Land Development Design Initiative • www.lddi.cee.vt.edu • Blacksburg, VA Phone: (540) 231-2474 • Fax: (540) 231-7532 • E-mail: lddi@vt.edu May 2021 Volume 15, Issue 3
In this issue: • LDDI makes its summer debut (p. 1) • Welcome additions come to MD and VA communities (p. 2) • Old Town Alexandria will soon enjoy new residential options (p. 3) • Former LDDI student reflects on the past and present (p. 3) • Meet the graduate students (p. 4)
LDDI Bridges is a publication of
Virginia Tech’s Land Development Design Initiative Editors: Kelly Shayne Young ksyoung@vt.edu
Kevin Young keyoung@vt.edu
Virginia Tech The Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Greetings from the campus of Virginia Tech. I hope this message finds you, your family, and your organization well and moving toward increasing normalcy a little more each and every day. We recently completed our first academic year in an almost entirely virtual environment, and I feel both confident and proud in stating that the unique, high-quality educational experience afforded Virginia Tech CEE students through the LDDI program was upheld during this period of distance learning. It wasn’t easy, and I want to recognize and draw attention to the above-and-beyond efforts of my colleague Claire White, the Town of Blacksburg’s Matt Stolte, and practitioner instructors from Bohler, Draper Aden Associates, and Kimley-Horn, all of whom made LDDI’s spring semester course offerings a success. Signs are pointing toward a return to in-person instruction this fall, and while acknowledging the success of the past academic year, we all eagerly look forward to a return to the physical classroom. While the chaos of the academic calendar typically calms following spring graduation, this summer will be a busy one for LDDI. For starters, an LDDI course is being offered for the first time during Virginia Tech’s summer session. I am also excited to announce that we are actively exploring opportunities and venues for an in-person summer general meeting. Last year’s virtual summer meeting broke a 14-year consecutive streak of convening in person, and we’re optimistic that this summer will provide an opportunity to restart that trend. Expect to see a save-the-date in the near future, with a formal invitation to follow. I hope you’ll add this edition of our newsletter to your early summer reading list, and as always I welcome your feedback on any facet of the LDDI program. Best wishes for a safe and fun summer! Kevin D. Young, PE, M. ASCE, VT LDDI Coordinator
LDDI Makes Its Summer Debut This year, Virginia Tech CEE students have their first opportunity to take an LDDI course outside of the fall or spring semesters, with CEE 3274 – Introduction to Land Development Design being offered during Virginia Tech’s first summer session (May 24 – July 2). This inaugural summer offering of the course features an enrollment of 16 students, approximately one-quarter of the enrollment in a traditional fall or spring semester. Taught by LDDI Coordinator Kevin Young, the course is being delivered in an online modality as the university continues to refine its plans for an anticipated return to inperson instruction this fall. From its modest debut as a one-credit seminar in 2008, CEE 3274 rapidly evolved into an incredibly popular three-credit class that has been completed by more than 2,000 students and that has featured as many as 120 students in a single section of the course. While not every CEE student who completes CEE 3274 will pursue a career in land development, the course serves as a pre-requisite for Land Development Design (CEE 4274) and Advanced Land Development Design (CEE 4284), making it a critical rite of passage in the LDDI curriculum. Of the summer offering of CEE 3274, LDDI Executive Board Chair Jeff Gilliland (J2 Engineers) states, “Expanding into the summer session provides students with more options for navigating the LDDI curriculum. An ambitious sophomore, or junior unable to take 3274 during the fall or spring semester, may now complete the course during the summer. Our Board supported Kevin’s efforts to work with the CEE department to schedule the course for the first summer session so that students could potentially apply their newfound knowledge during a summer internship that they may hold concurrent with or following completion of the course. I am happy to see that work out and am thrilled by the strong enrollment numbers.”