: an immense sense of satisfaction in knowing I made a difference. So much so, in fact, that we’re currently planning our next project—improving the village’s drainage to alleviate standing water during the rainy season.

To see more photos of Segovia and Andrew's experience there, visit Stantec's Facebook page.

Grounds for Recycling

2012-01-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Louie Greenwell, GIS service area leader (Louisville, KY)

It’s time to brew another pot of coffee. The brew basket and the used grounds are still remaining from the last pot. Instead of tossing the used grounds into the trash, take a second and consider reusing them. Yes, that’s right; those soggy coffee grounds are good for much more than providing you with a shot of energy.

Here’s why.

Shortly after moving into our new Louisville, Kentucky office in May, I began collecting the used coffee grounds and recycling them. Every other week, I collect approximately 30 pounds of used coffee and tea grounds between the two coffee stations in our building. I take home the grounds to help fuel my compost bin, which also includes various biodegradable kitchen and yard waste. Once ready, I use the composted material to feed my vegetable garden, which has grown to roughly 850 square feet in size.

Composting bounty!

I have been gardening for the last 15 years and usually grow enough vegetables during the summer and fall to feed my family and neighbors. Overflow veggies also find their way in the Louisville office break room. This past summer, I was able to bring hot peppers, okra, green beans, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers and watermelons to the Stantec table. Some of the other crops that made up my bountiful harvest this year included corn, sweet potatoes, broccoli and Napa cabbage.

I really enjoy growing food and sharing with others; it’s been a part of my family for generations and a part of my life since childhood. As a child, I spent summers on my grandmother’s farm in Springfield, Kentucky, helping her tend to various crops including her massive strawberry patch. I can still remember working in the garden for hours on end with my grandmother, but it didn’t seem like work at the time. As a teenager, I also worked for several years as a produce clerk at a grocery store. I never really thought about it before, but I guess I have always been a farmer at heart.

A sample compost bin

That includes turning an office coffee addiction into free fertilizer. At our current rate of consumption, the Louisville office will generate over a ton of grounds in under three years! Instead of going to the landfill never to be used again, the composted material goes back into the ground, recharges the soil nutrients and ultimately ends up back in the break room to feed the office – win, win, win! I am hopeful next year’s harvest will be bigger and better than the last. Not to worry though; I have no plans to leave my day job for the glamour and riches of farming. I’ll leave the real farming to the professionals.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

As we wrap up the year in our North American offices for a holiday break, we thought we would share this holiday story from John Reddick, an associate in our Butler, Pennsylvania office. John's local newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, published this story in their December 7 "Holiday Herald" column. Happy holidays to everyone and see you in 2012!

Pope John XXIII once wrote: "I have looked into your eyes with my eyes. I have put my heart near your heart."

At age 6 I tried to stand still as my mother helped button my coat and prepare my younger brothers and sister to venture out on a cold December evening in 1966. We were headed for the local fire hall where, once a year just prior to Christmas, the entire Herman community in Butler County was given the privilege of meeting Santa Claus.

My father was not at home that evening. I wondered where he could have been. Santa was taking time off from his busy schedule to meet with us -- why wouldn't my dad want to see this?

My older teenage sisters were assigned to be our chaperones, holding our hands and guiding us through the process. Each child would receive a special gift from Santa -- a brown paper bag filled with fruit, candy and, best of all, a coloring book and a box of crayons.

We arrived at the hall where a large group of children and parents had already gathered in anticipation of Santa's arrival. Once settled in our seats we were led in a prelude of Christmas carols, the last ending with the traditional "You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout, I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town."

Suddenly, the double doors at the back of the hall swung open and Santa magically appeared. He was full of energy, shaking a series of jingle bells attached to a leather strap that he must have removed from one of his reindeer on the way in. The only words he spoke were the familiar "Ho, ho, ho."

All eyes were on him as he worked his triumphant way through the crowd. I thought he might say something to the group, but my sister assured me that he was very busy during this season and could not take the time.

Without a word he went straight to his work, taking a position behind the long rows of tables lined with brown paper bags as far as my eyes could see. I waited in a long, curvy line of children that had formed to receive their gifts.

I wondered what I might say if Santa were to ask me a question. Had I really been good the past year? Did I deserve this gift and the other presents that he would surely deliver to my brothers, sisters and me in a few weeks?

The line moved quickly -- too quickly as I struggled to organize my thoughts. Then, all too soon, I was standing before him with an up-close view of the heart of this efficient process.

There were helpers nearby, but Santa himself was totally in charge. As he hastily turned with my gift in hand, our eyes met, and for a moment -- one brief moment -- time seemed to stop for me. My mind was working overtime to process what I saw.

I can remember thinking as my gaze passed beyond the large white beard and red rosy cheeks, "I know those eyes."

Santa then did something that broke the routine of his well-oiled assembly line. With a smile, he paused and reached his large, white-gloved hand across the table and gently placed it on my head. He then, very deliberately, handed me the gift.

I was unable to utter a sound so my sister said thank you for me, took my hand, and guided me from the table. As we walked away I looked back over my shoulder one last time to catch a glimpse.

Santa had immediately returned to the task at hand, but he glanced my way and our eyes met once again. He nodded his head and winked, as if to say: "Everything will be OK -- have a merry Christmas."

Time moved on. My siblings and I became adults with children of our own. My father passed away. I overheard someone say that my dad, for good or bad, often spent more time helping other people than his own family.

I believe that was true on occasion. My father was a conscientious, community-minded person. He had eyes that expressed kindness and often, when I had doubts about this world, gave me hope that as long as people cared for each other everything would be OK.

It was a simple truth played out before my eyes in 1966, and still true today.

Stantec Q&A: Deb Michener, Designing Sacred Sites

2011-12-16T09:56:00.001-07:00

With the holiday season in full swing, many people are perhaps spending a little more time in their places of worship. Stantec’s Deb Michener, a senior associate and landscape architect in the Boston office, has worked with several religious congregations to design new facilities. Here she reflects on what’s unique about designing sacred sites.

Q: Does designing a spiritual or religious site differ from designing other types of sites?
A: Yes. Every client and every site is unique, but when you’re working with a religious client or someone that has specific beliefs, there’s always that extra layer of attention to special needs and sensitivities. For instance, community is usually very important. The design needs to read in such a way that the focus is on the community and not on outside influences. That makes the transition into and out of different areas very important.

One example is a Jewish temple we recently designed the site plan for in Massachusetts. The connection between the inside of the temple and nature was very important to the congregation. They wanted the interior to have views of the surrounding woods and of the courtyard. At the same time, we had to keep in mind that they could be hosting as many as 1,000 people on the site to as few as a handful, and these spaces needed to accommodate and resonate with users in either situation. So we had to design these spaces to provide enough context and enough flexibility for all types of users and events.

Temple Beth Elohim in Newton, Mass. is nestled
among the trees to connect to nature

Q: Is the design process any different?

A: In some ways it’s exactly like any other project—you still go through schematic design, design development, and so on. But with religious groups, that process often takes on more dimensions. Again, community and stakeholder involvement is very important as the congregation members are often the owners (or at least the donors). But things like timing also come into play. You need to know the religion’s calendar, if certain days have rules of behavior, etc. I’ve heard of some projects where the alignment of celestial bodies had an effect on when certain construction phases could begin.

Q: Are there special considerations for designing these kinds of sites?
A: Every project has different goals. And with worship spaces, there is an even stronger personal connection, which must be considered. But the religious calendar, the beliefs, sustainability—it’s all relevant and important. Where sustainability is concerned, any client who plans to stay in a space for a long time is interested in being sustainable. And many of these clients place importance on stewardship—in the Jewish faith principles like tikkun olam (“fixing what is broken”) and bal taschchit (“do not destroy”) tie back to taking care of each other and the environment. So very often sustainability is a natural fit for these projects.

Stone was specifically chosen for the temple's
courtyard to reflect the look of Israel

Q: Does it matter if the designers’ beliefs are different from those of the client?
A: No, but you have to be a great listener and really immerse yourself in your client’s beliefs and understand how those beliefs should manifest themselves through design. For my projects, I’ve spent time going to services and meeting with members of the congregation and the leaders so I could better understand their values. At the temple, I really enjoyed listening to the liturgy and learning the stories, which were translated into the design. It’s so personal for the client that you get a lot of positive feedback, which is very rewarding.

Who really killed the American Dream?

2011-12-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Joseph Viscuso, vice president (West Chester, PA)

What happened to the American Dream of home ownership—a single-family home in the suburbs with the white picket fence and two cats in the yard?

After World War II , home building became a major driver of our economy. With my own baby boomer generation came the desire for larger homes at an affordable price, moving everyone further from the inner cities. As this urban sprawl took hold, so did increasing regulation on the housing industry. This regulation has had a dramatic effect on the cost of housing over the last four decades and, in my opinion, helped lead us to our current collapse. Builders have had no choice but to add the cost of compliance into the cost of a home.

Before the recession, it was possible to keep adding to home costs since the demand was high and inflation continued to cover the increases. With the recession, however, this accelerated housing growth stopped dead in its tracks. Statistics tell us that the need for housing in the US will continue to grow, and to satisfy this need, builders will have to build at affordable prices. The problem is that regulations have not adapted to this new reality. Builders must still buy ground, they must still satisfy all regulations, they must still incorporate public improvements and comply with antiquated zoning regulations, all without the same demand for (and thus investment in) their product.

The current economic and housing slump indicates that the population will return to renting, the housing option of choice prior to World War II. Since the recession began, at least 3 million households have become renters and at least 3 million more are expected to by 2015, according to census data analyzed by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and The Associated Press. Builders of rental units are still subject to the same regulations that drove the cost of single-family housing up, but the cost of satisfying these regulations can be absorbed in rents and amortized over a longer period of time for payback of the investment. But our outmoded zoning tradition will be slow to react, creating sub-par product, and the NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) crowd will show up at local hearings to protest traffic issues, overcrowded schools, etc., which adds further costs to projects in the form of professional fees, construction requirements, offsite extractions, etc. Rents will move upward, which means, once again, that consumers will pay.

So who killed the American Dream? The answer is simple: we have done it to ourselves. We created too many regulations at all levels of government. Don’t get me wrong—consumer protection is undoubtedly important and many of our current regulations are necessary. But many others were reactionary and have since become outdated or misguided standards.

The banking industry, which received the brunt of criticism throughout the housing collapse, certainly bears some of the responsibility for the problem. But we baby boomers have to take a serious look at the role we played. Builders did not create the housing demand—we did. And while we continued to desire larger, more decadent homes, we also showed up at meetings and protested every new development, allowing more and more imprudent regulation to strangle the industry and play a part in its current crisis.

At this point, regulation and zoning need to be overhauled nationally so that the industry returns to a level playing field while maintaining necessary regulatory safeguards. But local governments will be slow to relinquish that control, discouraging any new investment in housing. Renting will satisfy the population’s housing needs, not out of choice but of necessity.

A longer version of this article was originally published in the December residential edition of Scotsman Guide. To read the article, visit http://www.scotsmanguide.com/default.asp?ID=4868.

The Guide to (Wild)Life

2011-12-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Terry VanDeWalle, senior biologist (Waterloo, IA)

Many people enjoy the outdoors and watching wildlife. Polls asking people about wildlife have shown that over 80% of respondents said they participated in some form of nonconsumptive use of wildlife, such as wildlife photography or bird feeding. Birds, along with large, easily seen or charismatic species, are the animals most often seen. However, two groups of animals that are often overlooked or avoided out of fear or misconception—amphibians and reptiles (salamanders, frogs, toads, turtles, lizards, and snakes)—are fascinating creatures that can often be seen in your own backyard.

In October, two laminated pocket guides that I authored were published by the University of Iowa Press: “Turtles in Your Pocket” and “Frogs and Toads in Your Pocket.” These guides, along with “Snakes and Lizards in Your Pocket” that came out in 2010, provide complete descriptions of most of the frogs, toads, turtles, lizards, and snakes found in 12 Upper Midwest states along with information about each species’ range, habitat preferences, diet, and breeding. The guides were written for amateurs and professionals alike and were designed to be taken into the field. Each guide contains descriptions of similar species and a comprehensive key for identifying animals that you find. All three guides are illustrated with superb photographs by Suzanne Collins that also aid in identifying animals. A fourth guide, “Salamanders in Your Pocket,” is in the works and scheduled to be out in 2012. You can order the guides here.

My hope is that these guides, and others like them, will inspire people, particularly kids, to get outside, get messy, and enjoy nature. Many kids these days are growing up without the chance to experience nature firsthand, without the chance to hold a frog or a snake, or watch a monarch butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. We need these experiences to keep us connected to the earth and the other creatures that live here with us. As Chief Seattle said, “If all of the animals were to die, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit.”

And as a biologist, I also hope that engaging and educational tools such as these guides may even encourage kids to pursue careers in fields like wildlife biology and environmental science. The biologists and scientists at companies like Stantec regularly get outside in the mud and the muck, working with diverse groups of plants and wildlifesuch as those I described in the guidebooks.

An example: In August 2010, I was one of a team of Stantec biologists who responded to an oil spill on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan to assist with wildlife rescue and recovery. We spent hundreds of hours catching turtles and bringing them into the wildlife center. As of October 2011, more than 40 Stantec biologists have rescued and participated in the cleaning of nearly 5,000 turtles, over 90% of which survived and have been released. I am proud to have been part of the effort and had the chance to work with this dedicated group of individuals. Here’s hoping that more nature enthusiasts grow up to do the same.

Greetings from the Desert!

2011-11-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Pinar Peker, marketing lead (Dubai, UAE)

I’ve been fortunate to live in a more diverse spectrum of places than most people will see in a lifetime. I moved to Canada 11 years ago, after having spent my childhood in Turkey and Saudi Arabia. New places and faces are nothing new to me, but I still found it surprising that one of the most interesting cultural experiences of my life grew from my role here at Stantec.

It all started in 2005 when I joined Stantec’s Vancouver office as a graphic designer. It was a great role which allowed me to expand my horizons in terms of marketing, creative services, business development, and to develop a broad sense of the whole organization and our services. I enjoyed it greatly but wanted to move back to the European/Asian continent, to be closer to home and to the culture I knew growing up.

With a global presence of 170 offices worldwide, Stantec opened a door for me to move to another office. What happened next? Two firms joined Stantec—Burt Hill and Anshen + Allen—both with an international presence on this “side of the pond.” Along with this growth came the need for a marketing staff member in the former Burt Hill Dubai office—a need which made my relocation not just a possibility but a reality.

I have been in the Dubai office for the last six months and really enjoy the city as well as my new role as marketing lead for the region. There are countless differences between working life in Canada and this region where organized chaos, unimaginable wealth, and change creates uncertainty but opportunity. As I was struggling to adjust to this lifestyle, a coworker said, “You have to go with the rhythm of this place, don’t fight it.”

As such, one of the most interesting things I observe here is how the expatriate community co-exists seamlessly along with the locals. You can see a woman totally covered up in black from head to toe pass by a “Westerner” in short clothing and it doesn't cause any issues. Same is the case on the beach.

Also, during the month of Ramadan, life in Dubai changes a bit as the locals fast all day and you're not allowed to smoke, drink, or eat outside until sundown. That’s when you feel the Muslim traditions at their strongest, and all people here have to respect it.

I’d also be remiss not to mention the heat. To avoid the dry, hot sun, many businesses are open here really late. I love it! You can grocery shop at midnight on a weekday and it will be busy. This is mostly due to the heat, but locals are definitely night owls so everything is open until midnight or 24 hours.

On the whole, the world of endless luxury, flat deserts, 48-degree Celsius summers (that’s 118.4 degrees Fahrenheit), and a mix of Western with Arabic culture is completely different from the rainy days of Vancouver, half a world away and surrounded by spectacular mountains, forests, and ocean. The transition from one extremely diverse culture to another also demonstrates the different ways Stantec operates. The company’s UAE region has over 140 staff members who have gone through many changes and adapted to the effects of the 2008 UAE economic recession. As new members of the Stantec family, they bring a vast understanding of the region and a way into local business operations which are run completely differently from those in North America. For a region that doesn’t have a “one size fits all” model, I am happy to be a part of a team that works in an exciting part of the world and grateful to a company that can adapt to all of its diverse operations.

Planners shape our world

2011-11-08T11:42:00.002-07:00

Submitted by Simon O’Byrne, Senior Principal (Edmonton, AB)

Simon O'Byrne

From the creation of great spaces to the design and implementation of sustainable and vibrant new communities (and oh-so-much more), planners create the world in which we live, work, and play. So today—World Town Planning Day—provides a perfect opportunity for us all to celebrate planning and our profession.

World Town Planning Day acknowledges and celebrates the accomplishments of planners around the globe and is celebrated in 30 countries. With local and national events, this day serves as a reminder that everyone should get involved to help build better communities. Planning is not only about today; it provides direction for the future while also adapting to changing expectations of people.

People most commonly associate planners with the design of a community or residential subdivision. And that is a huge component of what we do. This kind of work is definitely exciting as we watch an entire community come into being—like Palmer Ranch, one of the largest master-planned communities in Florida. My colleagues in Sarasota have been working with the land owner of this bare, 10,000-acre land holding, establishing a foundation of environmental systems and creating an entirely new community complete with a housing mix of 10,500 units, employment centers with 4 million square feet of office, industrial, and commercial uses, as well as recreational and lake facilities.

But in addition to this kind of traditional development design, we planners do so much more—we design places that are worthy of people’s affection. We conduct economic development studies. We write policies and land use zoning bylaws, foster public/private partnerships, and lead complex and politically charged projects on a variety of scales.

One of my favorite examples is a project to plan a new downtown district in Edmonton, Alberta. At the center of the planning process, our planners created a new downtown special area zone, the Arena and Entertainment District (AED) Zone, that mandates regulations on urban design, at-grade street frontage, 360-degree architecture, articulation of building facades, nightscaping, and winter city design while ensuring exceptional architecture. This kind of comprehensive effect on the look and feel of a place is a perfect example of how planners contribute to land use planning and creating an awesome place for people to visit and enjoy.

The Arena and Entertainment District
(AED) in Edmonton

And planning isn’t limited to the “looks” of a place; it often extends to its entire structure and function. My Stantec colleagues, for example, recently prepared a comprehensive infrastructure plan for the Province of PEI, addressing water and wastewater, transportation, green energy, and community facilities infrastructure across the province. Work involved an overview of economic and demographic trends on the Island, a comprehensive inventory each infrastructure sector under study, and a survey of PEI municipal units to obtain information on their infrastructure needs.

The same sort of big-picture view went into a recent look into the feasibility of a community-based transit system in Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia. The results of our studies of various alternatives for routes, rates, vehicles, and funding indicated that the community needed a small-scale transit system with regular and consistent service to adjacent communities and key services. The community hopes to launch a pilot program based on this assessment.

Today’s observance of World Town Planning Day has given me the impetus to think about projects like these and remind myself why I love my job. To learn more about what planners do, both in the US and Canada, visit the Canadian Institute of Planners (http://www.cip.ca/), American Planning Association (http://www.planning.org/), or American Institute of Certified Planners (http://www.planning.org/aicp/)

Can a Sustainable Home be Affordable?

2011-10-26T08:07:00.000-06:00

By Klaas Rodenburg, Design Coordinator, Buildings Engineering (Edmonton, AB)

A rendering of the Stantec-designed
Net Zero Energy, pre-cast concrete
home.

Can a sustainable home be affordable? That is the question Stantec, Lafarge, and Habitat for Humanity set out to answer with the development of a NetZero energy duplex in Edmonton, Alberta. The duplex's innovative and integrative design, coupled with sustainable materials, will help create the ultimate energy-efficient precast concrete home. Construction on the duplex, the first of its kind in Canada, kicked off this fall.

Helping Families in Need

In Edmonton, Habitat for Humanity builds more than 100 homes each year for hard working families who need a hand up rather than a hand out in order to own a home. These homes are built with donated funds, materials, and labor while eligible families provide 500 hours of “sweat equity” to be used as a down payment. Mortgages never exceed 25% of a family’s income, making them affordable.

Thinking Outside the “Wooden” Box

What started with a simple lunchtime conversation between the team involved soon grew into a vehicle for innovative thinking about high performance buildings. Lafarge wanted to prove that pre-cast concrete is a viable alternative to the traditional wood frame houses. Habitat for Humanity had a standard plan for a duplex home – 1060 sq. ft. on each side – that they can build on single lots or small infill communities at a very economical price. That is where Stantec’s design team started.

Pre-cast concrete panels at the Lafarge
plant in Edmonton. Photo courtesy of
Lafarge

By adopting a standard model, it was possible for our team to directly compare prototypes in terms of capital cost and performance throughout the life cycle of the homes. The design team decided to explore the full potential of concrete. The fluid nature of concrete and its ability to record the shape and texture of the precast forms allowed us to explore a wide range of alternatives to standard bed liners. This eliminated the need for vinyl siding on the outside or drywall on the inside, which reduced the cost and construction waste.

Going Mod

Modular wall panels gave us the opportunity to create a modern aesthetic with an exterior design that can be integrated into any community. At the same time, the modular wall panels offered sustainable features such as durability, living exterior walls, a “cap” for solar panels, and enough structural strength to house a green roof (although that option was not pursued for this project.) Meanwhile, the ultra-high performance of the foam sandwiched between two layers of concrete provided an excellent exterior envelope for the harsh Edmonton climate that can vary from -300 C to +300 C (-220 F to 860 F) Energy models showed that the air-tight, R36 walls will achieve an EnerGuide 86 rating, which makes a NetZero energy target attainable.

Although NetZero performance incurs extra capital costs for a hybrid geothermal/solar heating system and solar photovoltaic system to supply electricity to the homes, it significantly reduces monthly utility costs. This savings will partially offset the higher mortgage payments required to pay for the extra equipment. Thus, the initial investment will pay for itself many times over during the life of the building.

Economies of Scale

The lessons learned from this prototype will allow Lafarge and Stantec to develop a modular approach to constructing homes and multi-family residential buildings. The ability to efficiently produce repeatable, high-performance, precast modules on an industrial scale will significantly reduce the capital costs for homes thus making sustainable home ownership attainable for more and more families throughout the world.

Senior Housing – The Future of the Market

2011-10-13T15:04:00.000-06:00

By Martin Valins, Principal, Architecture (Philadelphia, PA)

The concept of retirement is a romantic ideal born out of the industrial age whose time has now passed.

Martin Valins

Prepare to see a fundamental change in the market for senior housing.

The reason for this change lies in the radically different needs and expectations of the baby boom generation, who are approaching retirement.

The baby boomers experienced a different world than their parents, the current generation of senior housing consumers.

The previous generation lived through two world wars, a major economic depression and the threat of the cold war. Living through such monumental global events forged a culture of shared values and unquestioned loyalty to the American dream.

Housing reflected these social values and expectations. Suburbia gave the middle class its dream of home ownership stability and the pursuit of happiness.

Talking ‘Bout My Generation

But the baby boomers were born into the golden age. They became part of “the consumer society”. Through their sheer numbers, the boomers rode the wave of mass media and increased spending power to create a new way of life and new way of thinking.

Healthy Aging

As the boomers grew older, we saw attitudes and expectations toward aging undergo a radical change. The explosion of healthy trends, such as exercise and fad diets, shows that boomers are not accepting the aging process as their parents did.

As a result, boomers will not view retirement as a shift toward a more passive existence. Rather, the next generation of seniors will be looking for programs to help maintain their health and expand their existing, active lifestyles.

And When Work is Done

These changing patterns of leisure coincide with the revolution in the work place. Across North America, the industrial age has given way to the information age.

An increasing proportion of the current and future work force may continue working well beyond retirement – either by choice, or through necessity. The instability of social security benefits, pending reviews on spending for Medicare in the United States, and continuing pressures on healthcare spending in Canada, make the concept of retirement uncertain. Retirement living has relied significantly upon seniors being able to realize a return on investments in housing and retirement investments. As of September 2011, the realities for doing this look very different from the expectations many boomers held over a lifetime of working and saving.

Matching Future Needs

So, while the second decade of this century witnesses the greatest number of North Americans ever to enter retirement age, we cannot assume that the boomers will settle into the same retirement communities in which their parents enjoyed their golden years. Even retirement housing being built now may not fit the needs of the 21st century boomers.

In Canada, for example, long-term forecasts suggest that over 80 per cent of new housing demand will come from people aged 65 and older by 2030. Aging boomers will also be moving closer to their children and grandchildren in major numbers.

What This Means for the Market

The market is fragmenting. The concept of the Continuing Care Retirement Community was to capture a wide age range from 75 upwards. This included attracting healthier and younger seniors and then providing a self-contained community for “aging in place.”
The baby boom generation will be reluctant to enter an age-segregated community while still relatively young [75+] and healthy.
This age segment [75–85] will increasingly break away from any connotation with retirement housing or age-segregated housing.
There is mounting evidence that this cohort is simply staying where they are or are moving into downtown urban areas. Throughout the US, downtown condos that have barrier-free environments and services are becoming a new form of retirement option. Single, upwardly mobile professionals can be seen sharing the condo gym and other social facilities with their “senior” neighbors. Both cohorts are attracted to a low maintenance and service rich living environment.
We therefore can expect to see the housing segment fragment and break away from the traditional health care component of the senior living market.
As acuity levels rise, so health care models will also need to deal increasingly with the following care programs:

Dementia Care
Hospice
Acute Care

The Implication for Designers

We have been exploring a fundamental shift in the culture of senior living. What does this mean for designers of senior living environments? At the heart of that question is the connection between culture and design.

As we move forward, clients will be seeking the advice of architects and designers that are recognized thought leaders in the field who understand this change. Many clients will be burdened by a building stock designed in the last century and, in many cases, an operational culture that has become detached from the expectations of the new elder consumer.

These radical changes may appear overwhelming to many clients. But that is where an organization such as Stantec, with its global resources and research capabilities, can make a difference.

Going forward, designers must provide thought leadership and guide clients towards building solutions that physically, emotionally, and even spiritually, make that connection between design and culture.

To plan for the future is to ensure that we remain sensitive to our market and mission. To do nothing in the face of the inevitability of change is to take a reckless gamble with history.

When it Rains, We Rise and Shine

2011-10-06T13:39:00.002-06:00

By Scott Lange, Project Engineer (Louisville, KY)

While most might think a rainy day is a good day to stay inside, a rainy day means a busy day outside for some in the Stantec Louisville office. As a Project Engineer in Stantec’s Louisville office, I assist with Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) monitoring, and we recently had a very busy week with several days of heavy rain in the Louisville area.

SSOs most commonly occur when stormwater from rain events gets into sanitary pipes through either cracks in the pipe, manholes, or through sump pumps that have been connected to the sanitary line. The combination of sanitary water and stormwater can sometimes exceed the capacity of the pipe resulting in the system purging the water through open surfaces (usually manholes) resulting in an SSO.

Monitoring for SSOs occurs mostly during major rain events; specifically, ½ inch of rain over a 24-hour period. During the third week in September we had three such events with the largest occurring on a Monday morning with rainfall totals between 3-4 inches in the Kentuckiana area.

SSO observed flowing
near local golf course

As part of an ongoing contract with one of our clients, Stantec monitors three rain gages to determine when more than ½ inch of rain has fallen over 24 hours. For the storm on that Monday morning, the ½ inch mark hit shortly after 12am.

At that point, myself and another engineer were notified to load up the gear and travel the SSO monitoring route to determine if any SSOs occurred as a result of the storm event. The route consists of just under 70 sanitary manholes in locations ranging from major roads to dense woods.

If an SSO is observed it is documented and samples are taken if the flows are high enough to meet the sampling protocol. The observations continue until all SSOs have ceased and an estimate can be made about the volume of overflow.

Manhole which purged estimated
3 million gallons of water
during April storm events.

Depending on the duration of the storm this could mean that teams are out there for a few hours or even a few days. In fact, this spring we had several rotating teams that monitored for nine straight days due to the heavy storms we had in late April. On this particular Monday morning in September, our team was out from 1:45 AM to 7:30AM travelling the route and monitoring any SSOs we observed. Needless to say, the next step for the team was to get some much needed R&R.

Although the monitoring can be some long odd hours the project is crucial to reporting SSOs. So day or night, rain or shine…well mostly just rain, our teams are out there.

Stantec’s talkin’ ‘bout my generation… At work

2011-09-29T09:37:00.004-06:00

By Graham Senft, Associate, Buildings Engineering (Vancouver, BC)

Stantec’s Graham Senft talks about some of the qualities that earned Stantec a coveted place on the list of Canada’s Top Employers for Young People.

Graham Senft

I joined Stantec in 2007, following the completion of my master’s degree in urban studies. I had spent the first several years of my career as a planner in the public sector, and I was ready for something more dynamic, more collaborative and, perhaps most importantly, more engaging.

I was intrigued by Stantec’s significant presence in the BC market, its entrepreneurial, growth-oriented business model, and with the opportunities inherent in working with a large integrated design services firm. With a background in planning, project management, and sustainable urban development, a consulting role with Stantec’s multi-disciplinary Sustainable Solutions (S3) team in Vancouver appeared to be a natural fit.

That’s why I came to Stantec. But the more important story is what made me stay.

The Vancouver-based S3 group is young, passionate, and collaborative; my project work is innovative and diverse, and the firm’s sustainability practice crosses scales, sectors, and geographic boundaries, satisfying my innate intellectual and organizational curiosity.

But there are broader, more fundamental things going on at Stantec that keep me excited about working for this organization, and make it a great place for young employees.

For a firm of more than ten thousand people, Stantec is a tremendously “flat” organization. It lacks much of the centralized hierarchy, process, and structure that suffocate many large firms. In my short time with the company, I have seen how this relatively loose corporate culture—described by one member of the leadership team as ‘creative chaos’—serves as a springboard for the growth and advancement of younger staff, rewarding innovative thinking, hard work, and initiative, regardless of job title, discipline, or seniority.

The Young Leaders group in Vancouver is just one example of the initiatives in place to support young employees and, more specifically, to ensure that rising stars stick around long enough to fill future vacancies in key senior technical, managerial, and leadership roles. As part of the first cohort of the Young Leaders group (YL1), I have had the opportunity to experience Stantec’s approach to leadership development first hand. It has been a career highlight.

With the support of an external professional development consultant, the Young Leaders group brought together twelve young employees from multiple offices and backgrounds, and challenged us to determine what leadership development meant to us, and to build a program and a work plan that would get us there.

The result was an informal and largely self-directed series of projects, exercises, and discussions around team building, leadership, career planning, and business development. I have described it as one part capacity building and personal development, one part mentorship and career planning, and one part applied leadership training.

The strength of the YL experience is the flexibility and responsiveness of the program to the needs and interests of the group, which served to more deeply engage all of us in our work and in the direction of the company. That’s creative chaos at work.

Your Water, Your Wallet ... Choose Wisely

2011-09-15T18:01:00.000-06:00

By Dave Bennett, Senior Principal, Environment (Rocklin, CA)

Can you imagine if tap water was more strictly regulated than bottled water? You could take a shower, wash your clothes and grab a drink knowing that the water coming out of your tap had to be even more pure than the pure refreshing mountain spring water touted on TV. That would really be great.

Well, actually, it is really great because tap water is more strictly regulated than bottled water. It’s just that bottled water companies have done a better job of making people value their water over what comes out of your tap. And that’s pretty impressive when you consider bottled water costs 3-5,000 times more than tap water. With World Water Monitoring Day approaching Sunday (September 18) – one of many observances dedicated to raising awareness about water issues – I thought I’d offer some things to consider.

So what’s the problem here? Well, the problem is you can’t fight a fire with bottled water. The foundation of every community and every regional economy is a reliable water system. But, unfortunately, people don’t value what they don’t understand, don’t pay much for, and can’t see. And if people don’t value it then they have no incentive to spend the money necessary to take care of it, and you see where this is going.

If water is so important why isn’t it valued? Three reasons:

1) Most people have no idea about where their water comes from, the effort required to get it to their house every day, or where it goes when they’re done using it. It’s hard to value what you don’t understand.

2) Good as it is, tap water is too cheap. Basically, we get charged for the cost of delivery, not for the water itself. If it’s cheap it isn’t valued.

3) Water infrastructure? What water infrastructure? Let’s repair that pothole down the street instead. Out of sight, out of mind.

So here are a few facts: First, community water systems are just that – community systems. They belong to you, the ratepayers. It is the ratepayers who hire operation and maintenance staff and elect a board or council to be good stewards of their infrastructure. Water infrastructure is expensive to replace – very, very expensive. So it’s important to maintain it in a way that extends its useful life for as long as possible. It’s a LOT more costly to replace infrastructure than it is to maintain it.

Imagine you inherit a Ferrari and when it’s time for an oil change it’s going to cost $400. Sure, you could balk at the oil change, save $400 and brag about how you’re keeping the cost of ownership down. But when the engine needs to be replaced prematurely because the oil wasn’t changed, that cost of ownership you once bragged about will very quickly exceed $400.

In 2009, Americans spent $46 billion for a full year supply of pure water plumbed directly to our homes, showers, sinks, and hoses. Then we happily spent an additional $21 billion, almost half as much, for less than an equivalent 8 hour supply of water in little crushable bottles. That’s fine. Everyone can choose how they want to spend their money. It only becomes a problem when our lack of appreciation (disrespect?) for tap water causes us to forego proper maintenance of our real supply. And that’s what’s happening, particularly in medium and small cities and districts.

You can’t fight a fire with bottled water. Yet we’ll each gladly spend $65 a year on bottled water while vehemently resisting even the slightest increase in rates to support the essential home delivery system that we own. Too often the elected stewards of our very expensive infrastructure only hear one message from the ratepayers: Don’t raise rates! And so, they forego the $400 oil change, and kick the can down the road. The result is a less reliable system that ultimately costs more to operate.

So the punch line is this: Right now the best water in the world is delivered to North American homes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Don’t take that for granted. Make sure your water utility has rates in place to properly maintain and optimize this very expensive asset. Value the world class water system you’ve got and make sure it stays world class.

A Time to Remember. A Time to Prepare.

2011-09-09T09:47:00.000-06:00

By Don Armour, PE, Regional Leader US Southeast/FEMA Program Manager (Lexington, KY)

Flooding in Northeast, earthquakes in the Mid-Atlantic, hurricanes along the East coast, wild fires and drought conditions in the West, tornadoes in the Midwest—one need look no further than the local news to appreciate September’s National Preparedness Month.

This annual campaign, sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in partnership with Citizens Corp and the Ad Council, asks people to stop and think about their level of preparedness for natural and manmade disasters. The campaign—“A Time to Remember. A Time to Prepare.”—encourages all people to turns awareness into action by taking the necessary steps to ensure that their homes, workplaces, and communities are prepared for emergencies and disasters of all kinds.

Hurricane Irene caused major flooding along
Route 23 in Pompton Plains, NJ

At a personal level each of us has a responsibility to be prepared. Both FEMA (through its ready.gov website) and the Red Cross have checklists to guide us in assembling the most simple but important resource – an emergency kit. Each household should be outfitted with the survival basics such as battery powered radios, flashlights, medicines, water, and a limited non-perishable food supply.

For business, the well being of our staff and their families is of upmost concern. Instituting formal phone trees for each office, for example, helps ensure the safety of all staff in the wake of a local natural disaster. Other necessities include a well identified communications plan for staff, and clients, and recovery plans for buildings and IT infrastructure.

Damage along the Metro North Port Jervis line in
Westchester County, NY in the aftermath of
Hurricane Irene

In my role as the Regional Leader for our US Southeast offices and as client account manager for our work with FEMA, I have both a macro and micro level view of how we need to prepare for disasters. I’ve come to the conclusion that while preparedness is important, we don’t always put as much emphasis on mitigation. Surely, we cannot avoid natural disasters, but we can take measures to reduce the impact of such disasters.

As a design firm, we often consult with communities on issues related to preparedness. We find that many communities do a great job of addressing preparedness from the vantage point of emergency drills and disaster response exercises. But often they are less attuned to actions that can mitigate the impact of a natural disaster.

For example, in the West simple measures such as using fire resistant roofing materials, and removing heat conducting trees, such as pines, from proximity to the homes, can go a long way towards, mitigating the threat of fire damage. Up-to-date, accessible, and well communicated flood plain maps raise homeowner and business awareness about potential threats to their property and better inform decisions regarding mitigation the effect of flooding.

As engineers and environmental scientists, we often counsel our clients to consider how natural disasters could impact existing or planned infrastructure—from buildings to bridges and roadways, to dams, to water systems—and then mitigate for them. And, there are government programs that assist communities in this arena. One example is FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) program which provides funds to state and local governments, as well as universities, for hazard mitigation planning and the implementation of mitigation projects prior to a disaster event. Funding for these programs recognizes as well that by reducing overall risks to the population and structures, we can also reduce reliance on funding required in the wake of actual disaster declarations.

September = School! Designing new schools to LEED® principles and standards

2011-08-31T12:33:00.001-06:00

Submitted by Andreas Haase, P.Eng., LEED ® AP, Structural Engineer (Victoria, BC)

September means many different things to different people, but it’s usually related to the start of school.

When I hear ‘September’, I often remember my teachers, who were so important in developing my skills, which set the foundation for me becoming a structural engineer. And I remember the school buildings where I spent countless hours.

Ah yes, the schools. My elementary and middle school years were spent in the proverbial boring rectangular stucco and blue-and-white portable boxes. One school had a smelly dungeon, and who knows what lurked down there. The ubiquitous portables sat at the edge of the field, little clusters isolated from everything else, where you had to run outside in the rain to get from one classroom to the next. These schools were definitely not the most conducive environments to learning.

Perhaps this is why I’m so excited to have been involved in the design of several new middle and elementary schools while working here at the Stantec Victoria Office. All these schools are wonderful and complex buildings, designed to LEED® principles and standards.

The Stantec design team for Kelset Elementary School was highly integrated, providing structural, mechanical, and civil services. The curved glulam beams, and glulam supported curved canopies give the feeling that you’re wandering in a forest. The wood framed building itself is curved to fit within the natural contours of the ridge it sits on to provide ocean views from every classroom. This unique architectural layout provided many structural challenges, especially in the design of the seismic resisting system. The mechanical team used thermal modeling techniques to design the natural ventilation and passive cooling systems. They also designed perimeter radiant and radiant in-floor heating systems to provide an exceptionally comfortable environment. The civil works included the design and construction administration for roadway improvements, water service, sanitary sewer service, and stormwater management infrastructure. The Stantec team is proud to have worked on this ‘Consulting Engineers of British Columbia’ nominated project!

Stantec provided the structural and civil services for Royal Oak Middle School. The wide open corridor spaces, natural lighting and ventilation, and double sized gymnasium area give a feeling of freedom. The huge windows and glulam construction fit in perfectly with the west coast architecture. Along with the natural ventilation and abundance of light, it’s almost as close as you can get to the outside without actually being outside.

North Saanich Middle School is currently under construction, and combines elements from the two other schools. It will be a LEED® Gold rated building.

A special feature at all of these schools is that portions of them are designed to be used as community centres. This allows the public to have access to the art and music rooms. Kelset Elementary School also offers a First Nations Cultural Centre.

Each of these schools is unique and provided its own design challenges. These ranged from designing a free standing plenum to accommodate natural ventilation systems, to designing external bracing which allows for a maximum degree of flexibility to change room configurations in the future, to dealing with a lack of walls because of all the windows. All these buildings have exacting standards which required an extremely high degree of coordination with the architects and other consultants. These schools are anything but boring!

I am proud to have been part of the team that contributed to the design of these modern, comfortable, and healthy schools, which current and future generations of students will be able to enjoy… as much as they can anyways. I mean, it is school after all!

StantecArt: Where Art Meets Architecture

2011-08-26T08:48:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Ileana Schinder, Architect, (Washington DC)

Visitors walking by Washington DC’s Stantec office are often enticed by the aromas coming from Baked & Wired next door, one of Washington’s top bakeries. Their scrumptious cupcakes, bagels and even dog treats have earned them columns of ink in The Washington Post. Walking in, along with coffee and sugary treats, customers are greeted by art expositions that rotate every few months.

StantecArt

Those with enough willpower to skip the bakery and go straight to Stantec’s office won’t be disappointed to discover that, even lacking the famous frosted mini cakes, the office enjoys its own art show. As the first rotating art display, StanttecArt exhibits the works of two staff members: Harish Murthy and Kai Hu.

In the open conference room, designer Harish Murthy’s colorful paintings bring life to meetings. Harish is an artist who explores design and creativity using vibrant colors and lines. His current series explores the beauty of abstract shapes and forms defined by intersecting lines. He works with acrylic on canvas and his art tends to have lots of layering and some texture.

Villa d’Este by Kai Hu

StantecArt’s other artist, Kai Hu, presents cityscape watercolors that impress by the level of detail and the balance of light and shade. They express Kai’s experience on cities: streets, plazas, buildings, gardens, landscapes and people that live in man-made environments. Most of them are improvisational paintings on site or after his visit to a city. The whole process of water coloring is Kai’s way to observe and comprehend how a city works and how it could be perfectly built. The landscapes inspire him to design a better city to improve people’s life.

StantecArt is the result of Andrea Feniak’s original idea, and the executive production efforts of Tom Campbell, both architects in Stantec. A summer open house event was enjoyed by the staff and friends.

So, next time you come to visit us in Washington, a box of treats for the staff will make you feel like a private benefactor of a world class museum while earning you an exclusive art tour by the artists themselves. So, go ahead, stock up on cupcakes and, on your way upstairs, enjoy the show.

Going to Kathmandu: Q&A with Volunteer Engineer Mike Gill

2011-08-16T14:00:00.002-06:00

Most of us will never likely see the Southeast Asian territories of Nepal and even if we did, it probably wouldn’t be like Mike Gill’s recent trip. A transportation senior project manager in Stantec’s Denver office, Mike just spent two weeks in Nepal’s hilly, agricultural community of Ilam with a volunteer team from the University of Colorado (CU) chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB). Here, he shares his candid accounts that comprise this emotional experience.

Mike with workers and residents of Ilam

Q: What exactly is EWB and what was your mission?
A: The organization’s mission is to "harness the power of professional and student engineers to complete...low-tech, high-impact projects." They have about 12,000 volunteers working on projects throughout the world. The CU EWB team—composed of college students and practitioners like myself—is working on a reed bed wastewater treatment system for a new hospital in Ilam. The system is a modified septic system that uses reed beds rather than a leach field to treat the effluent from the septic tank.

Q: What kind travel did this involve?
A: It took about 39 hours to fly to Kathmandu (via Chicago and Abu Dhabi). I then took a domestic flight to Bhadrapur in eastern Nepal, then a three-hour jeep ride to Ilam.

Ilam is famous for its tea, seen here in one of
the village's tea fields

Q: What motivated you to engage in this cause, in this area?
A: This trip was a sort of homecoming for me as I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal from '87 to '89. While helping students with their service project, I was anxious to see what cultural changes occurred in the time that I was gone (especially given the period of civil unrest which had surfaced since my time there). Additionally, I had wanted to mix development work with my career and EWB was a perfect fit.

Q: Looking through the eyes of an engineer, what did you see as their greatest need?
A: Basic infrastructure is the most immediate need: drinking water, waste (solid and liquid) disposal/treatment, transportation, power. They are all greatly needed. Nepal is extremely poor and in recovery from a recent civil war. Given that backdrop, one can imagine the state of their infrastructure.

Q: What type of impact or progress did you feel you made?
A: Baby steps—but nonetheless important ones. Our waste treatment system is one small part of creating the overall momentum that is building in Ilam. The project fits into Ilam's goal of becoming a "Green City" (a designation it has now received from the United Nations). These and other efforts facilitated by local bodies are dedicated to creating a cultural change in how the people of Ilam view the impact they have on their environment and livelihood. I also felt an impact in working with the students, some of whom are able to stay for several months this summer. They are building incredible connections and interpersonal skills. Seeing the world and allowing those with whom they interact to see the world through different eyes—it’s simply amazing.

Mike on site of the old system's excavation. In the
background is the hospital for which the new
septic system is being built

Q: What was your most memorable experience in Nepal?
A: That’s simple—the collective people of Nepal. I didn't know what to expect going back after over 20 years, especially after the traumatic events that occurred. I found that the Nepali people still put "Southern hospitality" to shame—they are some of the most generous and open people in the world.

Q: What's your next endeavor?
A: This fall we will decide on the next project to tackle in or around Ilam. The possibilities on the table range from fish ponds, to water source protection, to another reed bed system, to supporting a formal landfill development.

Q: Would you recommend this type of service to other practitioners?
A: Absolutely. As satisfying as helping to solve technical problems can be, the relationships you build with both students and within the local communities of other nations are invaluable.

What’s Happening in Mining: Q&A with Bob Rappolt

2011-08-11T14:17:00.000-06:00

Bob Rappolt, a vice president based in North Bay, Ontario, leads Stantec’s mining practice in Canada. The industry has been on the upswing of late—here Bob shares his thoughts on why and what it means.

Q: What has created the current boom in the mining industry?
A: It is thanks in large part to the so-called “westernization” of developing countries. Places like China, Russia, India, Japan and Brazil—these are parts of the world where lifestyle expectations are changing. That boosts the demand for mineral resources and commodities, which creates a supply-and-demand problem and results in increased commodity pricing.

Q: Is this boom similar to previous upswings?
A: This boom is different. Typically, a boom might just be in base metals, say copper or nickel, or it might be in precious metals like gold because of currency fears. But in this particular cycle, all mineral resources are spiking. In my 30 years in the mining industry, I’ve seen five or six very volatile cycles when one or two resources would soar while everything else was normalized or lower. But in this cycle, everything is spiking. Typically, you’ll have a hot cycle for three or four years and then you’ll see a drop for three or four years. We started a hot cycle in 2004 and, even during the economic meltdown of 2008, we only slowed in the mining industry for about 12 months. Again, that’s thanks in large part to the demands of developing nations.

Q: What are some of the challenges this boom presents?
A: The biggest challenge is the talent gap. It is a global problem in the mining industry and it spans from surveyor to CEO. It’s not just the top people. We’re seeing a labour shortage across the complete range of roles within the industry. There are also challenges with vendors, the suppliers, and fabricators of the equipment we use. That comes full circle back to the demand for commodities. They’re in short supply, so the lead times to manufacture the supplies we need are longer and that impacts project schedules.

Q: How about the benefits of the boom?
A: Well, it’s great for the economy in North America and globally. It creates jobs. The other benefit of this particular spike, which analysts suggest could last another five to ten years, is that it gives the mining industry time to make long-term commitments to innovation, academic enrichment, and sustainability practices.

Q: Is there a risk of this bubble bursting?
A: There is always a risk of a bubble bursting—there is always risk. But you have to look at the anticipated global growth, the development, and the masses of people. Think about it: If you take two billion people who right now have nothing and give each of them a bicycle, a sink, and a mobile phone, that requires a lot of metal compared with North American current consumption. The demand is huge and obviously growing.

Q: How is Stantec responding to this new landscape in the mining sector?
A: The ability of our mining sector to take advantage of large, world-class mining projects and share work with other sectors within Stantec is a significant benefit. Our size, our breadth of expertise, and our corporate philosophy all make us uniquely qualified to take on these larger projects. Expanding commodity diversification to address those spikes in demand across the board is also one of our primary strategic initiatives moving forward.

Project Snapshot: Route 9A, New York City

2011-08-05T10:28:00.000-06:00

Stantec has been working on New York City's Route 9A for well over 20 years and, over that time, we've seen a lot of change. This major roadway's transition from an elevated highway to the boulevard it is today--and the history that propelled these changes along the way--makes the project's evolution an interesting parallel to the story of this section of Manhattan.

Check out our Project Snapshot video on the right to learn more about this effort and how Route 9A is shaping up today.

Redefining Higher Education Practices, a SCUP Presentation

2011-07-25T10:34:00.001-06:00

Submitted by David Martin, Design Leader (London, UK)

This week at the Society for College and University Planners (SCUP) conference in National Harbor, MD, Stantec and Stanford University are hosting a presentation that explores how the process of realizing university education and research projects is changing, and how design approaches can and must transform in response to these rapidly evolving times.

Two projects are being featured in this presentation, and I wanted to share some background information with folks who might attend the talk—and anyone else who might be interested!

The Lab Exemplar is an in-depth exploration of net zero research laboratory design. As research laboratories continue to pose a significant challenge to campus carbon emission initiatives, we undertook to investigate what a carbon neutral research facility—possessing truly exemplar teaching and research environments for the future—would look like, and then mainstream these design innovations into our work on behalf of our clients. Read the full story here.

The new Centre for Brain Health at the University of British Columbia will create a centre of excel-lence focused on translational research and patient centered care, aimed at the prevention, understanding the causes, and treating the consequences of brain dysfunction.

The building’s design enhances and facilitates translational medicine through dedicated research and support spaces that are fully integrated into the design of the clinical spaces. Features include larger exam rooms and larger work spaces which allow faculty members to lead instruction during clinical activities, and dedicated office and support spaces for integrated clinical research activities.

Careful consideration of the laboratory’s circulation system, interaction nodes, and organization in relation to clinical areas was a key design principle in promoting the level of collaboration between academic and clinical research teams required to support the institution’s translational research agenda. State-of-the-art research environments are embedded above the clinical areas of the campus, and an interior atrium with break-out areas provides collaboration zones. Strategic coordination of entrances, elevators and offices with the surrounding campus components integrates the research environments.

Fostering interaction across disciplinary lines and the creation of the resulting synergies is a key goal, integral to the success of the new centre. The program is meant to provide the spatial infrastructure to inspire and encourage high levels of collaboration which yield unforeseen advances in brain health.

If I don’t see you at the presentation, I look forward to your comments below.

SCUP Poster Forum: Programming and Design of High-Performance Teaching Laboratories

2011-07-25T06:27:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Andrea Feniak, Senior Associate (Washington, DC)

For another of Stantec’s poster sessions at the SCUP conference, we’re showcasing Montgomery College’s New Science Center on the Rockville, Maryland campus. One of the reasons we chose to highlight this project is it represents a design approach that engaged everyone—the owner, stakeholders and the architect/engineer design team—in the development of an educational program that truly embraced the idea that a lab building could be high-performing while low-energy and sustainable. As a team, we made sure the program was integrated with the systems right from the beginning through open communication at workshops with stakeholders that established goals, collected data, and determined needs and concepts.

As a result, we have a successful academic laboratory program that balances educational needs with energy performance, in part because we were able to engage the educational users beyond the programming process to determine how the educational requirements of laboratories can influence sustainable design decisions. We also used life-cycle cost analysis as an important decision-making tool during design, and whole-building commissioning during construction.

The SCUP poster session allows participants to comment on posters using Post-It Notes. We’re asking SCUP conference attendees to specifically provide some input on the following questions:

1. How can the programming workshop for a successful educational laboratory influence sustainable design decisions?
2. How do the methods for the design, construction, and operation of buildings contribute to an energy efficient teaching laboratory?

And if you aren’t attending SCUP, we certainly invite comments here from our online community as well. Thanks!

SCUP Poster Forum: Maintaining Campus Functionality During Master Plan Implementation

2011-07-22T07:30:00.002-06:00

Submitted by Kristina Vidal, Associate (Washington, DC)

Architects are familiar with the “cocktail napkin sketch” phenomenon – the quick inspiration for a building project that can strike suddenly, an idea whose essence can be captured with a simple, elegant scrawling of lines on a scrap of paper. In many ways, a master plan is like the older brother of the cocktail napkin sketch – a more mature capture of an idea of organization, hierarchy and design language made at a broad-brush level.

A campus master plan is an important tool for enabling smart growth, but it’s like a map with just a destination pin – the traveler knows the end goal, but not the details of the journey. The implementation of the first part of Towson University’s master plan required careful planning of each leg – coordination with local utilities and approving agencies to align with the construction schedule; dealing with unexpected quantities of subsurface rock within the foundation; forensic tracing of underground utilities to determine the actual conditions when the as-built drawings prove to be incomplete or inaccurate.

Click image to see animation of 16 steps of master plan
implementation at Towson University

We packed our traveling bag with essentials, which included front-loading construction activities to perform test pitting and mapping of utilities to minimize unpleasant surprises, dividing phases into multiple bid sets to streamline procurement and construction, incorporating strategic float time in the construction schedule and taking a flexible approach to packaging, sequencing and executing the work. Ultimately, having a team that consisted of the University, the Construction Manager and the Design Team that met regularly throughout the design and construction phases and was able to communicate and collaborate effectively enabled Towson to remain fully operational during major disruptions and disturbances in its academic precinct. The end result? A campus transformed.

Towson University’s Classes of 2010 and 2011 (and possibly the Class of 2012) will have spent their entire college career on a campus in the midst of dramatic upheaval, years with shifting pedestrian detours, muddy holes in the ground, and blasting. Was the inconvenience a good trade for a state-of-the-art College of Liberal Arts and a more aesthetically pleasing and accessible campus?

This is one of the projects we are presenting in poster session format at this week’s national conference for the Society for College and University Planners (SCUP) in National Harbor, Maryland. The poster sessions are an interactive forum that invites comments on the content and questions we’ve included in our piece.

We’d like to hear from SCUP attendees on the following topics:

1) As a university administrator, are there limitations, disruptions, or other inconveniences that you are prepared to place on the students and faculty to accomplish your goal of implementing campus construction? For how long?

2) Which is the LEAST detrimental to campus activities and student life: permitting major disruption to access and services for a semester, or stretching less severe and shorter-duration disturbances over a two-year period? Why?

At the conference, attendees will provide their responses to our poster with Post-it Notes (which we hope to share or summarize on this blog), but we invite comments here from our online community as well. Many thanks!

SCUP-46, Here We Come!

2011-07-21T13:49:00.000-06:00

The 46th annual conference of the Society of Campus and University Planners (SCUP) begins this weekend, and Stantec will be actively participating in its events and discussions. Over the next several days we’ll be highlighting some of these activities here on the blog, from comments and reactions to poster session to thoughts on the role of design in responding to changes in university education and research. We’ll also be hosting a Twitter contest to win an iPad. Follow us at twitter.com/Stantec for updates on how you can enter.

So stay tuned for coverage of all the goings-on at the event!

Mother of Invention… a new tool to help save seagrasses

2011-07-14T14:28:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Mike Burton, Principal (Sarasota, FL)

While ecologists are not normally known for their manufacturing skills, we are often confronted with the limitations of our tools. One particularly challenging problem we confront in coastal restoration projects is the vulnerability of submerged vegetation to removal and transplantation. Too often, even well-planned and executed restorations are undermined by an unacceptably high failure rate for some transplanted species, such as turtle grass, a species of seagrass. The problem isn’t always with the plan or methodology but can often be attributed to equipment shortcomings.

In the true spirit of “necessity as the mother of invention,” we set out to make a better mousetrap – or, in this case, a plug cutter. Over several years of iterative improvements, we devised a hand-held device to rapidly harvest, transport, and transplant deep-rooted seagrasses like turtle grass. So far, we’ve been encouraged by the results: our plugger has been shown to streamline the painstaking tasks of harvesting and transplantation while improving success rates and reducing costs.

This month we learned that the government agrees that the tool is a good thing—the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued Stantec a patent for what we’ve called our Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Plug Cutter.

Our model (you can see it in action on Stantec’s Facebook page) includes a manually operated plug cutter, a transport receptacle, and a related method for collecting and transporting plugs of vegetation or substrate core samples. Its defining feature: the use of compressed air, which releases vacuum pressure between the cutting body and the submerged substrate, thus separating the plug or core sample from the substrate with minimal effort. The pneumatic plugger also creates a hole to install the collected plug flush with the adjacent substrate.

The "plug cutter" in action

The receptacle used for transporting plugs includes a hollow cylinder constructed of PVC, with a removable bottom. The transport cartridge matches the length of the cutting member and has the same interior diameter, which maintains the integrity of the collected plug or sample. Both the plugger and transport receptacle can be fabricated to different diameters and lengths for various types of applications. To date, we’ve developed models from 6” (15.4 cm) to 8” (20.3 cm).

We build our equipment, as needed, at a local fabrication shop located in Florida. The pluggers are built to order, based on our specifications. Staff have refined the design several times based on field experience. The cost per plugger is approximately $1,000 each depending on size and the materials required.

In October of 2007, we transplanted 1,001 plugs of turtlegrass using the plugger. Results from the monitoring of the transplanted units indicated an unprecedented 75% survival after 3 years. To date, we’ve been able to use this method to successfully transplant over 20,000 units of seagrass.

We are now tracking the success of the plugger on an ongoing basis via our contracted seagrass restoration and transplantation assignments. We’re confident that the tool, when made part of a comprehensive plan, can result in less impact to the donor site, more rapid transplantation, and a higher survival rate.

What makes a great public space?

2011-07-07T12:36:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Brad Lindeburgh, Senior Principal (Calgary, AB)

Spacing magazine recently published a list of the top 100 best public spaces in Canadian cities. As a landscape architect and urban designer, it got me thinking about what it takes to create a “great” public space.

The best urban design projects in landscape architecture come together with some key but crucial ingredients: opportunity, support, and collaboration. When the combination is just right, the result is a truly great public space.

Good opportunities for public spaces are rare, and when they present themselves it takes a committed team of design professionals, clients, and approval authorities to make the dedicated effort and see the way through challenges and obstacles to realize a vision.

Building support for a project is also fundamental. Public and stakeholder engagement not only provides valuable input for consideration in the design process but can also, if managed effectively, create a broad base of public support and on-going interest, creating grassroots champions-at-large to see the project through.

Collaboration is the ingredient that pulls the project through. It starts within the design team of landscape architects and urban planners, sharing ideas and striving for the best creative solutions. This collaboration extends to a broader team to include creative structural engineers, lighting designers, horticulturalists, and other specialists. The best projects are realized when the client and the public are also truly part of this collaborative team.

A rendering of a section of Calgary’s RiverWalk

These three ingredients all came together in a spectacular way for Calgary’s new urban waterfront, The RiverWalk. The RiverWalk is a key component of an ambitious revitalization effort for the Rivers District in downtown Calgary being undertaken by the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation. The RiverWalk Master Plan outlined a new vision for the Bow and Elbow Rivers waterfront and a new generation of public life and urban spaces in downtown Calgary. It establishes a continuous promenade that connects a number of the city’s premier attractions and communities through a network of waterfront plazas, natural areas, commuter routes, cultural corridors, and other gateways. We were privileged enough to lead and manage a multi-firm and multi-disciplinary team through the design development and detailed design process that brought the vision of this master plan through to reality.

While seeing great projects being built can be its own reward, it’s even more rewarding when your peers acknowledge a project’s success. So far the RiverWalk has been recognized with the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Award of National Merit and an Urban Design Award of Merit. And in the Spacing article, Phase 1 of the RiverWalk, now built and open to the public, was included as one of the top 100 best public spaces in Canadian cities and as #4 in their Calgary-specific top 10. The list was compiled through votes from a group of 135 architects, designers, writers, and Spacing readers from across Canada.

While the full list isn’t available online, you can find where to buy Spacing on their website. See if your city’s public spaces made the cut. We’re certainly proud ours did.

Celebrating sport through design at Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame

2011-06-30T14:55:00.001-06:00

Submitted by Enzo Vicenzino, Senior Principal (Calgary, AB)

Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame opens tomorrow, appropriately making it part of our nation’s Canada Day celebrations. Being a part of the design process for this amazing facility has been an inspiring and rewarding experience. The project kicked off with a two-day visioning session in Toronto, where we brushed shoulders with some of the most influential athletes and sportscasters in Canadian sports – past, present and future. Personalities like Scott Russell, who holds the Canadian record for javelin throw; sports announcer Dave Hodge; Ron Ellis, who played hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Canadian Olympic team in the famous 1972 Summit Series; Olympic cyclist Curt Harnett; and many others. To get a sense of the future of Canadian sport, some high school students involved in amateur sports were also invited to participate in the discussion.

The idea was to get a feel for what Canadian sports means to the type of people who really shape sports in this country and on the world stage. For an architect who wants to make sure that this design pays proper tribute to Canada’s athletes, what better inspiration than to hear from the athletes themselves about their passion and drive? Our challenge was to capture this energy and translate it into a design that effectively tells these stories and evokes a sense of national pride in the people who enjoy the museum. It was important to ensure that guests not only learn about the achievements of our athletes, but actually experience and appreciate what it takes to be a successful member of Canada’s athletic showcase.

A rendering of the building's striking exterior

Obviously, then, the most important component of the building is the exhibit hall, which is unmistakably the focal point of the architectural design, being a large box wrapped in the red of our Canadian flag. The box is tilted on an angle, which allowed the exhibits to be tiered, eventually leading up the ultimate goal for athletes: the Olympics. Once in the Olympic exhibit, guests get a glimpse through two slender windows of the ski jumps atop Canada Olympic Park to remind them that this is the site of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games.

The light-filled entryway

The hall’s location in Canada Olympic Park, while an appropriate backdrop for this athletic tribute, created a challenge in creating some competition with the attractions that already exist on the site, such as the ski jumps and the bobsled track. We realized that the correct approach was not to try to compete with these elements, but to design the Hall of Fame as an “object in space.” The building emanates its own significance through its contents: the exhibits and artifacts within. The architectural features, such as the tilted red box with a dramatic cantilever over a smaller, glass support structure, as well as the striking entrance into an atrium filled with natural light, all help to define the impact of the facility. The building exterior is accentuated with red and white light boxes interspersed around its sides, and is topped with the red Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame logo on a white roof, which is visible from the top of Canada Olympic Park, or even from the air. All of these details were carefully selected to design a building that is worthy of its contents, without attempting to overshadow them.

What topped off this already thrilling experience was the truly collaborative process we had with our exhibit designers, C7A, our engineering consultants, including Stantec’s structural engineering team, and our client and the project manager and design builder, CANA Construction. We are so proud of the result, and know that it really reflects that each and every member of our talented team takes pride in achievement, which is really what this museum is all about.

Stantec’s Cool Commuters…

2011-06-23T13:09:00.001-06:00

Submitted by Wendy Firlotte, Sustainability Engagement Coordinator (Annapolis, MD)

Wendy, and her bike

Do you have that nagging inner voice reminding you of things like you should really start exercising more, learn to play that instrument, or actually make the effort to figure out a more environmentally friendly way to get to work? Stantec’s month-long Cool Commute Challenge provides our employees with motivation to experiment with different modes of commuting, whether by bike, transit, foot, carpool, or some other creative, but safe, mode of transport. With both seasoned veterans and newly converted commuters, our employees are working towards reducing their personal carbon footprints, finding new ways to incorporate regular exercise into their busy daily routines, and save some money in the process.

Brian Moeller (Hamilton, ON) is a veteran commuter. Brian has biked 25 km (15.5 miles) from his home to work for 10 years. After commuting for 17 years to Toronto by car, Brian feels his bike commute is great way to improve his health and relieve stress. One of his favorite routes to work takes him through the Niagara Escarpment, a beautiful protected natural area through the City of Hamilton.

Our Edmonton office hosted a mini-bike race as a fun way
to raise awareness about the challenge

Sandy Shaposky (Washington, DC) usually drives her car for the 35 mile (56.3 km) commute; with gas and parking the cost is about $22–26 per day. The Cool Commute Challenge motivated Sandy to take a local commuter bus, at $10 roundtrip, which adds up to significant cost savings. Sandy says she loves not having to be at the wheel when heading into the office and enjoys being able to get some work done or to relax.

David Nardone (Boston, MA) occasionally teleworks and otherwise takes the subway to work most days. About half of his office takes transit and use a car share service (Zip Car) to get around for client meetings and site visits.

Wilbur Horton (Northampton, MA) carpools 125 miles (201 km) roundtrip every day. He says it saves his carpooling trio significant costs associated with gas, parking, and vehicle wear and tear.

Jim Cleveland (San Francisco, CA) takes a commuter train and transit bus about 50 miles (80.5 km) from his home every day. Taking the train not only saves Jim $500–600 per month, it also provides him time to get some extra work done or to just relax with a little down time.

The Sacramento office has formed a group to
walk to lunch versus driving

Ann Tolman (Rocklin, CA) was motivated by the Cool Commute Challenge to start using the bike she bought last year and infuse more physical activity in her life after recently having her second child. She feels it’s a great way to fit exercise into her already busy schedule.

Mason Mattos (Sacramento, CA) travels 17 miles (27.4 km) by commuter bus every day, saving him about $300 per month. When Mason needs to get to appointments in the city, he brings his bike aboard the commuter bus and combines bike and light rail to get around.

Not only are our offices logging saved travel miles, many are having a lot of fun by hosting Cool Commute Challenge events such as “walk to lunch” office events and mini-bike races. Great job to all of our participating offices! We are pleased to have another successful challenge this year!

Breaking the ice: Inspiring employee engagement through... hockey!

2011-06-17T09:29:00.001-06:00

Submitted by Don Craig, New England Regional Leader (Boston, MA)

The hoisting of the Stanley Cup by the Boston Bruins’ Zdeno Chara on Wednesday night brought an end to the hockey season but also to our Stantec Stanley Cup Challenge between the New England and British Columbia regions, and I was left wishing there was more of both to come.

This little internal challenge, initially conceived during the Edmonton/Carolina NHL playoffs in 2006, demonstrates so much about Stantec’s values, opportunities, and staff. When we found out the Cup would be played for by Vancouver and Boston, it created a perfect opportunity to leverage the geographic diversity that we have (10,500+ staff in over 160 offices) and put our scrappy 400-person New England region up against a similar sized group in Canada; and what better purpose than to raise some money for charity and build some team spirit in the process?

For the challenge, staff in the New England and British Columbia offices were encouraged to donate $1 every day they wore their team gear to the office throughout the Stanley Cup finals. At the end of the series, the winning side would get the pooled money to donate to the charity of their choice.

The Vancouver office's Canucks pride

This event reinforced to me that as the Company has become larger and more diversified, we need to seek creative opportunities to engage local teams with others who they may rarely get a chance to work with. The Stanley Cup Challenge created a common bond for staff who were separated by 2,500 miles, three time zones, a border, and an endless argument about the pronunciations of “about,” “project,” and “process.”

Emails and calls from staff in the rival offices began ranging from images of Timmy Thomas voodoo dolls from Vancouver to staff in Westford, Massachusetts sending taunting messages to the printers in the Vancouver and Surrey, BC offices for unsuspecting staff to find when they arrived in the morning, or the Westford office posing for a taunting “finger-nibbling” team picture. A time will come when opportunities for these staff to work together on client projects will occur, and my hope is that this event will provide that initial ice breaker when they meet.

When the local NBC TV news visited the Boston office to cover the story of our challenge this week, the reporter asked me if having all this fun with the challenge was making it difficult for us to get our real work done. Of course it was! But there is such value in building relationships both within a local office and across the continent, and looking for even small ways to have a positive impact in our community, that it is an investment with a very quick pay off.

The Boston office at the Bobby Orr statue by TD Garden

Every time one of our team dropped in $1 for wearing their team colors, jerseys, bear head, or orca fin, there was a belief in their team and the awareness that ultimately this was going to a good cause. And we see this type of approach regularly in Stantec. From the Movember office challenge which gave some of the playoff ‘staches and beards a run for their money, to our current Cool Commute Challenge in which offices compete to use alternative forms of transportation, we have this incredible opportunity here to compete internally and truly act as One Team when it comes to our impact on the communities we live in.

Across the organization we have events like the Make-A-Wish campaign in Scarborough, Maine, to Meals on Wheels in Charleston, South Carolina, to the companywide “Dollars for Doers” program. The Stanley Cup Challenge shows that we can create a new initiative quickly, have some fun, give back, and maybe— just maybe—creates that spark that can lead to even greater opportunities: client collaboration, work-sharing across offices, mentoring…. or creating new Bruins fans across the continent.

Tales from a mentor: Inspiring the next generation of engineers

2011-06-07T13:45:00.001-06:00

Submitted by Chris Carter, EIT, LEED AP, Structural Engineering Designer (Albany, NY)

“I don’t want to be an engineer, it involves way more math than I expected.” The other mentors and I had to laugh a little at one student’s comments during the final presentations for this year’s ACE Mentor Program in Albany, NY.

Well, maybe engineering isn’t for everyone, but a vast majority of students who participate in the ACE program are thrilled by the possibilities for creativity and problem solving in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries. Every year, we see a mix of new and returning students, and as mentors, we try to find new, fun, and exciting ways to show them what we do.

The primary goal of the ACE Mentor Program is to engage and excite high school students so that they become interested in pursuing careers in our field. I’ve been an ACE Mentor since 2008, when a colleague, Chad Reinemann, asked for my help with it. Our office has been involved with the program since 2004. There are seven other companies in the Albany area who participate, and we all take turns hosting two or three sessions throughout the school year.

Chris (left) and fellow Stantec ACE
mentor Chad Reinemann at a session.

This year, the students were tasked with the main project of designing an elementary school. Each session focused on a single aspect of the design, and the students were broken up into teams and given activities to help them progress their design. Activities included using paper cutouts of various rooms to lay out the building footprint on a site plan, sketching bus loops and parking lots while considering turning radii, visual classification of soil samples, modeling and testing roof structures, lighting simulation, and more.

In Albany, Stantec hosted two of the project sessions. The first focused on structural engineering. After a short presentation about what structural engineers do, the students were given index cards and tape with the assignment of constructing a roof system that could span 8 inches. The finished models were then load tested, and the students were able to see how the strengths of each design compared to the others.

For our second session, Chad and I recruited two members from the survey group to help. Jason Swett and Charlie Helmrath set up surveying equipment around the office, showed the students how to use it, and then gave them the opportunity to locate pre-established points.

Stantec colleague Jason Swett showing
students how to use survey equipment.

This brings us back to the final presentations. At the end of each program year, we ask the teams to do a quick presentation about the experience for their parents and the mentors, and we ask them what their future plans in the industry might be. Some of the younger students said that they would like to remain in the program again next year. Other students expressed interest in becoming architects, biomedical engineers, and roller coaster designers.

After all was said and done, one student’s father expressed his thanks to the mentors and perhaps gave us one of our most satisfying endorsements. He said his son, a high school freshman, was always overly excited to attend the sessions and can’t wait to be able to do it again next year. And that is the reason why we are ACE mentors. It is gratifying to be able to make what we do every day seem interesting and exciting to the new generation of designers and builders.

Making commuting “cool”: Q&A with Paul Carey

2011-06-02T13:01:00.002-06:00

In light of the launch of our annual Cool Commute Challenge this month (encouraging employees companywide to commute to work in sustainable fashions), Irvine, California, employee Paul Carey shares how this annual program continued a personal commitment to himself and his family for healthy living. His thoughts, captured on video here, were given last year, right before he began his bicycle ride home to complete a 76-mile (122.3 km) roundtrip commute. Throughout June, employees across the Company will bike, carpool, telecommute, walk, and use mass transit to reduce the Company’s impact on the environment, all while competing to determine which offices and people are the “coolest commuters.”

Our 3D World and the Evolution of Design

2011-05-27T09:23:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Robert Spinale, BIM coordinator (New York, NY)

Robert at Yankee Stadium,
where Stantec completed
extensive 3D surveys

Today our industry regards 3D as a relatively new movement, with the transition from CAD to BIM models moving steadily. But in reality the 3D movement began 30 years ago, when other industries like animation were starting to see the value in computers and 3D design. Companies like Pixar began experimenting during this time despite being shunned by top animation firms such as Disney for changing the traditional hand-drawn workflow. If it wasn't for Pixar’s efforts and their vision, the 3D animation revolution of the 1990s would have never happened. In the case of the AEC industry, in the 1980s most firms were just beginning to experiment with the computer and CAD, meeting the same resistance. As always, the reluctance to move to a new platform slowed the evolution progress.

Pioneers of 3D in our industry were companies like Skidmore Owings & Merrill, which began researching the merit of having a building model in three dimensions. The firm created a database-driven modeling system known as AES, or Architecture Engineering System, a predecessor to today’s BIM tools. Early visionaries were working on models like this even before others saw the need to move to CAD, leaving most other AEC firms to stick to their usual, conventional methods. There were other obstacles to deal with also. The personal computer was only in its infancy, making the availability of computers for drafters difficult, let alone any training needed to use modeling programs.

3D model of utilities under a NYC street

Another major problem was computing power. We have enough difficulty even today designing in 3D without our computers crashing if not equipped with an adequate system. Back then, there were not nearly enough technological resources to do so, which is why initial research was put on hold until the technology advanced enough to keep up with the movement. Had there been enough interest, hardware and software developers might have been compelled to advance their product lines and give us the resources to experiment with building models. Had this happened earlier, the BIM revolution would have occurred in the ‘90s along with the 3D work of the animators and others who choose to invest in it.

Example of a 3D print-out

My vision for the AEC industry is that we are, eventually, going to completely move into the BIM era , whether that be five, ten, or twenty years from now. A lot of the 3D work we’re doing at Stantec—between our ever-evolving BIM experience and our recent use of 3D printing and other technologies—is helping point us in that direction. It’s my hope that this continued experimentation, experience, and evolution helps position us as forerunners in our field, ready for the brave, new BIM world.

What is Your Flood Risk? Why You Should Know and What You Can Do

2011-05-17T07:41:00.002-06:00

Submitted by Louie Greenwell, GIS service area leader (Louisville, KY)

This week professionals from across the nation are meeting in Louisville, KY at the Association of State Floodplain Managers conference, during a time of massive flooding threats across large areas of the US. Louie Greenwell helps us understand why their work is so important to all of us.

Louie Greenwell

Are you at risk from flooding? As heavy rains fall across the Midwest, many people along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers are learning about their flood risk the hard way. President Obama has declared major disasters in multiple states and the recent storms are expected to produce the highest flood losses since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The rising flood levels bring an increased visibility and awareness of flood risk, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is positioned with a new program to better communicate the risk from flooding.

FEMA’s Risk Mapping Assessment and Planning (Risk MAP) program is focused not only on flood hazard identification, but helping communities take actions to reduce or eliminate their flood risks. To be successful, FEMA is helping local officials and the general public better understand their risks and Stantec is FEMA’s partner in this effort.

Fact: If you live in the special flood hazard area, you have a 26% chance of being flooded over a 30-year period – the typical length of a home mortgage.

Fact: Floods, especially flash floods, kill more people each year than any other weather phenomenon.

Fact: Most flood deaths, about 60%, result from people being swept away when trying to cross flooded roads.

Fact: Most cars will experience loss of control or may even float in less than 12 inches of water. This message has even made its way to school kids through the “Turn Around, Don’t Drown” campaign.

While bringing more visibility to the widespread risks and hazards associated with floods, FEMA is also educating people on the fact that you can experience flooding even if you are not in a mapped zone on FEMA’s Flood Insurance Rate Map. FEMA’s insurance maps are based on a specific amount of rainfall over a specific period of time. Variations in precipitation amounts and duration can have huge impacts on flooding. Add to this the potential for blocked culverts or bridge openings and one starts to see the challenges in trying to predict where flooding will occur. Simply put, anywhere it rains, it can flood.

Significant flooding can also occur when flood protection structures fail. Despite media coverage of levee and dam failures, people that live behind or downstream of these structures have a false sense of security. Even worse, many people don’t even know that they could be impacted by a dam or levee breach because traditional communication methods have not been effective.

Flood risk map detail

Getting this message out is a significant part of the Risk MAP communication and outreach strategy. If people understand that floods can occur just about anywhere and for many reasons, they may be better prepared in the event that disaster happens.

Simply knowing your risk is not enough. Taking action to reduce risk is the key. By educating local officials on effective flood mitigation alternatives and providing various grant programs to help offset the costs, FEMA is encouraging communities to become more sustainable.

To learn more about your risks from flooding and what you can do to reduce those risks, visit http://www.floodsmart.gov/.

Oh, and when your kids tell you not to cross the flooded roadway…listen to them!

Rebuilding Haiti: One volunteer’s on-the-ground observations

2011-05-11T14:02:00.002-06:00

Submitted by Katie Davis, architectural designer (Boston, MA)

Katie and one of her new
friends in Haiti

I sat in Boston’s Logan Airport waiting to board the early flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, iced coffee in hand. My appreciation for life's little luxuries was about to grow even larger with the coming hours. Upon landing, the airport vibrated with singing and drumming from impromptu musicians. As advised, I managed to quickly get myself and my belongings out of the airport and into the hot sun and the hands of the Architecture for Humanity coordinators. This was the beginning of my adventure: two months devoted to volunteering the best of my architecture-based abilities to a country whose construction was tested—and failed—in the wake of the January 12, 2010 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

En route from the airport, no longer distracted by the immense heat, my focus became the view out of the Toyota truck. As we wound through the crazy vehicle- and pedestrian-filled streets, horns blared and people yelled. But above these sounds, the destruction spoke the loudest. Since this ruin is not a thing of the past, my story will continue in the present. Rubble, debris, and trash rest in the footprints of the crumbled buildings. Scattered along the streets and collected in its curbs, the debris creates an obstacle course around which to navigate the city. Dilapidated buildings and structures, the source of the rubble, lay flattened or sideways. The ghosts of the original architecture linger in its place.

One vendor's art display

Amongst the piles—in a positive zone of the city—the destruction is silenced by the talent of its artists. While Haitian artwork is deeply rooted in its culture, its visual vibrancy has proven to stand stronger than the neighboring damage. Here, the rubble acts as a backdrop, an exhibition space for the colorful art. Products are displayed along nearly every street each morning: paintings line walls, pottery is tacked to trees, baskets blanket sidewalks, and metalwork clings to fences.

Students in Pélé

This resilient creativity remains a source of inspiration for rebuilding. A main goal of Architecture for Humanity is to help rebuild Haiti through its education, as schools serve as safe gathering places to learn and harness that energy. As such, the Rebuilding Center supports the design and reconstruction of primary and secondary facilities and educates local contractors on proper building techniques by including earthquake and hurricane-proof construction, passive design strategies, local material use, and community collaboration through the design and construction of each school.

The Rebuilding Center concentrates one of its efforts on a school within the dense and chaotic neighborhood of Pélé. The earthquake destroyed a majority of the buildings within the campus’ narrow site, leaving the challenge of providing enough built and open space for the 1,200 pre-k through secondary students, 38 teachers, and the community under safe and sanitary conditions.

Rendering of the
classroom facade

My little piece of the design puzzle was focused on the treatment of the facades of the buildings. Punched windows and open-air clerestory spaces allow for passive cooling and natural daylighting. My design creates an element reusing scrap metal from the streets for the openings, which filters sunlight, provides security, and utilizes the talents of local metalwork artists.

While the rebuilding is happening, each day is a challenge for the Haitian people. Forced from their destroyed homes, families collect in the low-lying areas throughout Port-au-Prince in networks of makeshift “tent cities,” which quickly become unsanitary, disease-infested, and have the tendency to flood. Add to that the country’s ongoing political instability and it paints an unsettling picture of the future with no fast fixes on the horizon.

At the end of my two months, flying home was both the easiest and the hardest part of my trip. The idea of rejoining the First World has its perks; however, knowing the work is far from finished in the Third makes it that much harder.

Celebrating safety as a core value

2011-05-02T12:32:00.001-06:00

Submitted by Keith Robinson, Director of Health, Safety & Environment

Keith Robinson

This week (May 1–7, 2011) is North American Occupational Safety and Health Week, an entire week in which governments, employers, and workers throughout North America take time out from their normal activities to promote the importance of preventing injury and illness in the workplace and at home. This observance raises some questions: Why is safety such a big deal? Why spend so much time, money, and effort on something that doesn’t add to the ”bottom line”?

During the 1930s, it was common to “budget” for employee deaths during major construction projects. For the Empire State Building, it was anticipated—and accepted—that one person would be killed for every floor completed. That’s 102 deaths! Fortunately, according to official records, only five workers lost their lives. Today, even planning for five deaths is unacceptable. What’s changed in 80 years?

I think that there are two major differences. First, in today’s society, everyone recognizes the value of human life. Morally, protecting every worker is the right thing to do. As we’ve recently seen in the case of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion, society does not accept “profit over people.” Public outrage will force companies into compliance, or out of business.

Paying careful attention to
health and safety in the field

Second, organizations now recognize that it makes business sense to protect qualified and trained workers. Even short-term losses of workers injured on the job and at home adversely affect the organization’s ability to deliver a quality product or service in a reasonable amount of time. As deadlines and margins both become tighter, preventing worker injuries directly impacts the bottom line.

So, how do companies prevent injuries, protect employees, and do it in a cost-effective manner? I mean, it doesn’t do any good to implement programs and systems that cost more than an organization’s profits. It’s done by making safety a core value of the organization—creating the attitude that injuries are unacceptable. This involves educating employees to recognize the hazards that can result in injuries, and empowering them to implement controls to prevent those injuries. It also involves the creation of “safety accountabilities” throughout the organization—identifying the actions that each level within the company must do to maintain a safe work environment, and holding those levels accountable for completion of those activities.

Happy NAOSH Week!

This is the journey that Stantec is currently making. The Health, Safety & Environment Department (HSE), under the direction of senior leadership, is creating and implementing the tools and systems that will educate and empower our employees. Additionally, HSE is conducting training for all levels of leadership to provide the skills necessary to manage our jobs safely. This investment of important resources (time and money) is critical to the development of safety as a core value, and will result in a significant return on investment: a happy, healthy, and safe work force who will deliver a quality service on time. We have certainly made safety one of our core values at Stantec and are doing everything we can to be a leader not only in the services we provide, but also in keeping our most valuable resources—our employees—safe.

And isn’t that what it’s really about?

Stantec Q&A: Cathy Sears, Landscape Architect

2011-04-28T12:54:00.000-06:00

“Our best works are those places that don’t appear to have been designed at all.”

Cathy Sears is the leader of Stantec’s landscape architecture practice, a member of the prestigious College of Fellows of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA), and a past president of the CSLA organization. As we close out April—World Landscape Architecture Month—Cathy, who is based in Calgary, AB, shares her insights about her profession and its importance.

Q: What are the key characteristics of a successful landscape architect?
A: The scope of the profession is so broad I would have to say to love what you do because that is what you will do best.

Q: How did you get your start in the profession?
A: My first “real” job was with the BC government working for the Department of Lands, Parks and Housing, but it was the interview that I will always remember. It was for a summer position. I hadn’t finished my degree and really didn’t feel very confident. The manager of the department himself interviewed me and after we went over some of my projects, he asked which project I thought was my best …. I responded that I actually thought none of them were very good then sighed realizing I surely must have just blown that interview. He said that was the answer he was looking for because we should always strive to improve and he hired me.

Cathy and her mentor,
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander

Q: Who or what has inspired you the most in your career?
A: Knowing that, as landscape architects, we can make meaningful contributions to our communities, from very large-scale, open-space policies right down to the smallest of details of a well-designed hand railing, captures the essence of “what” inspires me. As to “who”? I truly admire and respect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. She is the Grand Dame of landscape architects in Canada and has been a great mentor and role model for me. Her embrace of and endless enthusiasm toward making our communities better places to learn, live and work, brings vitality to our profession and has evolved a greater appreciation in the community for our natural environment, sustainable urban design, and the integral value of the art and culture of landscape.

Q: What place or venue best illustrates the impact of a landscape architect? Why?
A: I think some of our best works are those places that don’t appear to have been designed at all—places where people seem to move and collect naturally; they find a place to sit and talk protected from the wind or have lunch in the sun; they wait to meet friends at a designated spot; they come on bikes or roller blades and as a family to take in a weekend festival; they pose for pictures, pick up a game of hacky sac and delight to discover goslings darting across the water to a safe island in a pond. I think when we can create places that people make their own and can feel comfortable in then we have had a very positive impact.

Q: What is the biggest challenge to the landscape architecture profession right now?
A: We are challenged in advocating for ourselves and for our profession, both in Canada and the US. At a global scale we need to further professional education and advocate for high professional standards and ethical practice. It is a relatively small profession and needs to grow.

Q: What is the biggest misconception about landscape architects?
A: There are a few. The one I most enjoy after first introductions is being asked to identify the plants and pests in someone’s garden.

Q: Do you have any advice for how to juggle, work, volunteer and home life?
A: It helps if you can occasionally still put in a few university-style “all nighters!”

Celebrate Earth Day, Plant a Tree!

2011-04-21T15:16:00.001-06:00

Submitted by Jennifer Koskinen, ISA Certified Arborist (Kitchener, ON)

The Stantec team at the site

As a Stantec arborist, to gear up for Earth Day tomorrow I have organized a tree planting with some awesome youth at Lutherwood’s Children’s Mental Health Centre in Waterloo, Ontario. Lutherwood Children’s Mental Health Centre is a not-for-profit health and social service organization that provides quality mental health services to children, youth, and families. Last year Stantec was awarded a project to provide consulting services for the expansion of their facility in Waterloo, which is surrounded by a dense treed area consisting of native mature trees. I was able to provide my arboriculture services to the project, which included a tree management and preservation plan, in order to retain as many of the healthy mature trees as possible.

One of the youth volunteers

Our team of planners, engineers, and arborists worked hand-in-hand reviewing grading and locations for expansion areas in relation to the tree locations. We were able to retain approximately 62% of the trees reviewed in close proximity to the construction. I am very proud of the work by our project team on this project. Through careful planning we were able to achieve the desired building expansion and maintain a healthy mature “mini-forest” that is important to the staff, the children at Lutherwood, and the adjacent residents.

Jennifer at the planting

So now with the construction coming to a close, and Earth Day just around the corner, I felt like planting trees in available areas onsite with the staff and youth would show just how much we appreciate this beautiful site. The kids at Lutherwood have been very patient with all the renovations and construction that have been going on for a little over a year now, so an event like a tree planting would allow them to be part of the positive new face of Lutherwood, Waterloo. We were also lucky to receive generous donations from John’s Nursery and Connon Nurseries, including native species, that will enhance the overall health of the wooded area at the Lutherwood site.

I was onsite on Wednesday along with Daniella Giovanatto, another Stantec arborist, to provide planting tips and guidance and to talk with the youth about the importance of trees to the environment and how to care for their new trees in the coming months. It was an amazing, exiting day for us, the staff at Lutherwood, and the kids to truly take part in the changes at Lutherwood.

What’s on the minds of engineering firms… thoughts from the ACEC National Convention

2011-04-19T13:19:00.001-06:00

Submitted by Bob Gomes, President & CEO

Bob Gomes speaking at
the ACEC convention

Last month I attended my first American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) annual meeting and convention, held in Washington, DC. I’ve been involved at the provincial level in Canada for many years but had never had much exposure to the breadth of the organization in the US until this event. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the high profile ACEC has in the US, and especially in Washington, DC.

At the invitation of the ACEC, I certainly got to jump in with both feet at my first event, participating in a CEO roundtable and serving as one of three morning panel speakers about industry trends and challenges. During the roundtable—which included about 50 CEO of firms larger than 500 employees—we discussed everything from getting more public support and understanding for funding for infrastructure improvements and the criteria for earning a Professional Engineer designation to paying more serious attention to mentoring and diversifying our workforce.

Diversity is an especially important topic to me. It’s well known that the engineering industry has tended to be perceived as rather homogeneous (although that is improving). I’d like to see organizations like the ACEC support more formal internal and external programs to help improve that perception and its reality. The convention’s federal markets teaming fair, in which large firms had the opportunity to meet with women-owned, minority-owned, disadvantaged, and other small firms, is one step in the right direction. At Stantec, we’re trying to more proactively engage all corners of younger generations through our partnerships with schools across the US and Canada and participation in initiatives like the ACE Mentor Program.

The other speakers echoed many of the same concerns raised during the roundtable. Mactec CEO Ann Massey shed some light on how the recession affected her firm and how they responded, while Paul Yarossi of HNTB stressed the importance and impacts of lacking transportation funding. Although I primarily focused on Stantec’s acquisition strategy—a topic I’m well versed on at this point!—I was also able to complement Paul’s discussion by explaining how Public-Private Partnerships, also called P3s, work in Canada and what needs to happen in the US to make them a source of infrastructure funding.

The NREL project team accepting its award

A highlight of the entire event for me was undoubtedly the Engineering Excellence Awards gala in which two of our own projects were nominated as national winners: the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Research Support Facility in Golden, Colorado, and an effort to reconstruct a century-old dam on the Kentucky River. There’s nothing like being there in person to see your own employees and clients honored by their peers in what is essentially the “Academy Awards” of our field.

Thinking back on the convention, I was really struck by the strong alliance and sense of unity our industry is provided through organizations such as ACEC. Stantec is intimately involved in local ACEC chapters in many states but has not had as strong a presence at the national level. More active participation certainly benefits our staff and our Company, plus helps contribute to the larger causes championed by the ACEC and our industry. So, ACEC, you may be hearing more from us this year!

Already looking forward to next year’s event…

The glamorous life of The Architect (or so you think)

2011-04-15T10:36:00.002-06:00

Submitted by Ileana Schinder, Architect (Washington, DC)

Ileana Schinder

It’s National Architecture Week in the US, which prompted some of us architects here at Stantec/Burt Hill/Anshen + Allen to reflect on how others—and specifically popular culture—perceive the persona of “The Architect.” Some of our favorites:

Robert Reed (aka Mike Brady) from “The Brady Bunch”
Wilbur Post on “Mr. Ed”
Brian Dennehy in “The Belly of an Architect”
Henry Fonda in “12 Angry Men”
Gary Cooper in “The Fountainhead”
Albert Finney in “Two for The Road”
Michelle Pfeiffer in “One Fine Day”
Woody Harrelson in “Indecent Proposal”
Matt Dillon’s alibi in “There’s Something About Mary”
George Costanza’s alter ego, Art Vandelay, on “Seinfeld”
And the newly anointed Architect Barbie, complete with hard hat and blueprints

Of this list, George Costanza's Art Vandelay is my favorite by far. Why? Because he demonstrates exactly the distance between how people see architects and how architects see themselves. On the show, Art had everything George wished he could have—a quirky name, a mythical profession, hair. In real life, though, being an architect isn’t quite that glamorous.

It's not rare that, even today, people think that we architects draw with pencils and straight edges (no) on raised drafting tables (um, no) with multiple artistic strokes (never) and gaze pensively into our own drawings until a genius idea—that will be built—grows spontaneously from it. Also, in movies and TV, architects always carry a hard tube to lug around heavy drawings instead of the more common laptop and flash drive.

Art Vandelay, like other fictional architects, probably lived in a spectacular, natural-lit house with fabulous furniture and bright, trendy accents that combine perfectly into an aesthetic dream. He certainly did not furnish his home with pieces he scavenged from the college dumpster or his aunt’s cast-offs, like most of my colleagues. The real world gives us more build-it-yourself Swedish gear and hand-me-down furniture than is possible to convey in fiction.

This unrealistic impression of The Architect bears true in real life as well. When I tell people I’m an architect, I often receive a stunned look with a response that says “Oh, wow!” I can’t tell if the surprise is a result of people’s idea that architecture school is some sort of nearly impossible boot camp (although that’s not far off) and are impressed with my triumph over it. Or if, because I’m a woman, people think that architecture is a man’s profession and they picture me climbing scaffolding to fight contractors, or marching around a job site telling everyone what to do and how much money to spend. No and no. (Although I think my own mother, for some reason, does think I boss people around all day.)

Often, I think people envision me leaning on my drafting table at 4:00 am with vellum pinned to the MDF board, slaving away to meet an impossible deadline. Or they picture me and my colleagues—the women in sleek pantsuits and square-rimmed glasses and the men sporting black turtlenecks… and square-rimmed glasses—sipping wine and debating the lasting influence of nanotechnology in energy modeling of buildings. It is no wonder that in this fantasy world all architects have to have a favorite building, or a favorite architect. Just like, I imagine, dentists have a favorite tooth.

Truth be told, I actually enjoy these clichés and impressions. They give me a reason to chuckle to myself when others fantasize about the exciting life of The Architect. I’m often asked if I designed my own house, or if plan to do so. I always say yes but I secretly know that until Ikea comes up with a house-in-a-box (some assembly required, Allen wrench included) that may not actually happen.

It is the fictional architects and the fantasy world they created that make people like Brad Pitt declare that he wishes he was an architect. So let’s celebrate the persona of The Architect! And Brad, if you’re reading this, we might have room in our DC office… Finally! Someone I can tell what to do!

Green building – It’s so yesterday

2011-04-07T12:02:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Lyndsey Lewis and Alison Rizzo, Sustainable Building Analysts (Toronto, ON)

Alison and Lyndsey

It’s evident that green building has become mainstream over the past 10 years, with the adoption of strict green building regulations, thousands of projects pursuing LEED, and companies advertising their products meet LEED credit requirements. Green building is popular. The reasons are many: the positive media coverage, the operational cost savings, municipal, provincial or federal regulations, and people really caring about their world. By now we all know why it’s important, and there’s no need to bore you with the technical details taught in sustainable engineering classes. Building green—it’s simply the right thing to do.

Now that building sustainably or designing to LEED Gold level is considered best practice, where do we go from here? Terms such as net-zero, zero energy building (ZEB), carbon neutral, living building, energy positive, off the grid, site vs. source energy, and energy cost vs. emissions are tossed around, but the trouble lies in defining these metrics, establishing a means of measuring and reporting, and determining which provide the “greenest” building.

Stantec's downtown Toronto office is
pursuing LEED CI certification

There are many metrics we can use as a measuring stick to evaluate green building performance. For now, the LEED rating system does a pretty good job of addressing many facets of green building concerns. LEED is constantly evolving, adapting to the market and releasing new rating systems to address a larger set of building types. In addition, LEED AP designation has become more widely acknowledged, making it all the more professional and credible. At the same time, local, provincial, and federal governments are adopting their own versions of green building standards.

With so many new buildings designed to these standards, the green building world is shifting some focus to existing buildings, which account for the majority of the building stock and, therefore, offer a tremendous opportunity to reduce our environmental footprint. While older buildings can present a challenge, most can achieve upwards of 20% energy savings through retrofits and retro-commissioning. They also provide us with a good canvas for determining methods for measuring, verification, and energy monitoring. The buildings we construct today will shortly become part of this existing building stock, and soon enough we may be responsible for reporting their energy, water use, waste, emissions, occupant health, etc.

So where does the future of green building lie? Will LEED rating systems be around in 20 years, or we will be proving that our buildings are green through publicly available energy consumption data? The unknown future only pushes us further to design as efficiently as possible and anticipate forthcoming changes such as carbon taxes. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter exactly what the future holds as the ultimate goal of efficient, durable, flexible, and healthy buildings is one we will continue to strive to meet.

Harvard scholars, at least for a day

2011-03-31T14:28:00.000-06:00

Submitted by John Take, Practice Leader (Tucson, AZ) and John Malueg, Principal (Louisville, KY)

John Malueg (left) and John Take, sheltered
from the rain at a gate into Harvard Yard

Two months ago, we were asked to deliver a lecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Had we been to the Harvard campus before? No. Was the opportunity inspiring, intimidating, or exciting? All of the above, actually. Obviously Harvard’s name has a certain aura associated with it, such that until you go “live” with an audience there, you really don’t know what you’ve volunteered for and how your message will be received… but it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.

The request was to contribute to the school’s weekly “Sustainable Infrastructure” course seminars. Designed to showcase public and private sector viewpoints—as well as the urban planning, energy, and transportation aspects of green design—the series had reached the topic of water, and it was our task to lead a three-hour presentation and discussion.

So, we planned a “formal” presentation for a portion of the time with the hope that students would engage in an interactive Q&A session. In addition to communicating our expertise and fostering interest in the topics, we were hoping to learn their perspective as well. What do they see as the challenges and opportunities relative to the role of water resources towards creating a sustainable urban environment?

Outside of Gund Hall, the Graduate School of Design's
main building

After arriving on the Cambridge campus, we entered the Gund Hall classroom and met the relatively small audience. We were struck by the group dynamic, as the students represented a wide range of educational and professional backgrounds—graduate students in architecture, urban planning, transportation, and other disciplines.

We got things underway, sharing retrospective insights on the Clean Water Act, its impact since the 1970s, the evolution of sustainable design, and case studies where we had directly addressed the issues most relevant to the industry. We watched the audience closely and… they were interested! More than that, they were engaged, inquisitive, and incredibly knowledgeable about the sustainability landscape. With a certain amount of relief, we filled the time easily and energetically in facilitating a lively conversation seeking to answer the question “How do you comprehensively and consistently assess and measure infrastructure projects for sustainability?” By day’s end, we hoped and truly felt that everyone had fun—we certainly did.

Later that night, we reflected over cold glasses of beer and noted how encouraging it was to have been able to talk about Stantec’s active role—at Harvard, mind you—in infrastructure sustainability on nearly every project we plan and design. Thinking again about the audience, one response we kind of hoped for but didn’t happen was to be recognized with honorary doctorates… maybe next time.

Walking the Sustainability Footprint, One Step at a Time

2011-03-25T07:01:00.000-06:00

Submitted by: Lisa J. Scott, Sustainability Consultant (Markham, Ontario)

Sustainability consultant, Lisa Scott

Climate change and Earth Hour—they go hand in hand, and tomorrow, on March 26th, 2011, the world will come together around the globe to turn their lights off for an hour to bring attention to climate change and how we all have a role in making a difference. Last year, hundreds of millions of people participated with over 4,000 cities and towns turning out their lights, across a record 126 countries. Why should you be a part of this initiative?

My career has spanned the climate change/sustainability realm, so I’ve seen almost every side of environmental work, non-profit, local and provincial government, and now the private sector. And no matter where I’ve worked, I still get asked the same questions: “What’s in it for me, my company, and our operations,” or “So what is sustainability, is it like recycling?” And probably my favorite: “Will all this ‘green stuff’ make any difference to what we are doing?” While some of these queries are quite fun and easy to answer, I often wonder why everyone doesn’t know what I know, what I am passionate about. That less is more—using less means saving more!

Remember when you were a kid, your mother would always “strongly encourage” you to turn the lights off the room you just left? That’s because mom knew if you left the lights on, the energy bill would be higher, which meant spending more money on bills, which meant you were stuck in a pair of hand-me-down shoes that weren’t very fashionable. Or recall a few years back, there was a push to start using cold water when doing laundry? Less hot water use means a cheaper gas bill. Obviously mom did know best (whether you wanted to admit it or not): reduced consumption = reduced expenditures.

The flipside of energy consumption is carbon emissions: less energy use means less carbon, or greenhouse gas emissions. That’s where I come in—applying this general knowledge to the corporate environment. I coordinate Stantec’s carbon and environmental footprint programs measuring everything from our offices’ energy consumption and business-related fuel use to their paper purchases.

As the Beatles said, “I get by with a little help from my friends,” and that’s certainly the case for this initiative. A point person in each of our offices plays a crucial role, gathering and submitting a vast amount of data for me to analyze and report on.

With support from our executive leadership, we use that information to develop performance improvements and to assist each office in their efforts to reduce operational costs and improve operations. We also have a team in the process of implementing ISO 14001, an environmental management protocol, across the whole company, an ambitious but necessary effort.

Each day while at work, I get to connect with a different office, a new person, and while they may not work in the environmental or sustainability field, they are engaged with what we are doing, and feel a part of something important.

Want to be part of something bigger? Join your family, your friends, and your neighbors and participate in Earth Hour on March 26th. Leave the lights off for more than an hour, get engaged with your office’s sustainability efforts, and spread the word! One person may not be able to change the world, but together, we can all make an impact on the footprint and legacy we leave behind—one step at a time!

Turning Wine into Water: Highlights from a “Water Tasting”

2011-03-23T13:24:00.001-06:00

Submitted by Kelly Blake, PE, Project Manager (Sarasota, FL)

Kelly Blake

In honor of World Water Day yesterday, Stantec’s Kelly Blake walks us through the unique experience of a “water tasting” event.

The usual suspects from Stantec's Sarasota Station Way office slowly started to gather in the main lobby entrance, headed out to watch the Annual Water Taste Test sponsored by Florida Section Region X of the American Water Works Association (AWWA). Winners from this Southwest Florida regional event will duke it out for the best-tasting water in the country in the AWWA’s national competition.

As if a theme song sang to our step, we arrived to the event in unison. The insight that we have as engineers on our local municipal water climate gives us an advantage in understanding most things water related. We know who buys from whom, we know what processes are employed, and at what cost. We understand the franchise utility movement of the 1970s that has been replaced with county and city municipalities. We understand that the amazing Florida climate promotes growth, not only in the numbers of retired Northerners coming to find an easier life, but also in the growth of oxygen-reducing bacteria.

The judging panel

We follow the price per gallon like some follow the recent gas sales. We understand how many kilowatts it takes to produce one gallon of water; conversely, we also know how many gallons it takes to turn on a 100-watt light bulb. Our expertise is combating water-borne illnesses and providing sanitation practices that support the healthy civilization we call our community. All of these things we carry like a badge, like a 30-year-old pair of Ray-Bans, and, most importantly, like our professional license.

With over 100 years of experience collectively, we show up at the annual taste test geared up for the battle, but on this day we sit on the bench. We watch expectedly as a body of judges comprising chefs, civilians, and regulatory professionals slurp, sniff, swill, and swallow samples of our region’s finest. On this day, water samples are handled like wine and are judged for clarity, odor, and taste on a scale from 1 to 10.

Samples from over seven of our region’s municipalities were chauffeured and escorted by proud water treatment plant operators to the Main Street fountain in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. The judges were given numbered samples of water from each local plant and the blind taste test began. Each judge tasted, smelled, and held samples up to the light. Between each sip, judges were encouraged to cleanse the palate with saltine crackers.

The winner!

While at wine tastings, samples are noted for the boldness and dimensions that the wine brings to the palate, water taste tests are just the opposite. Taste and odor are the two most common types of complaints from water customers, and various factors can introduce those issues to drinking water. Since we all drink water, every customer is a qualified water critic, so these operators have a hefty job of providing water that not only meets all health requirements, but that is tasty as well.

At the end of the day, the winner—Sarasota County Utilities—was announced, the remaining samples were given to a thirsty plant, and the Stantec crew headed back to our office to gather and discuss the day’s events over a nice glass of the region’s finest tap water.

What's Your Story?

2011-03-17T12:53:00.001-06:00

Submitted by: James Patrick, ACB, ALB, Marketing Coordinator (Tucson, AZ)

I’d like to share a true story of two friends of mine. These two individuals have some rather coincidental similarities. They live in the same city, are about the same age, have the same name, are both married with one child, and both have the same occupation working for the same clients. Yet despite their similarities, these two individuals could not be more different from one another.

The one, we’ll call him Fred, is struggling right now. The economy has taken a hefty toll on his business. His clients are not paying what they used to, lesser-experienced competitors are underbidding him, and many companies he used to work for are now using in-house staff in place of his services.

The other we’ll call John. Now I remind you: same age, city, marital status, and occupation. However, where Fred has been floundering, John has been flourishing. His clients enjoy working with him so much that, even though their budgets are not as strong, they still hire him. His word-of-mouth referrals are through the roof. He even wins jobs if he is not the lowest bidder.

So how do two people who have so many things in common end up on such polar sides from one another? The difference between Fred and John is how they branded themselves. One has a personal brand that excites those around him, whereas the other has a brand that does nothing to instill energy and enthusiasm into his clients.

Personal branding is one of many terms we use to describe the impression we leave upon people. Although many confuse it with design, a personal brand is not about logos, brochures, or taglines. Your brand really is you. You are your own brand.

I call it your story. Our stories are completely unique, never duplicated, and they leave a traceable impression on anyone you have an interaction with.

It is the quality of your story that will determine whether or not you get hired, promoted, talked about, or even have the opportunity to do something that matters to you. Whether you want it to or not, it is already shaping how people view you. Each of us already has a story attached to us, despite if we wrote it ourselves or not.

To craft the message of your story, take a moment to do a little self evaluation. Ask yourself the following questions and write out the answers.

What are you passionate about?
What are your strengths?
What common threads do you see between your passions and strengths?
What do you feel sets you apart from others?
What are your short and long term goals?
What obstacles are in front of you and how will you overcome them?
What do the people around you need that you can provide?
How will you know when you have achieved your goals?

Listing out your core attributes and goals forces you to think about your best skills and qualities. It pushes you to craft a targeted message. This will become your story and your vision for who you are and where you want to go in your career.

Stantec Q&A: Mark Jasin, Mr. Identity

2011-03-10T15:07:00.002-07:00

Mark Jasin is a senior graphics designer for Stantec, but he doesn’t design buildings, parks or brochures—he creates environmental branding for entire communities and living environments, like Tokyo MidTown in Tokyo, Japan; YAS Island Resort in Abu Dhabi, UAE; and Value Retail Villages throughout Western Europe. From within Stantec’s historic brownstone office in Boulder, Colorado, the process is intricate, the passion is deep, and his insights are candid.

Mark, entering Stantec's downtown Boulder office

Q: How long have you been a designer?
A: 30 years—I started as an editorial illustrator for one of California’s first full-color papers. That was a cutting-edge time and place—using computers to make commercial designs was a new idea and, through that job, I was able to do some very progressive work that was fairly unique to the design industry.

Q: You now design brands and identities for entire environments and communities. How did that become your forte?
A: Before I came on-board full-time, Stantec in Boulder (formerly CommArts) was a client of mine. I was well-established as a freelance designer/illustrator. Through this job I was introduced to the world of environmental graphic design (EGD). I had the opportunity to do three-dimensional design work, much of which is decorative patterning and architectural motifs. Environmental graphic design wasn’t really a formal discipline twenty years ago, so CommArts typically hired traditional graphic designers like me that could adapt.

Q: Creating an identity for a community is huge responsibility and effort. What’s your process?
A: Henry Beer is a principal here in the Boulder office who has a simple, great design mantra: “memory and prophecy.” It means first having respect for the history and the culture of the place you’re branding (a.k.a. ethnographic research) and, with that knowledge, you can envision its future. The more informed you are, and your understanding of the end uses, the better the project will be. We also listen to our clients and always have their interests in mind. Branding environments is a discipline—we create a design brief (the preliminary document which describes the design direction) and the client gets to be a part of the design process, directly providing input.

Sample logos from some of Mark's projects

Q: You also create logos or “identities” for environments. Is that approach different, harder?
A: It’s not always the same formula. Sometimes we need to let the environment evolve first, sometimes we’re trying to rebrand. A brand is really the ethos of a company—a symbol needs to be aligned with that ethos. It also needs to be reproducible in every type of medium. You try and be creative and take risks but do so with the knowledge of what’s practical for the client’s needs.

Q: What does your home look like?
A: Designers always suffer from “imagery overload,” so my home has very little imagery. I have some of my original paintings hanging though. Those paintings take a great deal of inspiration from Mark Rothko, a minimalist artist. For me, his color-field work is unsurpassed.

Q: What’s it like visiting an environment you helped brand or create?
A: It’s amazing—you feel like you contributed to bringing an environment to life. It’s also a learning experience. You see things that are successful and usually you can learn how to make something better. It’s also difficult seeing it new—you’re too close to the project to really see it the way everyone else does.

Q: Do you have a favorite project?
A: It’s not so much one project that stands out as being challenging or successful—I’m excited by how the process has evolved for me personally. There are times where I have creative break-throughs and I find this fulfilling, creatively… I become more informed in the process and the projects are generally better over time.

Design and the Future of Healthcare

2011-03-03T13:02:00.004-07:00

Submitted by Martin Valins, RIBA, AIA, Principal (Philadelphia, PA)

Last month I attended a two half-day roundtable on the state of cardiovascular care hosted by The Advisory Board Company, a healthcare research and consultation organization. The roundtable occurs once a year and is attended by senior hospital and healthcare executives. In contrast to other healthcare conferences, its focus is on the business of healthcare rather than on design or clinical research.

The discussion began by reviewing the state of healthcare reform in the US and its potential effects on healthcare delivery. Forum participants made it a point not to profess personal or political opinions on reform but rather to review the facts of the situation and reflect on what they mean for the industry.

First, the group cited statistics that indicate something isn’t working quite right in the American healthcare system since the US has the most expensive healthcare costs but is ranked #7 out of the top 7 industrialized nations in illness rates, life expectancy, etc. Meanwhile, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, two countries with a universal healthcare model, take the #1 and #2 spots. While, again, no judgment was made about that model per se, it caused the group to examine what a shift to universal healthcare might mean for US hospitals.

The discussion provided a number of insights for those of us in healthcare facility design. The biggest change would be a focus on prevention, primary care, and outpatient services.

A key consequence will be a further fall in the demand for inpatient beds, with the time spent in a patient bed also continuing to decrease. Interestingly, it should also lead to a fall in demand for emergency room visits as a significant proportion of ER visits are by non- or under-insured patients using the ER for nonemergency care.

Yet looking across healthcare design conference agendas and healthcare design magazine articles, which continue to focus on, for example, the patient room as the fulcrum of healthcare design—and then comparing this with the priorities of clients and the direction of healthcare reform as described at the roundtable—it seemed to me that as a profession we may be looking in the wrong direction.

It, however, also reinforced my enthusiasm for Stantec’s commitment to healthcare design research. I am fortunate to work at a firm that has always encouraged original thinkers to challenge the design status quo—and instead creatively align with our clients' strategic needs. It’s all the more rewarding to now have a network of healthcare planning and design colleagues across the globe whose expertise and insights enable us to test norms and think differently.

The lesson I learned from the roundtable was that by connecting with the strategic and financial goals of our healthcare clients, we will continue to ensure that we can optimize our clients' potential for sustainable success. Their success is our success.

Engineers Week: Advancing Women in Engineering

2011-02-24T10:43:00.004-07:00

One of the highlights of Engineers Week is “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day,” observed this year on February 24. The day is dedicated to educating young women about careers in the engineering field. Inspired by that idea, a few of Stantec’s most talented senior women engineers contributed some advice for young women pursuing careers in engineering. Good advice for any professional.

1. Build your hard and soft skills – Women interested in engineering should not only work on their technical foundation, but also develop their soft skills. The importance of being a good written and verbal communicator is invaluable in this profession.

2. Know your goals, gain respect – Focus on your own career goals rather than others’ goals for you, then exceed them. There was a time when fewer women entered the engineering field—it was often a challenge to be accepted as an equal, but accomplishments speak for themselves.

3. Do what you love – Find an area of engineering that you have a passion for. Don't chase the money as a reason to follow that particular path. If you love what you do, you'll be so successful that the rewards will come.

4. Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer – Volunteering your time will put you in the driver’s seat of your engineering career. Whether with industry or community organizations, volunteering will give you early credibility as a hard working, passionate practitioner while providing relationships and learning experiences that are priceless.

5. Work/life balance is essential – Having a successful career as an engineer is a matter of balance. Significant others, family and friends are what give your life passion and passion with perseverance makes anything possible.

6. Know your teachers, be a consummate student – Determine who the key mentors, coaches, teachers, leaders and peers are in your professional life. These people will arm you with insight to deal with challenges ahead and those challenges will make you stronger. Likewise, show real interest in your colleagues, what they’re doing, and how you can learn from each other.

7. Act the part, be the part – To make a good impression and be taken seriously, look people in the eye when you speak to them, speak clearly and confidently and be direct. There is always a human aspect to any kind of engineering project – communicate that element and stay mindful that the technical component of a project is only one small component.

8. Question everything – Sometimes status quo exists because nobody questioned the process or took the initiative to change it. This is true for engineering designs or even day-to-day office culture. Always look for a better way to accomplish a project.

9. Remember that attitude with integrity is everything – You will accomplish what you believe you can accomplish. Young engineers—males and females alike—may be given simple tasks, but each of these is an opportunity to problem solve, be responsible, and analyze everything in front of you (and be a better professional for it).

Stantec Q&A: Surveyor and pro lacrosse player Mike Carnegie

2011-02-17T12:07:00.001-07:00

Mike Carnegie takes the phrase “out in the field” quite literally. In addition to working as a survey analyst for Stantec in Calgary, AB, Mike is a professional lacrosse player. He was recently named to the Canadian national team for the World Indoor Box Lacrosse Championships and last summer brought his sport to children in Africa.

Q: What’s an average work day for you?

A: Currently, I am a survey analyst in the engineering side of the Geomatics Group, although I have performed many roles within the group. For me, an average day at work consists of preparing an engineering package for our Urban Land Engineering team and filling one or two eLibrary requests. So, for the engineering package, that means I might take the underground utilities, sidewalks, roads, lanes, lots, curbs, etc. of a subdivision and turn that design into a suitable format for the surveyors. Our eLibrary is an initiative set up in Alberta to help Stantec employees retrieve various types of data. In Calgary, I am the lead on the project and help many departments find aerial photographs, land titles, survey plans, contour maps, linework, and anything used in the concept and design stages.

Q: How long have you been playing lacrosse?

A: I have been playing lacrosse for 16 years now. I play professionally for the Calgary Roughnecks of the National Lacrosse league (NLL). My route to the NLL started in Buffalo where I was asked to attend an open tryout and from there I was selected to the practice roster. After a year in Buffalo, one of the Buffalo coaches accepted a head coaching job in Calgary and asked if I would come west with him. Now, I am entering my fourth season with the Roughnecks.

Q: Is it difficult to balance time between your lacrosse and survey careers?

A: It can be challenging at times to balance both careers but having an understanding boss makes it much easier. Both jobs have taught me the importance of time management. With lacrosse, I have to be diligent that I plan my days accordingly so that I can train/workout in order to be prepared. In the same way, I need to be organized for Stantec so that I meet my deadlines.

Q: How did you end up bringing lacrosse to Africa?

A: In August of 2010, along with members of my church, my wife and I went to Uganda on a two-week service trip. I contacted the Alberta Lacrosse Association to let them know what I was doing and they donated over 100 lacrosse sticks for me to take for the children we were working with. I ended up teaching lacrosse on a sunny Friday in Africa to 50 or so orphaned children who had never heard of or seen the game of lacrosse. It was an amazing opportunity that I will remember forever. My faith is the most important thing in this world to me and I always take great strides to jump at opportunities to share it.

Insider's View: South Ferry Subway Station

2011-02-10T14:43:00.001-07:00

New video is here! In our new featured video (available on the right under “Stantec TV”), Stantec’s Stu Lerner takes us on a tour of the new South Ferry subway station in New York City. The project involved reconstructing this early-20th-century station within the challenging environmental, historic, and space constraints of Lower Manhattan, Battery Park, and New York Harbor.

Click on the video to see the new station and learn more about how it came together.

Is your field ready for some football?

2011-02-03T12:17:00.002-07:00

Submitted by Mark Novak, Senior Associate/Sport Leader (Boston, MA)

This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday and the first NFL playoff game in Dallas’ new Cowboys Stadium. Like many new stadiums, Cowboys Stadium features synthetic turf, which is becoming increasingly popular at facilities that not only host high-contact sports like football, but also market themselves as year-round venues for various other sporting and entertainment events.

The debate over natural versus synthetic turf continues to swirl in athletic field design circles, with both surfaces having pros and cons depending on their intended uses. But professional-grade football stadiums certainly seem to be making the switch to synthetic thanks to tough weather-related conditions on natural grass and the increasing demand on the fields. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Heinz Field, for example, has been criticized for its inconsistent natural grass playing surface. Heinz Field is not only the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers but it is also hosts the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, several area high school football championships, and other athletic events. Due to the ever increasing demand on the field, a decision has recently been reached to convert Heinz Field to synthetic turf.

Gillette Stadium

In 2006, the owners of the New England Patriots made the move to convert Gillette Stadium’s natural grass to synthetic turf after several consecutive games played during bad weather damaged the field. While the mid-season switch was instigated primarily for that season’s NFL play, the decision was influenced by many more factors outside of football. For starters, Gillette is also the home field for the New England Revolution, a Major League Soccer team. And, at the time the stadium was in the midst of planning Patriot Place, a retail development surrounding and connected to the stadium, including shops, restaurants, and a hotel. Patriot Place has been part of the site’s growth into a major entertainment hub for the greater Boston area, with the stadium now hosting concerts, NCAA lacrosse tournaments, and other events that certainly add wear and tear to the field surface.

Lincoln Fields in Lexington, Massachusetts

This is one area in which synthetic turf seems to be winning the debate—it undeniably holds up to such constant demand better than natural grass could. And it’s not just the professionals that are looking for that kind of flexibility; many colleges, high schools, and community recreation departments are also looking for ways to stretch their resources. A few years ago, the Town of Lexington, Massachusetts, for instance, launched a big effort to convert several of its playing fields to synthetic turf. The conversion solved a number of problems for them, from the major strain the high demand of the community athletic program was putting on the natural grass fields to the new turf’s ability to function as a stormwater detention basin.

Of course, synthetic turf is not always the best solution—different fields have different needs and should be designed accordingly. But as more high-demand, multi-purpose facilities like Cowboys Stadium take shape, we won’t see a decline in its use anytime soon.

Enjoy the game!

Stantec Q&A: Florida Gopher Tortoises Have a Friend in Craig Schmittler

2011-01-27T14:14:00.002-07:00

Craig Schmittler, a senior ecologist in the Fort Meyers, Florida, office, was recently presented with a “Volunteer of the Year” award from the City of Bonita Springs for his dedication to the Bonita Springs Nature Place. Craig has worked untold evenings and weekends to get a new 10 acre preserve up and running. While the center features a variety of educational wildlife attractions, Craig’s primary focus has been on developing, maintaining, and protecting the habitat for gopher tortoises, a threatened species.

Two new hatchlings join the protected community.

Q: Why are gopher tortoises so important?

A: Gopher tortoises vary in size from hatchlings slightly larger than a flattened golf ball, to adults that weigh over 20 pounds. These prehistoric creatures are the only tortoise species found in Florida (click here for the difference between a turtle and a tortoise). For years, they were a common food source for the people in the Panhandle and were listed as a species of “Special Concern.” But as development encroached further into their habitat, in 2008, they were uplisted to a Threatened Species. This means that anyone who works with them must be an authorized agent through Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation to ensure they know how to handle the tortoises and identify and excavate their burrows.

Q: What types of work do you perform for the Nature Center?

Craig visits with two scrub jays, another
threatened species, at Bonita Nature Place.

A: I help in several areas. As the City adds facilities and nature trails, I review site plans to ensure they proceed in a way that doesn’t damage or disturb the tortoise habitat. Routine maintenance can also cause issues when mowers cave in the tortoise burrows. So, I’ve identified and marked the burrows to allow mowing in areas that won’t impact the tortoises. WilsonMiller (now Stantec) is periodically retained to remove nuisance and exotic vegetation from the tortoise preserve to encourage growth of the native grasses and vegetation the tortoises prefer.

Q: Tortoises seem special to you.

A: Tortoises and turtles have always been one of my favorite species. When I was growing up in Illinois we always stopped and picked up the box turtles we found crossing the road. I had a backyard pen where I kept them all summer. Come winter I’d take them out in the woods and turn them loose again. And the next summer I’d start all over again. I also had a wading pool full of little aquatic turtles I’d catch in the park and keep until fall.

A gopher tortoise safely roams the
grounds of its protected home.

Q: How many tortoises are on the site?

A: At last count around 24 and the population is growing because people are aware of the Nature Center, they are actually dropping the tortoises over the fence when they find them on the roads. We try to discourage that for many reasons, but it’s better than having them killed on the roads.

Q: How does your job with Stantec relate to your volunteer work?

A: I was the first ecologist hired by WilsonMiller (now Stantec) in 1987, when regulatory permitting for land development began to become a much more involved process. There is no place in the US with the variety of listed species and habitat types that you find in Florida because of the subtropical climate. We do species surveys for red-cockaded woodpeckers, gopher tortoises, Florida scrub jays, fox squirrels, burrowing owls, bald eagles, Florida panthers, black bears, and banded tree snails, just to name a few. There are also the listed plants and protected habitat types in different counties in Florida that also have special permitting requirements.

Q: It sounds like you enjoy your job.

A: I enjoy the outdoors and wildlife I encounter and I’m fortunate to have the job I do. A lot of people with office jobs would probably enjoy some of this type work and the wildlife I see in the field. But they wouldn’t like the hot summer days or the neck-deep water we also have to deal with on some projects. It’s a matter of enjoying what you do and having the right experience or training. I was fortunate enough to be here when WilsonMiller needed a biologist all those years ago and am glad to still be here today.

Stantec Q&A: Holly Madara, Associate, Philadelphia, PA

2011-01-14T12:25:00.001-07:00

Holly Madara is truly at the intersection of theory and practice. As both a practicing nurse and architect, she directly applies her knowledge and experience in a working hospital to her architectural design projects. Here Holly answers a few questions about what drew her to both professions, and how she makes the connection.

Q: Were you a nurse or an architect first?

A: I was actually an architect first; I got into nursing by happenstance. During the last recession, I went back to school since I had the free time. I took Anatomy and Physiology and liked it a lot so I decided to try nursing. I got my degree in 1995. I never stopped working for architecture firms while I went to night school, and my projects have almost always been healthcare related.

Q: Are there many active healthcare professionals like you in the design field?

A: It used to be unique but I’d say it’s more commonplace now. Many more designers have discovered the advantage of having this inside understanding and bringing in someone who knows efficiencies of design, flow, etc. My situation is a little different because I made that connection in reverse—I went from being an architect to being a nurse. The economy drove my change initially, but it’s really worked out to benefit my design career.

Q: At what point do you typically come into the design process?

A: Most of the work I do is in the upfront, early stages of a project: programming, master planning, predesign, and schematic design. I focus particularly on adjacencies that are important, how to see the building or space from a clinician’s perspective. What I’m especially interested in now is the technology piece of it. Not even 10 years ago medical staff did everything with a pencil or pen. Now everything is almost completely done by computer documentation. So in the spaces we design, the staff need to be more mobile and be able to take what they’re doing further distances.

Q: What are some example projects you’ve applied your experiences to?

A: A recent project is our large effort for Susquehanna Health in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. I was involved in programming, master planning, and schematic design. We ended up with a bigger footprint to appropriately locate supply and work areas among the private rooms.

Q. What are you working on now?

A: One of the most interesting and exciting projects for me is the new work we are doing at Aria Health in Philadelphia, which is where I work one shift a week as a nurse in the cardiac unit. We are providing project management services to develop a scope of work for Emergency Department expansions at both the Frankford and Torresdale campuses. I am one of the people leading the programming and planning effort. This is a great opportunity, and I’m excited to be engaged in it since this is the health system I work in as well.

Why Your Blog Is a Big Deal

2011-01-06T13:58:00.001-07:00

Submitted by Wesley Gee, Senior Sustainability Consultant (Markham, ON)

How do we decide what to eat, where to travel, who to vote for, which brand of shampoo to buy, what our opinions are of current events?

As much as we might hate to admit it, many of our decisions are influenced by the Web. Fortunately we are shifting from simply wanting to be informed to being engaged. Instead of reading a news article or patiently watching a television advertisement, unearned trust is becoming a rare commodity, which is leading us to dig deeper for other opinions, insights, and comments to gain the inside scoop.

Why is this important to Stantec and other large North American companies, and how does it relate to social media?

Dell hosts an online platform to share
and discuss innovative ideas.

Employees often want to not only learn more about their company (especially when big decisions are made), but also be engaged in important discussions (to add insights before decisions are made). Regardless of the specific medium, there are budding opportunities for employees to read and comment on candid intranet or blog-based executive messages, while engaging with colleagues through online forums to learn more about changing priorities and innovative ideas—both of which help the company remain competitive by making focused, informed decisions.

For Stantec and its competitors, there is a growing business case to engage with and attract clients and investors using the Web—beyond one’s own corporate website—to establish a public profile that exudes quality and confidence, as well as honesty and responsibility. While the first two qualities are fairly obvious, the second two are more challenging and require that a company speak candidly about its challenges, alongside recent successes, upcoming opportunities, and future objectives.

Investors are now obligated to better understand a publicly traded company’s long-term risks, which can help them make more informed decisions. While these insights often come from publicly available information, investors often receive them from research firms who evaluate a company’s background and performance alongside its competitors and recommend investment decisions. For companies that continue to hold their cards close, they should expect an assertive call from a concerned institutional investor sometime soon.

Wal-Mart issues a 15-question sustainability
assessment questionnaire to its suppliers.

Clients also want similar peace of mind that they are working with reputable and responsible suppliers. In many cases they require that suppliers share information on environmental, social, and economic performance to ensure that their reputations will not be negatively affected. Corporations such as Wal-Mart and IBM, for instance, are taking unprecedented steps to require suppliers to be better engaged in “value chain” innovation discussions and to request that they publicly disclose key risks and performance, which can help in deciding whether a supplier relationship will continue, improve, or cease to exist.

So what does this have to do with me or my company?

Nearly all of this risk/performance information is available to you online and is being discussed and evaluated in a number of ways. Reading a company’s blog, website, articles, and other information only serves to keep you better informed and more engaged in their performance and activities. And while it is difficult to make sense of it all, better information and dialogue allows us to make better decisions—as employees, investors, clients, and consumers.

Season's Greetings

2010-12-23T14:56:00.003-07:00

At Stantec, we are proud of our ability to provide consistent innovative solutions to our clients. Innovation was a driving force behind Stantec’s past successes and will continue to be a force into the future. However, the innovation doesn’t cease outside the boardroom, it’s even found in our holiday celebrations!

In 2007, after many years of developing a printed holiday card to send to clients, family, coworkers, etc., an idea was born, “We place such a high value on sustainability, why don’t we transfer this to our holiday card process?”. So, we did! In place of a printed card, we developed an online eCard for Stantec employees to email to their contacts. When clients receive the eCard, they are given the option of choosing from a list of selected charities that they would like Stantec to make a donation to. All the money normally spent on printing, mailing, and distributing the printed cards is now redirected as charitable donations. Not only are we practicing sustainability, we are also demonstrating our commitment to charitable involvement – two staples of our organization.

So far the response from eCard recipients has been fantastic. They, like us, see this process as an opportunity to truly embrace the spirit of the holiday season and help those in need.

Simple Acts for Sustainability: Building Community

2010-12-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Wendy Firlotte, Sustainability Education Specialist (Philadelphia, PA)

Whether we are part of a community or organization, how we relate to and support each other has a significant influence over our collective strength and resiliency. In the business sector, as important as a company’s social fabric are their external relationships and how they demonstrate their commitment to community; this not only builds a company’s reputation, but also improves relationships with staff, customers, investors and communities. Although the focus of sustainability-related initiatives is often on building or improving our natural environment, a robust social foundation is also necessary to support a more sustainable future.

At Stantec, our formal community investment program supports growth in our communities by contributing to endeavors in the arts, education, environment, and health and wellness. Stantec’s target is to donate one percent of its annual pretax profits to nonprofit organizations, either through funding contributions or services in-kind.

Personal charitable giving and volunteerism by employees are also encouraged, with employee volunteerism becoming a key part of our formal program. Stantec’s employees have contributed expertise and labor to Habitat for Humanity projects, Water for People projects, United Way volunteer projects, and various walks, runs and bike-a-thons across North America. Stantec also received recognition for workplace giving in the “Special Event of the Year” for the Don Stanley Cup in Edmonton, for its annual United Way fundraiser.

In many of Stantec’s offices, employees share their hearts and time by participating in a broad range of local community activities, from food drives and natural area clean ups, to raising funds for various organizations and building homes for those in need, and everything else in between. Some examples:

Cleaning up our adopted stream in Cincinnati

Cincinnati, OH – Employees have adopted a 5-mile stretch of the Great Miami River and participate in clean-up efforts several times per year. Thanksgiving donations were collected for the local food bank and the office has also decided to help out soldiers stationed in Afghanistan (including an employee’s brother), collecting treats to send in goodie bags for the troops.

North Charleston, SC – Sixteen employees regularly donate their lunch hour to deliver meals to those in need in their community through the Meals on Wheels program.

Philadelphia, PA – Since the fall, the Philadelphia office has held a food drive, participated in the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk raising nearly $6,000 and is currently collecting donations for the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program.

Granting a child's wish in Dartmouth

Dartmouth, NS – With several annual community outreach events each year, our Dartmouth office organizes an Earth Day Cleanup of a local lake, a clothing drive, a food drive as well as fundraising events including the Children’s Wish foundation, raising $15,000, the Grant E. Crouse scholarship award, raising more than $18,000 and the United Way, raising $35,000.

At this time of year, the idea of giving back is especially top of mind. But it’s through year-round efforts like these, by volunteers and companies across the globe, that we can make sustainable change for those in need. We know there are hundreds more examples within our own company; if you would like to share how your office or company is giving back, please use the comment section below to tell us how you are lending a hand in your local area.

Sustainability on the mountaintops

2010-12-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Stephen Plunkard, principal (South Burlington, VT)

Last year I taught a course in green development in the resort management program at Green Mountain College in Vermont. Held on the college’s Killington Mountain campus, the course focused primarily on ski resorts—what they’re already doing to be green and, more importantly, what they could be doing.

Comprehensive sustainable design at a ski resort can be challenging. To date, many resorts have focused their efforts around wildlife, environmental permitting issues, and waste management. The industry acknowledges that environmental responsibility is essential, and most resorts now have dedicated environmental compliance or development officials on staff. As our panel of speakers highlighted in the course, there are several sustainable areas ski resorts could put more attention to, and some already are:

Geothermal heating and cooling. Given their generally compact developed areas, ski villages and facilities are perfect for this type of natural system.
Wind energy. Similarly, the often windy conditions make ski areas good wind power candidates. Some resorts have already set up turbines to harvest this renewable energy source, including Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts and Bolton Valley in Vermont.
Stormwater management. During the winter, sustainable stormwater harvesting and treatment isn’t much of an issue. But as ski areas have shifted into year-round resorts, establishing these mechanisms is becoming more important.
Recyclable, biodegradable, or reusable products. Most resorts have been recycling for some time. The next step, however, is using products that can be reused. Stratton Mountain in Vermont, for example, has begun using china plates and metal silverware in its main base lodge. The cost of the dishware was scarcely more than they spend annually on disposable products, meaning the new dishes will easily pay for themselves by next season.

While these efforts are certainly improving the sustainability of ski resort operation, a more comprehensive consideration of their role in the regional environment and economy could raise that sensibility to a broader level. The idea of the self-contained ski resort village hit its peak in the 1980s but is no longer a reliable—or sustainable—business model due to less land to work with, more stringent environmental regulations, a glut on the market, and many other conditions. Rather, ski resorts can work toward creating stronger links between the mountain and the nearby downtowns, taking advantage of their existing infrastructure and, thus, reducing costs and environmental impacts.

One idea that has been floating around the industry since at least the 1930s is that of the “mobile hotel” that could bring skiers from cities to the mountains in sleeper-car trains. These trains could essentially serve as hotels, providing lodging, food, and even waste management in one compact, efficient facility, reducing the myriad needs associated with driving, parking, and accommodating multiple hotels, motels, and inns. Sunday River in Maine and Okemo Mountain in Vermont, for example, have active train tracks adjacent to the resorts, making this “ski train” idea a viable consideration.

While this somewhat radical idea has yet to take off, it’s this kind of thinking that could make ski resorts the next leaders in environmental responsibility. If the enthusiasm and creativity of the future resort managers in my class is any indication, we have much to look forward to.

Featured Stantec Employee: Chris Dulaba, Planner/Urban Designer - Edmonton, AB

2010-12-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

Chris Dulaba grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and headed east to go to school at the University of Waterloo. After a few years, Chris returned back home where he now plays a role in shaping the future of the city where he was raised.

Why did you choose to be an Urban Designer?

I always had an interest in buildings and cities. I often could be found making cities in the sandbox with my Tonka toys when I was young and throughout school I had a penchant for drawing cities while in class. It’s really something that I felt I wanted to do from a very young age.

You’ve studied cities across North America, what is a common problem most cities seem to have?

I would say the biggest challenge facing North American cities today is meeting the growing demand for transit and alternative transportation systems. Cities in Canada and the United States were designed and planned around the use of vehicles. As the cost of commuting increases - owning a car, fuel, parking, and vehicle maintenance - we are seeing a decrease in drivers. Adding to this are demographics. The generation currently entering the workforce is much less likely to own a vehicle and is far more reliant on public transit. Owning a car is not the dream of every 16 year old these days. They would rather spend their money on social outings and other goods rather than sinking what earnings they have into a car.

All of this is fueling the demand transit. One only has to look to Edmonton’s newly opened expansion of the LRT system where we have seen all of the ridership forecasts broken. And this is going beyond the need for the AM/PM commuter purpose. People want to get to other parts of the city all times of the day and night. To pick up groceries, visit friends, go to a movie or out to dinner. This is a new way of thinking about transit.

Right now cites are caught between the cost of maintaining the current road system and the growing demand for transit and it’s very difficult to find the money to satisfy both.

What do you see happening to cities over the next 20 to 30 years?

Cities will continue to grow at massive rates as the world continues to urbanize. There will be a great need in North America for infrastructure upgrading and replacement as so much of our backbone infrastructure was built after World War II and is now reaching (or has passed) it’s lifespan.

What do see the role of planners or urban designers in the future you describe?

The role of the planner will be the key to successful future development. We’re not talking about just city planning anymore, it’s more regional planning and looking at how provinces and states can best use the resources they have to improve the quality of life for the people that live there. It’s looking at how communities interact with each other and how neighboring towns and cities complement each other.

We expect rapid growth in our cities and that type of growth needs to be planned. It’s figuring out how to best connect people to the spaces and places around them to maximize their quality of life. That doesn’t happen by accident, you need to have a plan.

Bridging the infrastructure gap

2010-11-18T09:46:00.001-07:00

Submitted by Tom Knight, project manager (South Burlington, VT)

The restored Bridge Street bridge

For the last few years I’ve been involved in a project here in Vermont that I now see as a microcosm of some of the infrastructure issues facing communities across North America. The reconstruction of the Bridge Street bridge in Richmond, Vermont highlights how deferring maintenance of our infrastructure can put a significant strain on a community.

The back story: 1927 saw historic flooding across Vermont, washing out over 1,200 bridges and countless miles of roads, and even taking lives. The state spent the next decade or so reconstructing nearly 2,700 bridges, using the “Parker Truss” design for many of the longer-span bridges. The Bridge Street bridge was one such truss bridge, connecting the two halves of Richmond on either side of the Winooski River for over 80 years.

Working on the new bridge deck

In 2006, the town hired Stantec to inspect the bridge and recommend maintenance. Our inspection revealed some significant deterioration, and the town reduced the bridge to a single lane and a weight limit. Temporary repairs were beyond their budget, so they began looking for funding for a more permanent fix. This prompted heated, active debate at many town meetings—should we preserve the historic truss? Should we rebuild completely? How do we function without the bridge during construction? The bridge is a crucial connection for this community; it links the downtown and its businesses, schools, and emergency services to residents and to the interstate highway. So they needed a solution—quickly.

They ultimately decided to rehabilitate the bridge but were told it could take up to 10 years to get funding. Meanwhile, another inspection in 2008 revealed even more deterioration, and the bridge was shut down completely while patchwork repairs were installed to give it enough capacity to carry passenger vehicles. Trucks, school buses, and even fire trucks were forced to use a 6-mile detour..

A small ferry transported residents
and their bikes across the river during the work

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act couldn’t have come at a better time. By accelerating our design planning process—from the usual 18 months to 3.5—the town was able to get federal funding to move the project forward immediately. The funding conditions required complete closure of the bridge to avoid the permitting needed for a temporary bridge, which meant continued use of the long detour. The community came together to work through the challenge, starting a bike ferry across the river, a ride-share network, and a concerted effort to support local businesses. The new Bridge Street bridge was completed in just under four months, reconnecting this community and strengthening its future.

While the story has a happy ending for Richmond, the lessons learned can certainly provide warnings for the hundreds of communities facing similar challenges. An astonishing amount of our bridges, roadways, water and wastewater systems, and other fundamental public structures are nearing the end of their functional lives and their replacement is becoming a necessity, not a luxury. The US interstate highway system, for example, is over 50 years old. A major failure of this network could potentially cripple our economy.

Richmond is a small town in a small state. But the story of the Bridge Street bridge sheds some light on the urgency of this infrastructure challenge and what it could mean for our future.

Honoring our heroes through design

2010-11-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Bob Corning, ASLA (Boston, MA)

As Veterans Day approaches, it got me thinking about current trends in designing memorials, and what I feel is important for creating a user experience that provides the respect that is due. When people think about memorial design, they often think about slabs of granite with names on them, sometimes with some plantings and maybe flagpoles. These typical memorials are found all across North America, in urban city plazas, rural town commons, cemeteries, and college campuses. While the listing of names that are being honored is—and should be—the most memorable part of any memorial design, the design of commemoratory installations seems to be trending to a more experiential, artistic, and respectful reflection of a site and its context.

One of the first memorials to combine the notion of commemoration with art in the landscape is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC. Designed by Yale student Maya Lin and completed in 1982, the two, 10-foot stone walls inscribed with almost 60,000 names are integrated seamlessly into the landscape, respecting the site context while providing a dramatic statement and experience. After some initial controversy over its design, it has since won great praise as people recognized the beauty and power of its simplicity, and its respect for the landscape of our National Mall.

Since then memorial design has continued to evolve in a similarly positive direction. The FDR Memorial in Washington DC, designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, does a masterful job of using granite, water features, and planting to provide a sense of intimacy and a connection to nature. Paul Murdoch Architects’ Flight 93 9/11 Memorial in Somerset County, PA, is also respectfully integrated into its rural landscape, creating an experiential journey of remembrance: “A common field one day, a field of honor forever.”

Boston College Memorial Labyrinth

I have had the great fortune to be involved with two memorial projects at Boston College, and these trends were very influential for the designs of both, especially when it came to integrating the memorials within the context of the landscape. The first was a memorial labyrinth to commemorate BC alumni killed in the events of 9/11. The labyrinth is built into the iconic great lawn that surrounds the historic Bapst Hall and Burns Library. The priority for us was to provide a respectful and contemplative environment without negatively impacting the character of the historic lawn.

At the dedication ceremony last year
of the BC Veterans Memorial

The second was a War Veterans Memorial recognizing the members of the BC family who have given their lives in service to their country. When we were first approached by BC, a preliminary design featured a three-sided “room” of granite pieces of different shapes with the names of the war veterans engraved on them. But after making our case that the design wasn’t particularly reflective of BC and its campus, the college allowed us to explore alternative designs that were more context-sensitive and better integrated into the site. The final design consisted of a low curvilinear wall starting near the spruce tree and curving along the bank area, subtly merging itself into the topography. The wall’s granite cap contains the engraved names of the 211 BC alumni killed in conflicts from World War I through Iraq and Afghanistan. This memorial was dedicated on Veterans Day 2009 at a moving ceremony attended by families of those honored and the BC community. The highlight for me was when a respected member of the BC administration commented that the memorial “looks like it belongs there and has been there forever.”

And that’s really our goal as landscape architects—to enhance the landscape with features that look like they’ve always been a part of it. But when those features have the added job of memorializing our community’s leaders and heroes, it adds another layer of respect and reverence that sticks with you forever.

Let It Grow!

2010-11-05T14:28:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Steve Fulford, Stantec “MoBrotha”

Moustaches were a thing of the past, or so some hoped. The art of growing the hair on the upper lip seemed to have been lost in the late 1980s after Tom Selleck and Magnum PI made it cool to look like a man.

As the saying goes, “what goes around comes around.” So here we are, celebrating the month of Movember, where men across the world are growing their Mo's in support of prostate cancer research.

As the son of a prostate cancer survivor, the Movember campaign has special meaning to me and to many of my colleagues. Almost everyone knows someone who's been diagnosed with the disease. But on the positive side, this type of cancer is very treatable if detected early, making the survival rate excellent.

My dad battled prostate cancer for about six years and over that time, we always worried when he got his next PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test that his numbers would have increased—the higher the number or increase over time, the more likely that you have prostate cancer. It was always a relief when his tests results were steady and, in the last couple of years, decreasing. He was finally given the green light about two months ago. Others have not been so lucky.

Prostate cancer is not something that men like to talk about, so having a month like Movember, where men can talk freely about it and have fun growing a moustache for a good cause, is awesome.

Steve on Day 1 of the Movember challenge

I first heard about Movember through a colleague and friend of mine in New Zealand, and I donated to his campaign in 2007. In 2008 our team steadily grew, as did our moustaches, and finally last year ,when we joined Stantec, the team sprouted way more members than we predicted. Our goal in 2009 was to raise $10,000. We raised over $17,000 and ended up in the top 30 fundraising teams in Canada—and that was only our Greater Toronto Area team. This year, we decided to follow Stantec’s "One Team" approach and invite all of our MoBrothas and MoSistas to join one team to consolidate our fundraising efforts.

We have received tremendous corporate support and I am very proud to note that as of the writing of this blog, we are in the top 9 teams in Canada and we've raised over $ 14,500 in only the first week of Mo-growing.

So, as the men start grooming their ‘staches and their partners start complaining about the scratchiness, everyone must remember that this is a sacrifice—albeit it a small one compared to our brothers in arms—but one nonetheless. So enjoy that last morsel of food stuck to your Mo and the hair in your mouth, and remember: it’s all for a great cause.

To make a donation, visit the Stantec Canada or Stantec USA Movember team pages.

Through your eyes photo contest winners

2010-10-29T15:33:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Sabrina Tong, Tradeshow/Photography Coordinator

1st Place: Ryan Shippelt

Every year Stantec holds a photo contest for employees to gather the best project and stock photography possible.

2nd Place: Dean Mullin

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th Annual "Through Your Eyes" Photography Contest. First place is awarded to Ryan Shippelt of the Red Deer, Alberta, office, who submitted his electrifying stock photo. Second place goes to Dean Mullin of the Calgary (25th Street), Alberta, office, for his photo of "Crowfoot LRT Station". In third place is Amber Coleman of the Raleigh, North Carolina, office, for her breathtaking stock photo. Fourth place goes to Hope Green of the St. John's (Torbay Rd), Newfoundland, office, for her stock photograph, and David Fech of the Edmonton, Alberta, office, takes fifth place for the "South Light Rail Transit Extension-Southgate Transit Centre" night shot.

3rd Place: Amber Coleman

Congratulations to all the winners!

This year we received an overwhelming number of images—over 580 images that represented stock and project photography!
The “Through Your Eyes” Photography Contest was created to tackle Stantec’s ongoing need for great photography of all types - projects, people at work, and evocative stock images that capture the tremendous range of assignments we undertake for our clients. They are an essential component of our image library, which now numbers more than 65,000 photographs and illustrations.

4th Place: Hope Green

At the same time, it’s a fun way to encourage and challenge the shutter bugs on our staff. Over the years, dozens of our colleagues have heeded the call, heading off each summer camera in hand, and wowing us with the results. The fruits of their labours are shared in project documents, marketing literature, and on our traditional and social media sites.

5th Place: David Fech

Check out all 12 shortlisted images

Turn your energy hog into a high performance gazelle

2010-10-22T16:29:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Klaas Rodenburg

On September 29, 2010, an integrated team of sustainable building experts from Stantec showed the folks at the Urban Green Expo at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City how to turn their energy hog into a high-performance building (or gazelle).

Currently, 70 percent of NYC's carbon emissions come from buildings versus 33 percent in other places. Emissions from buildings are much higher compared to transportation emissions because New Yorkers walk and use public transport. Over the next 5 to 10 years, New York City will have hundreds of thousands of buildings that will require energy upgrades, and this is where our team comes in.

The theme of the Urban Green Expo was “Pushing the Envelope,” and our panel showed how the performance of new and existing hospitals can be significantly improved using low “energy” solutions such as shallow floor plans, high-performance envelopes, mixed-mode ventilation, decoupled ventilation/thermal systems, high-efficiency energy recovery, daylighting, and passive technology. We chose to focus on hospitals because this building type has virtually all kinds of heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and electrical systems and operates 24/7, making it one of the highest energy users among building types. So if you can make it work here, you can make it work anywhere.

Our panel included a healthcare architect, an engineer well versed in American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards, a daylighting design expert, and a landscape architect who specializes in green roofs. We started our presentation talking about how using an integrated design process and attention to form can improve function, performance, and occupant well-being. We also discussed the use of windows and views of nature to significantly improve occupant well-being and, at the same time, reduce electrical power use through daylight harvesting. Finally, we talked about the benefits of green roofs as an integral part of the building envelope, helping to reduce the “heat island” effect, absorbing stormwater runoff, creating a quieter environment, and demonstrating the healing power of plants. We had some interesting dialogue toward the end of the presentation about the importance of daylighting to patient recovery and the general lack of good data on building performance within the industry.

The future of energy upgrades of all buildings in the United States will be determined by the progress of greening US building codes. ASHRAE Standard 189.1 and International Green Construction Code IgCC are leading the way, but much more work needs to be done.

Proud to be one of Canada's Top 100 Employers

2010-10-15T15:07:00.008-06:00

The Top 100 Employers competition aims to identify companies and organizations that are among the best places to work and that lead their industries in attracting and retaining employees. The competition looks at what companies have to offer employees in areas such as physical environment, benefits, training and development, environmental leadership, and community involvement.

Being named a top employer in any country in which we operate is an achievement that we can all—from our office locations in London, England, to Yellowknife, North West Territories—be proud of. It reinforces what we have been saying for many years: that we strive to be a good place to work and to be a socially responsible company. This achievement also underscores our belief that working as “One Team” contributes to employee satisfaction by providing opportunities to share talents and skills on challenging projects across our organization.

Related
Canada's Top 100
The Globe and Mail

An archaeologist’s week: from bison butchery to nautical disasters

2010-10-07T13:32:00.003-06:00

Submitted by Butch Amundson, senior archaeologist & principal (Saskatoon, SK)

Life as an archaeologist is full of surprises, and a recent week I had on the job is a perfect example for the diverse types of projects I get involved with working as an archaeologist at Stantec.

The week began with finally getting a crew out to dig a 6,000-year-old bison-butchering site near Saskatoon. I write “finally” because we had a three-month delay due to unprecedented rains this spring and summer. One of the many variables in an archaeologist’s schedule is the weather, and we’ve certainly had a lot of it lately.

Using the EM38 at the Loreburn graveyard

Once the crew was settled in to the task, my colleague in Winnipeg, David McLeod, and I headed down to a little graveyard near Loreburn, Saskatchewan, to rediscover the location of unmarked graves on behalf of the descendants of those buried there. As is typical of so many country graveyards on the prairies, grass fires have swept through and burned off the wooden grave markers, leaving the number and location of graves a mystery.

McLeod, as he prefers to be called, uses an EM38 electrical conductivity metre to find conductivity anomalies in the subsurface that may indicate the presence of grave shafts. Meanwhile, I use a high-resolution, differential GPS to map the features of the graveyard and calibrate the grid that McLeod is using to do the EM38 survey. The final product will be a map of possible grave locations in the context of the existing grave markers and, hopefully, happy relatives of the Finnish homesteaders buried there. On a more practical note, our work on identifying unmarked graves helps to avoid accidental disturbances when new ones are dug.

On the hunt for the SS City of Medicine Hat

Finally, to top off my week, I attended, with my family in tow, the world premiere of the documentary film “The Last Steamship: The Search for the SS City of Medicine Hat.” The feature-length film chronicles an underwater archaeology project I was involved with in the South Saskatchewan River, trying to recover evidence of “Saskatoon’s greatest nautical disaster.”

This week it’s back to reality: coding invoices, writing proposals, and completing reports. But that’s OK because it’s raining—again.

For more photos of Stantec’s archaeologists at work, visit our Facebook page.

Why work in healthcare?

2010-10-04T11:30:00.003-06:00

Submitted by Bruce Raber, vice president & healthcare practice leader

The New Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center

San Francisco, California

We’ve recently launched plans to significantly increase our exposure to the healthcare sector with the acquisition of Anshen + Allen in San Francisco and the planned addition of Burt Hill of Pennsylvania. With these major developments in the works I’ve been asked, why is Stantec so confident in the healthcare market?

There are a few reasons for our decision to focus our attention on healthcare.

It’s a very large market

Every community of any size in the world has some sort of healthcare facility. There are thousands and thousands of facilities that are in need of renovation, redevelopment, or need to be built in growing cities and towns. Healthcare facilities such as hospitals, labs, research centers, and doctor’s offices are vital pieces of infrastructure. A hospital is the one building type that every member in the community will use, which means there is a lot of opportunity for design work for firms like us.

Growing demand for everything associated with health and wellness

The world’s population is aging and the baby boomers are reaching the age where they will need more care. Nearly every day you will find stories in the newspaper related to healthcare, whether it’s a new treatment or drug, new government programs, or medical breakthrough. Healthcare infrastructure is the backbone for all of this. Research, treatment, care – it all happens within the walls of a facility. We help provide those facilities. Right now demand for healthcare facilities far exceeds what’s available.

Additionally, the demand for design services is ongoing. While we design for future flexibility in all our healthcare work, there is still an ongoing need for maintenance and renovations. As technologies and processes change and improve, buildings need to be adapted to accommodate those changes. This leads to ongoing relationships between us and the facility operators and opportunities for us to provide services over the life of the building.

Funding can be a challenge, but it’s achievable

Just because there is a demand doesn’t mean it can be funded. However, healthcare is typically a funding priority for governments. It needs to be funded in order to help ensure the safety and well being of the population. We were seeing money being invested in healthcare even during the economic downturn and now that there is a recovery happening (albeit a slow one) we feel that healthcare is one of the first markets that will see increased investment globally. Public-private-partnerships (P3s) are playing in increasingly important role and have proven to be an effective model for allowing governments to build the facilities needed.

Better design can also help. Designing around processes that doctors and nurses use for common tasks and technology can mean we can construct smaller buildings which can lead to cost savings. This is why Stantec has Registered Nurses on staff to help make the building functional for those that use it day in and day out. Energy efficient technologies and design improvements also can reduce the long term operating costs of a facility. Good design is helping healthcare facilities become less expensive to build and operate and can assist in the long term viability of the buildings.

Healthcare projects can attract people

I do a regular survey of my employees that work on healthcare projects and in that survey I ask people why they like working on healthcare projects. The vast majority answer, “because they’re working on projects that make a difference.”

Healthcare work is a specialty and people do it because they are passionate about working on something that helps others. One of the reasons we, as a company, began focusing on this sector was because we already had good experience that we sort of grew into over the years. By growing to be one of the top firms in the world for healthcare facility design we are in a better position to attract the best and the brightest in our industry. People that want to work on these types of projects for altruistic reasons are more likely to look for work with Stantec because they can do this type of work full time and be provided with a consistent stream of exciting projects.

What makes the healthcare sector an attractive one for Stantec is that it’s a market that offers our staff opportunities to work on rewarding projects and fill a need in the world that makes a difference to the communities where we work.

Related
The new Laguna Honda Hospital that Stantec worked on was recently opened in San Francisco. This video explains why the work we do in healthcare is so important.

Life as an engineer: a teacher’s view

2010-09-23T12:49:00.001-06:00

Contributed by Sarah Nitsche, 7th grade math teacher (Newton,MA)

Sarah visiting a Cranston, RI wastewater treatment plant

What was I, a 7th grade math teacher, doing at an engineering firm this summer? Last fall I first heard about the LIFT2 (Leadership Initiatives for Teaching and Technology) program and decided to apply. The program’s mission is to provide teachers with high-quality, rigorous learning opportunities and interactive peer collaboration that will ultimately inspire their students’ awareness, interest, and motivation to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math careers.

As the summer drew near, I was informed that I had been placed in the Westford, Massachusetts office of Stantec. To be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I didn’t know much about engineering, but as a passionate math teacher, I was enthusiastic about enhancing my classroom in any way that I could.

On the site of the Chelmsford, MA solar farm

Throughout my five weeks at Stantec, there was never a dull moment. I met all the engineers at the Westford office and had the opportunity to see a wide variety of what they do on a daily basis. I went on site visits to various water and wastewater treatment facilities, saw work being done at Hanscom Airport, and even got up to my knees in water to help with stream gauging. I was also exposed to a side of engineering that oftentimes goes unnoticed: I sat in on construction meetings, a bid opening, and a practice interview for a potential job.

Every day that went by, I wrote down pages of ideas that I plan to incorporate into my classroom now that school is back in session, especially for my geometry, proportion, and percent lessons. For example, after going to the water treatment facility and solar farm in Chelmsford, I’ve decided to bring my students on a fieldtrip there to link a real-world concept to what they’re learning in the classroom. Prior to the visit, we’ll talk about solar energy and analyze electric bills to get a better understanding of how much energy an average home in our town uses on a monthly basis.

I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to complete my externship at Stantec. It was a completely eye-opening experience that has changed me as a teacher forever.

How wind power changed my life (or at least my job)

2010-09-17T12:05:00.002-06:00

Contributed by Dale Knapp, senior project scientist, Environmental Management (Topsham, Maine)

I grew up in the woods of Maine and to this day do everything in my power to spend as much time out there as I can. I am a wetland and soil scientist by training and profession and have spent nearly five years working on wind power projects in the Northeast.

Wind turbines in the woods of Maine.

The first project I got tossed into was one of the first grid-scale developments proposed in the Northeast. While at that site, I got a phone call that triggered the beginning of an internal transition that has continued to shape who I am today. We had been awarded the resource delineation for a new wind project in northeastern Maine. I pulled out the trusty Delorme and took a look at the ridgeline. Looked like a pretty good spot. As I rampaged around the kitchen of the cabin we were staying in—telling everyone this was going to be big—I had no idea how right I would be.

A hazard of the job--bear tracks!

Through the months that followed, we lived and worked in the community of Lincoln, Maine. We were on a first name basis with many of the service providers who had to handle our presence. Listening to the local country station became commonplace—I think even our wardrobe changed. We built relationships and brought business to a community that really needed it. We even went into the local pool hall (OK, only twice over the course of a few years. Hey, even we aren’t that tough.)

I started to see the benefits of this project on the local community as it moved to construction: it provided local jobs, used the service industries, even gave the old folks in the rocking chairs something to talk about. This really grabbed me. I began to work on more of these projects. Now seeing the final results, I take tremendous pride looking at those turbines along that ridgeline. I mean, we sacrificed a lot of sanity to get that project to completion.

The crew off to their next location

As the project progressed I was amazed at ultimately how little landscape was changed. These projects fit harmoniously and produce power in the cleanest fashion I can imagine. Revisiting the final project was really an amazing experience and made me feel like I was contributing a small piece of moving toward the proverbial greater good.

But more importantly than personal pride or company pride, these projects represent something bigger and more exciting to me, and that is the independent spirit of America. It is a can-do attitude; it is not giving up; it is hard work and overcoming adversity. This industry has made me feel as though I am a part of the next great generation building on these ideals to give my children a more secure and stable place to call home. There is nothing worth more than that. It is easy to work so hard for a cause you believe in.

Wastewater Plants: Sustainable and Educational

2010-09-13T16:39:00.001-06:00

“What’s that green stuff?”

Rick (foreground) greets his tour group and prepares them
for the sights, sounds, and smells of a wastewater treatment
plant. Assisting on the tour is John Stahly of the Ann
Arbor Public Schools. Parents often accompany school

tours as well.

That’s the number one question Rick Kangas fields from an entourage of 4th graders touring the Portage Baseline Wastewater Treatment Plant in Dexter, Michigan.

What began as a spur of the moment favor has turned into a labor of love for Rick, a Senior Construction Technician with Stantec’s Ann Arbor, Michigan office. Now gearing up for a new semester, Rick has already hosted more than 750 Ann Arbor 4th graders on a guided tour of a 0.25 million gallon per day (MGD) wastewater treatment plant.

Silly questions, great questions, and off topic questions

such as "How much money do you make?" flow in a

constant stream during the tours.

Rick spends a portion of most of his days monitoring the plant operations and equipment. But since last November, he’s also been a mainstay of the school system’s “Watery Earth” science unit. The course includes a series of field trips to water, and wastewater facilities so students can learn about this particular journey of water.

Their stop at the treatment plant includes a discussion of the source of the wastewater (housing units), the treatment process (primary and secondary treatment lagoons) and the disposition of the byproduct (fertilizer for nearby farmland).

Rick introduces students to the "smelliest place" on the
tour, the influent structure. They are told on the bus prior
to arriving not to say gross or hold their noses, but to say
"how interesting". Most come up holding their noses
saying "how interesting".

“I explain how deep it is, how many millions of gallons the lagoons hold, how long it takes to treat the water,” says Rick. “As we walk along the edge of the lagoon, where we discharge the water, I explain how 160,000 gallons go in and 160,000 gallons go out, percolating through the soil and back to the aquifer as clean water.”

Students are surprised to learn, for example, that 99 percent of the wastewater coming into the plant is water, and just 1 percent is waste, but it’s important that all of it gets treated.

Rick says the students are curious about the boat he uses to traverse the lagoons. And he spends quite a bit of time explaining the role of bacteria and oxygen in the treatment process.

What is the green stuff? Not to worry, assures Rick. “Usually duckweed. Bacteria eating algae shows a healthy process is underway. It’s a good sign that everything is working.”