Michael Kerns, Chun Wang, & Carter Worthen
Guest Speakers |
Jeff Cutler | Landscape Architect FCSLA, BCSLA, AALA, OALA, Principal & founder of Space2Place.
Jeff Cutler is the principal and founder of space2place. He graduated with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph at 1994 and became a member of the British Columbia Society of Landscape Architects in 1998. He is a designer for Iona Island Wastewater treatment Plant and the adjacent Iona Beach regional park
Richard Bitcon | Engineering lead, IIWTP upgrade.
Richard Bitcon is working at AECOM. He is engineer of the Iona Island Wastewater treatment Plant.
Sylvia Pendl | Landscape architect & urban planner, Metro Vancouver, lead of Iona Beach regional park
Sylvia Pendl is a landscape architect and a park planner. She got her Master of Landscape Architecture at UBC. She is working for the metro Vancouver and she is the lead of Iona Beach regional park, including the Iona Island Wastewater treatment Plant.
Matthew Woodruff | Architect AIBC, MRAIC, Principal at Local Architecture
Matthew Woodruff is a principal and co-founder of Local Practice and is focused on regenerating the built environment within the Salish Sea watershed. He has significant knowledge of net zero building practices and focuses on public projects that are technically complex, fundamentally connected to their sites, and deeply transformational. Matthew, through the length of the conceptual design and engagement phases of the ongoing IIWTP project was vital to the integrated design process
Geoffrey Cox | Architect AIBC, Local Architecture
An architect at Local Practice Architecture, Geoffrey Cox has a strong passion for regenerative design, sustainable systems, and interdisciplinary. He has experience working on institutional, educational, residential, recreational, industrial and infrastructure projects, as well as sustainable building rating systems including LEED and Living Building Challenge (LBC).
The Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant (IIWWTP) is located on a globally important, ecologiaclly sensitive node on the mouth of the Fraser River, and possesses critical cultural and historical significance to Musqueam indigenous nation. Through the lens of the contemporary upgrade project, this short podcast episode explores how wastewater treatment facilities confront the imminent challenges of climate change and ecological crises. We will be looking at the facility’s history, its place in the larger regional context, and design process solutions implemented.
Slated to be the largest infrastructure project in the Canadian Pacific Northwest to date, the Iona Island Wasterwater treatment plant is all located on a sensitive and pivotal ecological node where the Fraser River meets the Salish Sea, upon land immediate, and with critical cultural importance, to the Musqueam nation, as well as is located adjacent to the urban fabric and populations of both Vancouver and Richmond.
Grounded by the ecological and geocultural importance of the site, this podcast endeavours to examine the process of planning and designing the preliminary proposals for the plant upgrade, investigating the employment and benefits of the Integrated Design Process (IDP) for human and more-than-human communities, while inviting a diverse array of professionals representing viewpoints from both the client and service sides of the project and process. These include Jeff Cutler Principal and landscape architect at Space2Place, engineer Richard Bitcon, Sylvia Pendl a planner with Metro Vancouver as well as Geoffrey Cox and Matthew Woodruff of Local Architecture, the latter of whom was heavily involved in organizing the integrated design process through the period.
By examining the engagement and conceptual design phases of the project, the podcast aims both to introduce the ecological significance of the project and site, highlight how the contemporary project addresses contemporary and future challenges, as well as argue how an integrated design process can represent an important tool to face the catastrophes and consequences of climate change and related ecocrisis.
[Podcast Audio]
Resources
“Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant Projects.” Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant Projects . Accessed January 23, 2024. https://metrovancouver.org/services/liquid-waste/iona-island-wastewater-treatment-plant-projects.
GVSDD. “GVS&DD Board Special Meeting Regular Presentation Package – February 3, 2022.” Vancouver: GVSDD, February 3, 2022.
Ngo, Trisa. Rep. Research to Inform the Transition of Wastewater Sludge Lagoons to Freshwater Wetlands on Iona Island, BC. Vancouver, British Columbia: UBC Sustainability Scholar, 2021.
Metro Vancouver. “Metro Vancouver’s Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant Projects Conceptual Design – Background Paper, February 2022.” Vancouver: Metro Vancouver, May 2022.
Municipal Affairs. Upgraded wastewater plant will better protect people, environment, March 3, 2023. https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2023MUNI0015-000259.