Whistler Wayfinding project was initiated in 2014 and is aiming to develop a comprehensive wayfinding strategy for RMOW. As a Whistler based planning consultant, BHA got involved in the project through a partnership with Merje, a design firm from Pennsylvania. The project is now being implemented and BHA is happy to see the first signs installed through out the municipality.
For more details:
Whistler Wayfinding Implementation. Photo: Merje 2016.
Skip to 17:00 to see CBC’s coverage of the Hemlock Resort Master Plan approval.
The following report was featured on Global BC in response to the approval of the $1.5 billion expansion for Hemlock Resort, planned by BHA. South-western BC has, once again, become a hotbed for tourism development best characterized by the instant success of another BHA project the Sea to Sky Gondola. Congratulations Hemlock Resort!
The folks at CTV Edmonton stopped in to see Ken Saunders of the Edmonton Ski Club to discuss the new BHA Master Plan for the community ski hill and future all season adventure park. Watch the video here.
The following article was featured in the Pique Newsmagzine on April 2nd, 2015 and was written by Braden Dupuis and can be found here.
Adventure tourism operators in Whistler are welcoming just-announced changes to the Provincial Land Act.
The provincial government is increasing the maximum lengths on leases and licenses available to adventure tourism operators.
“The results to this point are headed in a very good direction, but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Brent Harley, associate member director on the Canada West Ski Areas Association board of directors, and principal in Brent Harley and Associates, a mountain resort design and planning company.
“The most recent policy improvements are a first step, and the stakeholder groups have acknowledged that it’s not complete, as has the government, and we’re meeting every other week still to wrestle these other issues to the ground.”
The maximum length of the leases will be increased to 45 years for leases and 60 years for licenses of occupation.
The current maximum length for both under the Provincial Land Act is 30 years.
“Extending the terms of long-term leases gives adventure tourism and nature-based tourism operators the certainty they need for their businesses,” Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson said in a press release.
The changes are a result of extensive consultation with adventure tourism stakeholders and are part of an ongoing process to transform the policy, said Harley. Some of the other concerns that have been addressed — or soon will be — involve overlapping tenures and lack of enforcement.
One piece of the Land Act that’s still being discussed is what’s often referred to as the “90-day clause,” in which the government can withdraw an operator’s lease with 90 days notice, explained Harley.
“This has been a constant point of concern with all of the stakeholders, as you can well imagine,” he said.
“That conversation has progressed, and it’s one of the pieces that still needs to be wrestled to the ground.”
But the increased lease terms present a great opportunity for adventure tourism operators, said Craig Beattie, general manager of Canadian Wilderness Adventures and vice president of the British Columbia Commercial Snowmobile Operators Association (BCCSOA).
“It’s going to give us long-term certainty,” Beattie said.
“It gives us the opportunity to look at rezoning certain parcels of land so we can diversify our business. Once this all gets played out I think that there are great opportunities.”
Beattie — along with BCCSOA president Paul Button — was part of the stakeholder consultation that led to the changes.
“The stakeholders have been asking for this for awhile,” Button said.
“They’re trying to get some more bankability within the tenures of leases, so there could be more development into areas, particularly intensive use.”
The amount of work that’s being put into amending land use policy for adventure tourism operators is something of a vote of confidence, Harley said.
“Tenure security is one of the cornerstone pieces that everyone’s been pushing for to acknowledge that there’s some value in these operations and that they’re worthy of being protected,” he said.
“It goes back to the government saying, ‘Is this an important industry and operation and part of the ski industry? Is it worth focusing on and making sure that it’s protected and enabled to be as successful as it can be?'”
“Think in terms of 16,000 guests a day…going up and coming down“
The following article by Brent Harley has been copied from the CLSA’s publication Landscapes. A link to the original article can be found here.
Hemlock is a small gem of a ski area in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. On a big day, Hemlock may host 1,150 skiers: the existing resort has 4 ski lifts servicing 35 trails on 145 hectares. It is renowned for its deep snow, great ski terrain and amazing vistas. The Sts’ailes First Nation has long considered the area magical, and the locals are well aware of its incredible potential for expansion.
In 2008, our firm, Brent Harley and Associates Inc. (BHA) was retained to create a Master Plan for Hemlock. We are a Whistler-based firm that focuses on the design of mountain resorts throughout the world. Our client, The Berezan Group, instructed us to fully explore the potential of expanding this fledging ski area into a major, all-season world-class destination resort. The Sts’ailes First Nation has long considered the area magical.
TAKING THE MEASURE OF THE MOUNTAIN
We acquired digital mapping of the surrounding Crown lands and initiated the project by completing an in-depth, GIS-based analysis. By layering the site’s characteristics (slope, elevation, aspect, fall-line, shape) with the environmental attributes (climate, vegetation, water, wildlife habitat, corridors), it quickly became clear to us that Hemlock’s potential was significant. The area has a wide variety of skiable and recreational terrain with a reliable snowpack, yearround backcountry opportunities, striking vistas and a beautiful mountainous setting dropping down 1430 metres to Harrison Lake.
Our analysis continued with an inventory of the logging, mining and backcountry tenures. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we considered the historic and current land use interests of the Sts’ailes Band, encouraging the Berezan Group and the Band to initiate a “chief-to-chief” dialogue.
We created a wide variety of concepts, all envisioning a “unique cutting edge, four season mountain resort” with a sweeping appeal. The concepts were vetted through an iterative process that culminated in the Hemlock Master Plan. The mountain plan proposes a vast array of facilities for Hemlock, yet all are designed and located in harmony with the natural attributes of the terrain so as to minimize the resort’s footprint on the land. Hemlock would transform into an easily accessible refuge from the City.
GOING UP AND COMING DOWN
The Master Planning process focused first on Hemlock’s primary attraction, the ski terrain. New skiing and snowboarding opportunities, staged from a series of villages, would promise diverse ski opportunities for all levels of skiers. We designed ski trails that optimize the skiing experience, taking into account slope gradients, orientation, reliable snowpack, skier skill classes (beginner, intermediate, expert), linkages and travel times. We considered connections to the base area villages and residential areas, to enhance the ski-to/ski-from opportunities. Day skiers and destination guests could choose to spend each day in a single area of the mountain or range further afield, exploring, travelling over snow from one end of Hemlock to the other.
From that starting point, we sited appropriately-sized ski lifts to complement trail location and design, balancing downhill capacities of the trails with uphill capacities of the lifts. This enabled us to calculate the Comfortable Carrying Capacity (CCC) of the resort in terms of total number of the skiers and snowboarders per day. At buildout, Hemlock will have 23 ski lifts servicing 283 formal trails, plus glades, for a total of 1,255 hectares of developed ski terrain. The alpine skiing facilities will have a CCC of 13,500 skiers/boarders per day.
GOING NORDIC – AND BEYOND
Like every world class winter resort, however, Hemlock needed to look beyond the Alpine equation to add Nordic skiing, backcountry touring, snow play, ice skating, snowshoeing, tubing, snowmobiling, winter ziplining and an extensive multi-use network of trails. Summer facilities, too, were incorporated to cater to the expectations of guests, secondhome owners and residents: a network of trails (a paved “valley trail” system, gravel surfaced trails, single track trails), liftserviced facilities and activities (mountain biking, sightseeing, ziplines, an aerial adventure park, hiking, interpretive tours, horseback riding), waterfront facilities on Harrison Lake (beaches, boating, a marina, swimming, fishing) and two eighteen-hole golf courses.
With these additional outdoor attractions, plus indoor facilities and passive visitors, Hemlock could welcome another 3,200 guests per day. The Balanced Resort Capacity (BRC) increased to a potential 16,700 guests per day.
MEANWHILE BACK AT THE LODGE
Analyzing how the terrain could provide for the staging requirements of some 16,000 guests was the next challenge. We considered such specifics as resort core development, creating a sense of arrival, tallying visitor walking distance, considering changes in grade, viewsheds, solar access, size and scale of resort facilities, 3D massing, architectural programming, skier/pedestrian/ vehicular relationships, operations, back-ofhouse facilities, overnight accommodation, residential development and environmental sensitivities.
The types of built space included guest services of all kinds: restaurants, day lodges, vehicle access, parking, rental and repair shops, ski school, patrol and first aid, day care, lockers, resort administration and employee facilities. By buildout, Hemlock will have increased built space more than 17-fold, from the existing 1505 square metres to 25,966 square metres.
To tally the overnight accommodation required, we analyzed not only capacity, but the number of day-use visitors versus destination guests and the critically important need for employee and resident housing. We determined that at buildout, the resort should have some 20,000 beds: 40 per cent public (hotels, condotels, pensions, nightly rentals), 45 per cent private (single family chalets, condos, townhouses) and 15 per cent resident housing.
THE MOUNTAIN SCENARIO
Hemlock in the future will include five distinct villages, each with special attributes, and a series of resort residential subdivisions, all designed to service the adjacent mountain facilities, all linked by trails and lifts. Economic conditions will determine the pace of implementation, but development is divided into five sequential phases, with each phase creating a finished, well-balanced resort in its own right. Hemlock has a Joint Venture Agreement in place with the Sts’ailes Band, and has approval from the BC Environmental Assessment Office. (A Master Development Agreement with the Province is under negotiation.) The developer has begun to implement the first phase, and BHA will continue to refine the design, to establish Hemlock as a unique, major destination mountain resort.
“My reviewing professor liked the design but cautioned that he was unsure if it was really landscape architecture.” – Brent Harley
The following article by Brent Harley was featured as the Last Word in the CSLA publication Landscapes – Vol. 16, No. 1 which can be read here.
Mountain Resort Planning has always been the focus of my career as a landscape architect. I have worked all over the world on incredibly interesting all-season ski resort projects, from major destination resorts designed to host the Olympics to small ski areas that are key elements of local community recreation programs.
My career really began back in 1975 when I presented my design for the development of a ski area as one of my final projects for my BLA at the University of Guelph. My reviewing professor liked the design but cautioned that he was unsure if it was really landscape architecture.
In 1977, after a winter of ski bumming in Jasper, Alberta, I was hired by a landscape architectural firm to help with the master plan of the Capital City Park System along the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton. As luck would have it, in the second week of my employ, my boss came in and said, “We have to include a ski area in the Park. Who here knows anything about ski area design?”
I immediately let him know that I knew everything about ski area design. The project was mine. Over the course of the next year I began to realize how little I actually knew. Learning on the job, I finished the design and then spent the summer supervising construction of the facility. This experience landed me a job in Whistler, BC to help with the initial designs for Blackcomb. This in turn led to other ski area projects.
The Silence Was Deafening
Believing that my career in ski resort design would benefit by my becoming a registered landscape architect, I diligently wrote and passed all of the BCSLA exams. (This was pre-CLARB.) The final test was an interview with the BCSLA’s Board of Directors. During my presentation of the ski resort master plans that I had completed, one of the Board members stated that, while interesting, he wondered whether this was really landscape architecture and asked to see examples of planting plans that I had completed. When I informed him that I didn’t have planting plans to present, the silence was deafening. My application to join the BCSLA was denied. Disagreeing with this small-minded attitude had a big impact on my career. I believed (and still believe) that the development of large scale “design on the land” falls well within the definition of landscape architecture as coined by Olmsted and others. I persevered and was invited to join the BCSLA and the CSLA the next year (following the presentation of a planting plan for my backyard). Since that time, I have proudly called myself a landscape architect while remaining focused on mountain resort design and planning. My firm has completed projects throughout Canada and the United States; Japan, Korea and China; Australia and New Zealand; Bulgaria and Armenia. Over the years, we have expanded our offerings to include all-season facilities, resort-oriented village design and mountain residential development…all very much within the realm of landscape architecture. As a landscape architect, I believe that I bring more to the table than the planners, architects and/or engineers that so often undertake the specialized work of ski resort design. In projects such as this, landscape architects combine their diverse range of abilities to explore the attributes of the land, align the opportunities and challenges with the desired intent, craft creative detailed solutions and graphically communicate the process and end result. As a profession, we have the skill set to offer a holistic design approach. This should be promoted and celebrated more often
The following article by Seth Truscott has been copied from the Snoqualmie Valley Record. A link to the original article can be found here.
BHA visited Snoqualmie in August 2014 to present the Draft Master Plan work to the community, the following was written about the meeting.
A riverside boardwalk in downtown Snoqualmie has been a dream for nearly a decade.
That dream took a step closer to reality Monday, August 24th, when Snoqualmie City Council set aside more than half a million dollars as match funding for a potential grant. The council voted unanimously to reserve $713,000 in order to seek a Washington State Department of Ecology Floodplain by Design grant for the city’s Snoqualmie Riverfront Project.
That project calls for new river trails on both sides of the Snoqualmie River in downtown Snoqualmie River in downtown Snoqualmie, centred on a riverside boardwalk between King Street and River Street. The city would have to buy nine properties to build the system.
The city already has two parks, Sandy Cove and Riverfront, accessing the river. But trees and fences block the view at Riverfront, and Sandy Cove’s shore is set back from downtown.
“There really are no developed riverfront views,” said Hollenbeck. “Riverfront Park is very ironically named.”
The downtown river walk was first mooted in 2008 by urban planning consultant Tom Beckwith, who was hired to draw up a downtown master plan.
“We’ve been talking about this walk fro years” said councilwoman Kathi Prewitt. “It’s nice to see it start to come together.”
Last Monday, Finance Officer Rob Orton laid out how the city will pay for it. The city has about $118,000 in cash, interest from the city’s fallow pedestrian bridge fund. Snoqualmie would also use $140,000 slated for a gateway arch project, and $45,000 previously set aside to pave the vacant King Street lot. For the rest, the city will dedicate future real estate excise taxes from the sale of property. The city gets half of 1 percent of the sale of all eligible property in city limits, with most sales happening on Snoqualmie Ridge. Orton predicts about $360,000 in excise revenue between now and 2015.
“We’ve had a big increase in the velocity of sales on the Ridge, and sale price,” he told the council.
Carolyn Simpson, chair of the city’s Economic Development Commission, says the river walk will change the city in good ways. “I have not seen anything more visionary, more forward-looking, more out-of-the-box thinking in all of the years I have sat through meetings here,” she said.
The past year, Simpson said, her family visited Winthorp, Wash., Bend and Grant’s Pass, Ore., and Napa, Calif.
“Each of those have something similar in their river areas,” she said, “and people were out there, a variety of ages, a variety of activities, participating in businesses, sitting in restaurants, right on the river.”
The commission unanimously supports the concept, she said, adding that it could revitalize businesses throughout the city.
“It will attract more employers who want their employees to appreciate, live, work and play in our community,” said Simpson. “We believe it celebrates the natural history and beauty of our community.”
Wendy Thomas, owner of Carmichael’s True Value Hardware, added her support. She told the council she had been waiting for downtown Snoqualmie to become a destination for tourism.
“This particular project makes me more encouraged and optimistic than I’ve been in some time,” she said. “Sometimes you have to take a risk. And I think in this case, it’s a good one.”
Councilman Charles Peterson was the voice of caution, asking about parking and maintenance costs.
“To make this viable, you have to have a place to park,” he said. “There’s certainly going to be maintenance costs on this trail,” Peterson added. “If we build something and people are going to use it, we better make sure we have a safe product.”
City Administrator Bob Larson replied that the current downtown infrastructure project adds spaces.
“With or without the King Street lot, there is going to be a net gain in parking stalls downtown at the conclusion of Phase 2A.”
Maintenance estimates are part of the scope of design work that is coming, said Hollenbeck.
“We can quickly draw that together,” said Larson. “Knowing we’ve already got 27 miles of rough trail, and miles and miles of side walk, we can get a good estimate. It’s not going to be overwhelming.”
The Ecology grant is for projects that reduce flood hazards and help floodplain ecosystems, while improving open space and recreation. The total project cost – property acquisitions, restoration work, and design and construction of the riverwalk trail, including the downtown boardwalk segment – is $5.1 million.
The Floodplains by Design grant asks for $3.6 million. Of the remaining non-state matching funds, $750,000 would come from the King County Flood Control District, $38,000 from other grants.
If awarded, the project would begin in 2015.
Check out this video by Powder TV which looks at the tremendous value of the Abenaki Ski Area to the local community. We would love to see more community supported ski hills like this pop up all over North America!
© 2019 BHA
© 2019 BHA
© 2019 BHA
© 2019 BHA
© 2019 BHA
© 2019 BHA
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