ISL 2021 Staff Development Seminar

Welcome ISL'rs!   Its time to launch the 2021 Staff Development Seminar! 

This years event is designed to provide a virtual ENERGY boost to all ISL'rs - so don't skip this initial booster session as you will learn everything you need to know about this year's event, you will get pumped-up with energy by our resident Fit-Break Specialist, and you will get creative with your superhero collegues and maybe win a prize!

Brent Toderian is a nationally and internationally respected practitioner and thought-leader with over 25 years of experience in advanced urbanism, city planning and urban design. In recent years he has advised and collaborated with cities, agencies and best-practice developers around the world, including the cities of Auckland, Brisbane, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Gold Coast, Groningen, Helsinki, Medellin, New York, Oslo, Perth, Rotterdam, and Sydney, and in Canada the cities of Abbotsford, Burlington, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, London, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Ottawa, Regina, Surrey, and Vancouver.

Brent’s establishment of TODERIAN UrbanWORKS (TUW) in early 2012 followed 6 years of significant achievement as Vancouver BC’s Chief Planner (2006-2012), with accomplishments that included the 2010 Winter Olympics-related planning and design; the EcoDensity and Greenest City Initiatives; new waterfront and skyline-shaping strategies; new visions and strategies for the city’s viaducts, multi-modal mobility and active transportation (walk, bike and transit); place-making, public place design and street activation strategies; next generation transit-oriented development (TOD) initiatives; the Laneway Housing program and other affordability/housing strategies; and inventive strategies at the downtown, city and regional levels emphasizing a “complete city”, not just a livable one. Brent also oversaw all development, design and architecture in Vancouver, known internationally as a “city by design.”

Brent was Manager of Centre City Planning + Design, and Chief Subdivision + Neighbourhood Planner in Calgary, Canada (2001-2006), where he pioneered innovative approaches to planning, policy and design in the downtown, inner city and suburbs. His Calgary work included the creation and leading of the award-winning Centre City Plan, and real progress toward more integrated neighbourhood models in all contexts. Before that, Brent was an award-winning and respected Ontario-based city planning, design and development consultant (1992-2001), with projects from Toronto to Yellowknife.

Brent’s current consulting work with TUW is extremely diverse, including “out-of-the-box” change-making involving civic and organizational culture; improved community conversations & engagement; inspirational and educational speaking and workshops; teaching; writing; and creative media (social and mainstream).

A passionate practitioner and advocate for creative, vibrant city-building, Brent is the founding President of the Council for Canadian Urbanism (CanU), Canada’s only regular radio columnist on “City-Making” with CBC Radio, a member of ULI BC’s Advisory Board and many other bodies related to cities, and a regular writer with the Huffington Post, Planetizen, CityLab and SPACING. He is a highly sought-after international speaker, teacher and thought-leader on cities and issues of advanced urbanism.

City of Calgary Block Plan Profile standards and documentation format. Basic layout, template and symbology.

In 2019, the City of Richmond (the City) partnered with Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) retained ISL Engineering and Land Services, in association with G. Ho Engineering Consultants, in undertaking a City-wide Review of Collision Prone Intersections. The study was conducted using a systematic process based on the Transportation Association of Canada Canadian Guide to In-service Road Safety Review, which uses insurance claims records and traffic volume data to assess the risk and potential to mitigate motorist, pedestrian and cyclist collisions. The study is a holistic city-wide review of all intersections to identify those locations with the highest risk of collisions. The project objective was to identify and prioritize high collision prone intersections within Richmond and determine where potential short-term and medium-/long-term road safety improvement investments should be directed to achieve the greatest safety benefits.

 The initial screening began with the 818 intersections (50% of all intersections) for which ICBC collision data is available (total of 22,373 claims for the 2013-2017 period).  As per the claims data, 82% of the collisions (18,288) occurred at signalized intersections; subsequent analysis focused on these 161 signalized intersections. The 161 signalized intersections were further screened based on safety performance indicators.  The Annual Collision Frequency criteria resulted in 47 high collision intersections, which represent 29% of the 161 signalized intersections but account for 65% of the collisions.  The Secondary Screening involving the subsequent safety performance indicators, resulted in 20 intersections (2.4% of all Richmond intersections with collision data), which account for 23% of all ICBC claims in Richmond over the five-year period. Field reviews of the selected 20 intersections as well as a detailed collision analysis using three-year data (2015-2017) to establish the most up-to-date collision patterns and identify the intersection improvements. The Safety Review Report included intersection layout, traffic volumes, collision pattern with information of fatal collisions, field review observations and identified safety issues & potential improvements (short-term and medium-/long-term).

The construction of Airport Trail Interchange ramp provided motorists with an improved connection to Stoney Trail and helped to make a positive impact in connecting local communities to highly accessed commercial/residential areas. Once the construction of full airport trail corridor is completed, this project will help to move goods, services and people and will be connecting locals to YYC airport from East limits of the city

A deep dive (pun intended) into the challenges of finding drinking water for a small island community off the Sunshine Coast, BC

Margaritas and engineering on the beach.

Rocky View County, facing internal extremes of population growth/decline and struggling with achieving consensus among conflicting interests at County Council, wondered if its electoral districts and governance structure could be improved. They turned to ISL for a solution.
Over eight months, we led best-practice research, population analysis, economic modelling, mapping, public engagement and workshops with Council to create a recommendation for enhanced electoral districts and council governance.
What is best-practice for designing an electoral district? What happened to traditional in-person public engagement plans once our “new normal” set in? How did councillors respond to a proposed reduction in their numbers? Will four people be able to remotely share in a 25 minute presentation without any technical difficulties?
Join us to find out!

The ISL Landscape Architecture team dives into the importance of tree protection and how the Landscape Architecture group can assist in preparing a Tree Removal and Protection Plan (TRPP) for your project. We discuss the process of creating a TRPP during design and how to implement the TRPP during construction. We will also provide examples of successes and failures of tree protection. 

Building a Business Case around Aimsun – a New Traffic Microsimulation tool

This session will dive into one of ISL’s newest service lines, Building Enclosure Engineering. Principles of control layer continuity will be discussed, the perfect wall will be unveiled, and why our walls aren’t perfect will be shown. An overview of recent and ongoing projects will be presented, as well as ISL’s available services in this area.

Dynamo has been out for Civil 3D for about a year and a half. In that time, Community Devlopment has explored and created several custom tools with it that save a large amount of time. In this presentation will be doing a high-level review of some of the scripts that we have made and how we have used scripts to help out other departments like Dranage, Landscape Architecture and Transportation. Nick Kelly will also do a review of how Dynamo has helped him in a previously time consuming workflow. 

A review of strategies and efforts used to increase the likelihood of a successful grant application submission.

See how ISL came up with an innovative construction phasing approach to win the project and tear down the wall (aka Victoria Park / Stampede station)!

17 Ave SE Stampede Crossing Project (17SX).  It’s time to get moving! We are renewing Calgary’s aging Victoria Park/Stampede C-Train station and building critical urban connections to the Culture & Entertainment District for active users, transit, and vehicles. The project includes the overhaul of the Victoria Park/Stampede C-Train station - eliminating the physical barrier between Calgary Stampede Park and the Beltline neighbourhood while increasing platform capacity; removing the uninviting spiral stairs and overpass at 15 Avenue SE; and implementing accessible at-grade LRT crossings for users of all abilities.  Where a full station shutdown was originally contemplated for the station replacement, our project team proposed an innovative approach, with temporary platform and shoo-fly tracks to maintain reliable transit service for the duration of station reconstruction. 

For a good laugh... check out the "eulogy" Twitter video from local radio station...
https://twitter.com/x929/status/1138168358916874242?lang=en

ISL provides a wide variety of benefits and we want to make sure that everyone is not just aware of them but taking full advantage of the benefits of your benefits.

This presentation explains quantum field theory and how it can be applied in design using ISL's 17SX Stampede Crossing project as case study. I provide historical context for why and how we've arrived at the current design trend, as well as exciting imagery for this project that involved 99 ISL members. Join me for some exciting new insights into the world of 3D modeling, physics, and most importantly: how to get the client to say YES!

Lloydminster Truck Route and Dangerous Goods Route Study

A comprehensive look into the replacement of the Vinca Bridge over the North Saskatchewan River. Come experience our journey of persevering through one of our longest proposal calls, how we defeated the competition, and the dedicated passion of our ISL staff.  Learn fun things about the project, from navigating roads through the mine fields, crossing enemy lines, bridge design 101, to monster trucks, ice bergs and dynamite. A 20-minute journey you will never forget.

Grab your costume and head into virtual space.

PRO TIP – if you are taking our costume contest to heart, look for some Super Friends and enter together. Full contest details on our Event Website.

No costume? No worry. Maybe make an ISL-flavoured cocktail and take some time to connect. This link will download a pdf of ISL-inspired cocktails from our Event Website.

We will fuel your socializing with $100 bucks – no need to expense, it will show up on your paycheque following the event for all attendees.

Join our Duelling Pianos via Zoom. Click the Video Stream link to access.

Below are the links for each Team Building session. Please click the session you were assigned.

In It To Win It (Pre-Instructions document is attached below)

At The Virtual Races

Survey Says

The Yellowhead Trail – St. Albert Trail to 97 Street Concept Planning Study

Infrastructure mega projects are being built under P3 and Design–Build delivery models more often. The role of the Owner’s Engineer in these projects is examined in this presentation. Updates on the South West Calgary Ring Road project will be provided and include a behind the scenes look at the work of ISL bridge inspectors.

The City of Lloydminster currently relies on lagoons to treat their wastewater but over the past decade population growth and tighter regulations have made the City non-compliant with provincial and federal standards and new mechanical wasterwater plant is required.  The City has tried to deliver this project several times using different methods, all ending in the same outcome: over budget.  In 2019 ISL proposed an Integrated Project Delivery as a way of providing the value the City needed within their budget.
Starting in early 2020 ISL and a team of other designers, contractors and City representatives started this IPD journey.  Now, one year into the project, Marc Bourassa and Greg Germaine will provide an update on the project as it starts construction and discuss how the project delivery method impacting our design approach.

What have you done differently to build professional relationships this past year? Had any challenges? We know the pandemic doesn't help, and remote work is likely to be a thing in the future. Let's work together through this session to identify challenges, find opportunities, and take action now to get our business ahead.

How do our social dynamics and systemic hierarchies affect how we are treated and how we treat others? What happens when we hold up an equity, diversity, and inclusivity lens to our policies and practices? Can we do more to encourage innovation, embrace different identities, and promote engagement?
 
EDI 101 will introduce and explore intersections of identity and how they relate to diversity, inclusivity, equity, and privilege. Participants will learn definitions and be given strategies to identify and deconstruct unconscious bias and microaggressions in school/workplaces and in their personal lives. They willl leave understanding how to support an inclusive working environment, apply an EDI lens, and embrace and encourage growth in this era of social change. Most importantly, this is a great first step to demonstrate a commitment to allyship that is not performative.

In this session we will be working togeather in break out rooms to buid a use case web for a large project. Everyone's input will be valuable as you take turns adding Actors, Tools and Worflows to design stages. We want you to share the tools you can use to do a task, people who would be affected by a project, high level workflows used to make a deliverable and then see how they all connect!

Chris Hadfield
Astronaut | First Canadian Commander of the International Space Station 
 
Referred to as “the most famous astronaut since Neil Armstrong,” Colonel Chris Hadfield is a worldwide sensation whose video of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” — seen by over 75 million people — was called “possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created”, by Bowie himself. Acclaimed for making outer space accessible to millions, and for infusing a sense of wonder into our collective consciousness not felt since humanity first walked on the Moon, Hadfield continues to bring the marvels of science and space travel to everyone he encounters.

In 1992, Hadfield was selected as a NASA Mission Specialist, and three years later he was aboard the Shuttle Atlantis, where he helped build the Mir space station. In 2001, on Shuttle Endeavour, Hadfield performed two spacewalks and in 2013, he became Commander of the International Space Station for six months off planet.
Formerly NASA’s director of operations, Hadfield is a heavily decorated astronaut, engineer, and test pilot whose many awards include the Order of Canada, the Meritorious Service Cross, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. He was named the Top Test Pilot in both the US Air Force and the US Navy, and was inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame.

An internationally bestselling author, Hadfield has written three books: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, You Are Here, and his children’s book, The Darkest Dark. Additionally, he released his musical album, Space Sessions: Songs From a Tin Can, in 2015. He is also featured on Ted.com for his talk, What I Learned from Going Blind in Space.

Hadfield is also the co-creator and host of the internationally acclaimed BBC series Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?, as well as the co-host, with actor Will Smith, of National Geographic’s One Strange Rock, directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Additionally, Hadfield is an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo and chair of the board of the Open Lunar Foundation. He also leads the space stream at Creative Destruction Lab, one of the world’s top tech incubators.