Sustainable Land Development Club

SUSTAINABLE LAND DEVELOPMENT CLUB

Founded in 2008, the Sustainable Land Development Club (SLDC) is the student “arm” of LDDI, and has grown to be one of the most active student organizations in all of CEE. LDDI Coordinator Kevin Young has served as the club’s faculty advisor since its founding, and in recent years LDDI Assistant Coordinator Claire White has become increasingly involved in leading club activities. Since its inception, the SLDC has benefitted greatly from the vast LDDI network of professionals and their willingness to support and participate in a variety of club activities. The past academic year was an exciting one for the SLDC, as Virginia Tech’s return to in-person instruction once again allowed for events such as field trips, a design charrette, and on-campus product exhibitions. The SLDC was also able to reengage with its long-standing tradition of service and philanthropy when, in March, club members partnered with a local Girl Scout troop to raise money for Project Linus – an organization that provides handmade blankets to children in need. In April, SLDC members also provided survey stakeout for Virginia Tech’s Relay For Life track. While SLDC members certainly enjoyed the return to in-person engagement, some of the virtual events held during the previous academic year were retained. These included our Industry Professionals and Young Professionals Panels.

Tyler Misenik and Ella Waide served as SLDC co-presidents this year, and Tyler offered the following of the experience, “At the beginning of the academic year, Ella and I were eager take on leadership roles for the SLDC. Like other CEE students, we were excited to finally return to in-person club activities. During the fall semester, members of SLDC collaborated on a project to improve on-campus bicycle infrastructure through the Office of Sustainability Green RFP program. The SLDC also hosted numerous panels throughout the year that fostered engagement between CEE students, industry professionals and recent graduates. Additional highlights from this past year include on-site tours of various developments around Blacksburg, a day of volunteer work at Rainbow Riders Child Care Center through The Big Event, Relay For Life track stakeout, and a cornhole fundraiser to support Project Linus. This upcoming semester presents many new opportunities for the SLDC, and Ella and I are looking forward to using what we have learned to grow and build the club.”

The following section presents some of the SLDC events and activities over the past year, all of which contributed to fulling the mission of connecting industry professionals with LDDI students.

Local Field Trips

This past academic year, LDDI students had the opportunity to attend local field trips in both the fall and spring semesters. In September, Virginia Tech Capital Construction and Renovations Supervisory Project Manager, Kyle White, led a group of SLDC students on a pre-construction site walk of the Quillen Family Spirit Plaza at Dietrick Hall on campus. Students had the opportunity to review the existing conditions and topographic survey while hearing about the proposed design and some project challenges. The project entered the construction phase in March 2022, and ultimately will provide a central campus gathering place to host special events such as pep rallies and viewing parties when complete. Of the experience, Kyle shared, “The importance of a site visit cannot be overstated during the planning and

Students attend a field trip to Dietrick Hall for a pre-construction walk through

design phases of a project. While a pre-construction site visit may not be as exciting as the construction tours students have attended in the past, it was a great opportunity to teach the students the types of questions they should be asking and what they should be looking for when reviewing a topographic survey. And as always, the students blew me away with their top-notch questions and keen observations.”

In March, LDDI Coordinator Kevin Young, Assistant Coordinator Claire White, and Sustainable Land Development Graduate Program Coordinator Dr. Tripp Shealy led a group of graduate students on a construction site visit to UNION apartments in Blacksburg. UNION is a redevelopment project on the site of the former Sturbridge Square apartments on University City Boulevard. The apartments are set to open in fall 2022, and students had the opportunity to watch a real-time curb pour and also discuss the challenges of dense development. The site was designed by Pennoni and the site tour was led by Greystar’s construction manager, Justin Warren.

The following day, Kevin and Claire led a group of undergraduate and graduate students to several local sites in Blacksburg and Christiansburg as part of the annual spring field trip (though the weather with a mix of wind and snow was anything but springlike). This is the first such field trip since the spring 2019 semester. At each site, the design engineer met with the group, and we were also fortunate to have David Camden of ADS join us at multiple sites where StormTech chambers were being used for underground detention.

The first stop was a residential subdivision, Berry Ridge, on Airport Road where Carolyn Howard (Draper Aden Associates / TRC) met the group. The site was in the middle of infrastructure improvements which allowed students to see multiple erosion and sediment control devices in practice as well as climb inside some ADS StormTech chambers or a storm manhole onsite.

Next stop was The Farm, a multifamily residential development on Glade Road, where Trevor Kimzey (Foresight Design Services) met the students. Here Trevor shared challenges about the site design including ADA, sanitary sewer, and sequencing. Trevor then led the students on two different public school sites in Christiansburg to discuss some of the nuances for K-12 design as well as stormwater.

Students visit Berry Ridge residential subdivision in Blacksburg

After a much needed lunch break, the group visited The Hub multifamily residential project. This is also a redevelopment project on the site of a portion of Terrace View along Patrick Henry Drive. The Hub Phase 1 opened last fall and the second phase is scheduled to open fall 2022. The site tour was led by Gretchen Merix (Balzer and Associates) as well as the general contractor, Findorff. Here students heard about the challenges of meeting schedule, sequencing, and construction in cold weather. Gretchen shared, “touring an active construction site and having the opportunity to see classroom concepts in a real world environment is an invaluable experience for these students and I believe it will be a great benefit to them as they graduate and move into professional design work. I truly enjoyed the experience of sharing the project with the students and being able to contribute to their educational journey.”

The field trip, like those before it, proved to be immensely educational for the students. Julia White, Sustainable Land Development M.S. student, shared, “the spring field trip was so much fun (despite a surprise snowstorm and temperatures that were not quite ‘spring’)! It gave students the opportunity to go out into the field and look at a variety of different sites and learn about their unique layouts and challenges from the engineers themselves who worked on those designs.” Special thanks again to this year’s hosts of the various local field trips!

On-Campus Product Exhibitions

LDDI has long recognized the value of getting students out of the classroom and into the field to observe and gain an appreciation for the size and scale, installation, and maintenance of the infrastructure that they will ultimately design. While field trips certainly serve as an effective means to achieving this educational goal, the logistics of getting multiple sections of a junior-level course, each with potentially as many as 65 students, out on a traditional field trip are daunting. Similarly, group design projects and job interviews place demands on senior students that are often prohibitive for “destination” field trips. During the 2018-19 academic year, LDDI, with the help of its Dymond-level sponsors Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS) and Concrete Pipe & Precast (CP&P), took this challenge head on and brought the field trip to the students in the form of on-campus product exhibitions. While these inaugural product exhibitions were hugely popular among students, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic precluded similar events during the spring 2020 semester, and during the entirety of the 2020-21 academic year. With a return to in-person instruction last year, LDDI was thrilled to once again welcome ADS and CP&P back to campus. ADS showcases their StormTech product on the VT Drillfield

On a chilly day in November, ADS brought a truck loaded with its innovative stormwater management products onto the Virginia Tech Drillfield. David Camden, an LDDI graduate and now Southwest Virginia Sales Engineer for ADS, said of the event, “The on-campus product demonstration is the most impactful opportunity LDDI has offered ADS as a sponsor of the program. A truckload of our most popular drainage products are delivered and unloaded on the central campus Drillfield. Students are allowed to familiarize themselves with the products and consult with reallife stormwater management experts while doing so. In total, we have orchestrated three of these on-campus product demonstrations and they seem to grow in popularity and student turnout each year! We are already looking forward to the next one!”

Students examine CP&P products outside of Goodwin Hall In April, CP&P set up just outside of Goodwin Hall with a whole host of storm and sanitary infrastructure products that students studied, asked questions, and learned about. CP&P Technical Marketing Manager Hank Gottschalk offers, “CP&P brought in two tractor trailer loads of precast concrete structures and reinforced concrete pipe to provide the LDDI students a ‘hands on’ view of what they may be designing and specifying when working on future land development projects. The CP&P team had a great afternoon getting to talk about the various precast products as well as learning about the students’ future plans and aspirations. Each student walked away with a complimentary hard hat to encourage future visits out in the field.”

LDDI thanks ADS and CP&P for giving so generously of the time of their salespeople, engineers, and truck drivers to further advance LDDI’s educational goals and objectives.

Design Charette

After necessarily migrating the annual spring semester Design Charrette and Competition to a virtual modality during the 2020-21 academic year, this year LDDI was thrilled to return this fun and educational event to an in-person format. The charrette was organized and led by Dewberry’s Skip Notte and Paige West, and featured more than 20 student participants representing seven different teams. Each team was provided full-size plan sheets that showed a proposed development property and its topographic and planimetric features, while students brought their own calculators, engineering scales, and colored pencils and markers to prepare their design (all of which was completed “by hand”). The format of this annual event finds Skip first introducing the students to the site, the development goal(s), and any unique caveats or restrictions on the site or their design. Following this introduction, student teams are Winning Design Charrette team with Skip Notte and Paige West given one hour to work toward a design that meets the development of Dewberry objective while also adhering to relevant codes and sound engineering design principles. Dinner is then provided to the student participants while their designs are judged by Skip, CEE faculty members, and volunteers drawn from the LDDI professional network. This year’s judges included John Neel (President, Foresight Design Services) and former LDDI student Taylor Bolte (Assistant Project Manager, Virginia Tech Capital Construction and Renovations).

The key goals of the Design Charrette and Competition are to encourage group collaboration among student teams and to create a supportive but competitive atmosphere where limited time forces students to work under pressure to prioritize site layout and other design decisions. The event also provides another opportunity for practitioner-student engagement as Skip and the judges share their own insight and professional expertise on the project. First, second, and third place student teams received $100, $50, and $25 gift cards, respectively. Rising CEE senior Collin Vaughan was a member of the winning team, and of the event stated, “I am very thankful that LDDI provides activities like the Design Charette to allow me to exercise my engineering design skills that have been taught in their courses. Being surrounded by professional engineers and my fellow classmates during the event challenged me to push my skills further and helped me develop into a better civil engineer. I believe it is crucial that students participate in activities like the Design Charette because Virginia Tech Civil & Environmental Engineering is not only trying to create smart engineers but also engineers that already have experience with professional tasks and in professional work environments.”

LDDI thanks Skip and Paige for leading the charrette, as well as John and Taylor for serving as judges.

“The LDDI program bridges college with industry to create a curriculum which is both applicable and engaging for students. I first heard about LDDI during my summer internship between freshman and sophomore year, and since then LDDI has fostered my interest in land development. The courses, mentorship, and events are all designed to help us grow and succeed within the field, and I have gained new skills and new connections because of it. The Sustainable Land Development graduate program is one of the newest additions to LDDI, and I am excited to continue my time as a student to be a part of it. Integrating sustainability with civil engineering is going to be evermore important in solving some of our biggest challenges.”

– Nicole Fontenot, VT CEE Class of 2022, SLD MS Class of 2023

Young Professionals Panels

For the third consecutive year, LDDI and the SLDC hosted the “Young Professionals Panel.” For many graduates, the transition from college to the professional world represents an abrupt lifestyle change that can be challenging to navigate. For some students, questions and stress begin to emerge before they even graduate and accept a position.

What will my first six months on the job be like?

What about the first year?

Would I thrive working for a small land development firm or a large, multi-discipline company with a national or even international footprint?

Students are sometimes understandably overwhelmed by these questions and challenges, and with a panel comprised of graduates of the LDDI program, this event seeks to help current students benefit from the experience and advice of those who have gone before them. Student feedback on the event remains overwhelmingly positive and, similarly, the former LDDI students serving as panelists greatly enjoy giving back and speaking with current students.

In an effort to make the event accessible to as many students as possible, two virtual panels were held during the spring 2022 semester. LDDI graduate, and Assistant Project Manager at McAdams, Jonathan Balderson participated in one of the spring 2022 panels, and offers, “Like so many LDDI graduates, the experience and knowledge from the classroom provided a solid foundation to kickstart my career at McAdams. I am now excited to be a part of LDDI’s Brand Awareness committee and to help bring new energy and events to grow and strengthen the already strong and valuable LDDI brand. I hope my participation in the Young Professionals Panel inspires future LDDI alumni to remain involved in the program as I have after their graduation.”

LDDI recognizes and thanks the following individuals for participating in the spring 2022 Young Professionals Panels:

 Jonathan Balderson, McAdams  Allison Culicerto, Timmons Group  Alex Devlin, Dewberry  Carlos Guerrero, McAdams  Kyle Long, Kimley-Horn  Akul Mehra, Virginia Tech & Bohler  Caitlin Pendergast, VHB  Natalie Rupinski, Ramey Kemp Associates  Tully Saul, Bowman  Brendan Snell, Pennoni  Alex Wells, Bohler

“My undergraduate experience would have been completely different had it not been for the LDDI program. As a first generation student, LDDI classes and events provided me with numerous resources intended to help students thrive and prepare for work life outside of college, which was invaluable to me. Through the program, I am able to network extensively with many industry professionals, learn about the land development industry holistically, gain technical skills, and have previously received various internship offers. However, my favorite part of LDDI are the wonderful and engaging faculty that deeply care about students’ professional and academic development. Through them and this program, I have been able to foster my desire to continuously learn about sustainable development and how civil engineers can positively impact society through design, leading me to pursue a master’s degree in Sustainable Land Development. I am truly grateful for LDDI and where it has led me!“

–Valeria Lebron, VT CEE Class of 2022, SLD MS Class of 2023

Industry Professionals Panels

Land development is a diverse industry, and even what appear to be the simplest projects often require the coordinated effort of a multitude of professional disciplines. While the LDDI program is centered around the engineering and design aspects of land development, a fundamental program objective has always been to make students aware of the other career opportunities in the land development industry, including those of developer, home builder, municipal engineer, surveyor, architect/landscape architect, contractor, wetlands specialist, product suppliers, and many others. Further, it is a firmly held belief that even though a substantial majority of LDDI students will enter the land development industry as site design engineers, it is critical that the curriculum acquaint those students with the other professional disciplines with whom they will ultimately work and collaborate. To help better achieve these outcomes, during the fall 2020 semester, LDDI debuted a new practitioner involvement event, Industry Professionals Panels, where representatives from various professional disciplines shared their perspectives on the land development industry. These inaugural panels in 2020 were well-received, leading to two panels being held during the fall 2021 semester. The first panel, held in October, was titled “The Design Partnership” and featured an architect, a transportation engineer, an environmental/wetlands specialist, and two landscape architects. In November, a second panel titled “Review, Permitting, and Construction” featured a product supplier, surveyor, municipal engineer, and a general contractor. Drew Sullivan, Senior Project Engineer with LDDI Platinum sponsor Timmons Group, represented transportation engineering in the first panel and of his participation offered, “I was very pleased to be invited to participate in the Fall 2021 Industry Professionals Panel. Hearing differing perspectives from your colleagues in the same or similar industries only helps build your knowledge base. If I had the opportunity to participate in events like this when I was a student it would have helped me immensely.”

Student attendance at these after-hours events was fantastic, with more than 70 students attending at least one of the panels. Moving forward, the Industry Professionals Panels are anticipated to be an annual fall semester practitioner involvement event. LDDI thanks the following individuals for their participation in the fall 2021 series of Industry Professionals Panels:

 Allison Austin, Virginia Waters and Wetlands  Brent Evans, Bowman  Travis Frank, Bohler  Hank Gottschalk, CP&P  Dodie Hudson, Dewberry  Greg Mascola, Bohler  Justin St. Clair, Town of Christiansburg  Drew Sullivan, Timmons Group  Nicholas Thornsbury, Burns & McDonnell

Resume Review Workshop

The Resume Review Workshop was scheduled two weeks ahead of the spring Virginia Tech CEE Career Fair to give land development students an opportunity to update their resumes and get some timely advice from recruiters. Julia Mork (Bohler), Courtney Cooper (Timmons Group), and Hannah Godsey (Draper Aden Associates / TRC) kicked off the session by providing an overview of resume dos and don’ts, interview dos and don’ts, and what to do once you receive a job offer. Students were then placed into breakout rooms with one of the three recruiters to have an opportunity for a smaller group discussion and review of their current resumes. Of the event, Julia Mork offered, “The LDDI resume review was a great event to connect with students. The students asked thoughtful questions and I enjoyed sharing tips and tricks to creating a strong resume. I am looking forward to being part of the event next year!”