Celebrating 45 Years of Earth Day

The official Earth Day celebration began as a demonstration in the United States on April 22, 1970.  It has grown worldwide and has gotten bigger every year. A few things happening around the globe this Earth Day include:

1. Clean up around the Great Wall of China. Volunteers will be collecting litter left by hikers and campers.
2. Students will plant over a hundred Ghat trees in Dubai.
3. Corporate employees from Tokio Millennium Bermuda will team up with children at a Primary school to plant a butterfly garden, paint an inspiration mural and provide litter clean up.
4. The Rainforest Trust plans to protect 25,000 acres of rainforest in Sumatra to protect the Sumatran Tiger.
5. Bolivia holds a Mother Earth Festival

If there is not an Earth Day activity in your area, here are a few ideas of things that you can do on your own or in your community.

1. Take a hike or go bike riding 
2. Grow a garden
3. Get a home energy audit
4. Donate clothes to charity
5. Write a letter to your senator
6. Volunteer at an environmental organization
7. Go paperless
8. Turn off the tap
9. Recycle
10. Make Earth Day Everyday

These ideas can be enjoyed all year and we hope you celebrate Earth Day today and every day.

National Architecture Week

In the spirit of celebrating National Architecture Week #ArchWeek2015, we tip our hats to the devoted designers of GBA. This group truly embraces GBA’s core purpose, creating remarkable solutions for a higher quality of life, particularly for the Life Sciences and Critical Facility industries. Whether it’s designing a cleanroom for the latest pharma or biotech advancement or space planning for a mobile switch center, our experts enjoy the challenge of highly specialized and complex regulatory environments.

Rather than just talk about their greatness, we asked why they chose to direct their awesomeness to architecture.

“Architecture is a combination of art and science; I chose to become an architect because I enjoy the aspects of design combined with problem solving.” – Victor K.

“I liked art and math so I thought architecture was a good option.  Growing up I would look at house plan magazines and change the designs.” – Leah M.

“I chose to be an architect to be a creative contributor in a client’s growth process, a practical artist who really likes math.” – Michelle C.

“I chose to be an Architect in the 2^nd grade because I wanted to create better environments for people to live in and more importantly due to Mike Brady.” – Brian S.

“My dad thought it was my natural calling, a good blend of art and science. In high school, he had me job shadow our neighbor who is a successful Kansas City architect. Plus, he didn’t think I was cut out for the family business, law enforcement. I come from a long line of police officers. Honestly, I can’t see myself doing anything other than architecture. I think it was a perfect fit for me and am grateful my father introduced me to the profession.” – Molly O.

“My mom and dad made me.” – Craig R.

“In third grade I dressed up as an Architect for a class assignment on who we wanted to be when we grew up, from then on that’s what I have always wanted to be.” – Micala M.

Traffic Group Restructuring

With the impending retirement of longtime principal and vice president Paul Bertrand, P.E., PTOE, GBA’s Traffic Group has been restructured.

 

As of April 2, heading up the group is Mandy Anderson, P.E., PTOE. In addition to being the Traffic Group Leader, she is also the lead for traffic modeling. Her new responsibilities include staffing, business development, strategic planning, simulation modeling (VISSIM, Synchro, SimTraffic) and travel demand modeling (VISUM, TransCAD). Mandy has a degree in civil engineering from Iowa State and a master’s in business administration from Baker University.

Dave Mennenga, P.E., PTOE, is now the group’s technical lead for studies, including traffic impact studies and access justification reports (AJRs). Mark Stuempel, P.E., PTOE, and Janelle Clayton, P.E., PTOE, will share design leadership responsibilities. Mark’s and Janelle’s duties include noise studies, signal design, traffic control design, lighting design and permanent signing design.

“This is an exciting time for our entire group,” Mandy says. “Everyone has opportunities to take on new responsibilities and stretch into new roles.”

Under Paul, GBA’s traffic group has grown to eleven engineers and technicians, and has served various municipalities, counties and DOTs in Kansas, Missouri and other areas across the Midwest. Paul has been with GBA since 1987 and has been a traffic engineer since 1971. He will retire at the end of 2015.

Little Mill Creek Park Wins ASCE Award

GBA, along with City of Lenexa and Johnson County Wastewater, were awarded the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Civil Engineering Project of the Year Award for the Little Mill Creek Restoration and Sanitary Sewer Improvements project located in Lenexa, KS. The award was the first to be given by ASCE to recognize the important contributions that are provided through civil engineering projects. 

The project included sanitary sewer protection, stream restoration, water quality enhancements and park improvements in Little Mill Creek Park. Stream restoration included increased sinuosity, stream bank erosion mitigation, added stream length, grade controls, flood benches, and energy pools in stream, and stormwater treatment cells were added on small tributary channels where they entered the main stream on the project. 

Paul Miller, GBA’s project manager, worked closely with the City and Johnson County Wastewater, to accomplish the goals of the project including improved infrastructure sustainability, improved water quality and park safety. 

The project demonstrated civil engineering excellence by utilizing shared financial and labor resources of both the City of Lenexa and Johnson County Wastewater to meet common public welfare goals in a responsible and sustainable fashion. Congratulations to everyone involved in the award-winning project!