Terrapex environmental scientists Samantha Beatty and Nick Settecase were pleased to see a project in which they have invested many long hours win the REFOCUS award.

Terrapex was extremely pleased to accept, on behalf of the entire project team, a much‑coveted “Brownie Award” for the 150 Harrison Street Modular Housing Initiative project at the 2021 Brownfields Awards Gala in downtown Toronto on November 23rd. The award represents Terrapex’s third “Brownie”, following previous wins in 2017 and 2020.

The Brownfields Awards (brownieawards.ca) are an annual presentation by Actual Media and the Canadian Brownfields Network (CBN) to recognize and promote brownfield redevelopment projects across Canada in seven different categories. The 150 Harrison Street Modular Housing Initiative project was the winner in the brand-new REFOCUS category established to recognize projects that:

• Demonstrate alignment with broader social initiatives and mandates;
• Demonstrate significant improvements towards GHG reduction, climate resiliency, affordable housing, healthy communities, and/or diversity and inclusion;
  or;
• Use alternative lenses to see remediation and redevelopment from different perspectives other than economic and environmental ones.

The 150 Harrison Street project was part of the City of Toronto’s commitment to construct 1,000 new homes for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, with a plan to employ modular construction techniques to rapidly construct 44 studio units (11 of which were built to accessibility standards) at the 150 Harrison Street site. Terrapex provided geotechnical, hydrogeological, and environmental consulting services (including two Risk Assessments completed under Ontario Regulation 153/04) for this project, all under an extremely tight timeline – the project was approved by Toronto City Council on April 30, 2020 and the modular housing facilities at 150 Harrison Street officially opened less than nine months later!

Terrapex is extremely grateful to the City of Toronto and its real estate agency CreateTO for the opportunity to be involved in a unique and very challenging brownfield project, and one that also contributes to addressing a pressing social ill in the wider community. Congratulations to all of our staff who made Terrapex’s contributions to this project a success. We’d also like to congratulate the rest of the 150 Harrison Street Modular Housing Initiative project team: Montgomery Sisan Architects, Baker Turner Landscape Architects, Design Works Engineering, Nextrans Consulting Engineers, NRB / Horizon North, and Husky General Contracting.

Paddle the Don: Mike leveraged his love of the water during Terrapex’s 7 year reign from 2008-2014 as Corporate Champion of this fundraising event for restoration of the Don River.

To all our current and past clients, suppliers, sub-consultants, business partners, former staff, and many friends and colleagues:

Terrapex has reached a significant milestone in its evolution. It is with mixed feelings that we announce that our founder, Mike Osborne, has taken the first steps toward retirement. Mike started Terrapex in 1995 and for the past 27 years has put his heart and soul into the company, instilling his values of integrity, quality, and client service into our culture.

Over the past few years Mike has been actively working with our senior leadership to ensure a smooth succession, starting in 2019 with the appointments of Jennifer O’Grady as President and Peter Sutton who joined Vic Nersesian as Vice-President.

Following an ownership transition to several long-term senior staff earlier this year, Mike has now also stepped down from his role of CEO. He will, however, continue his high level involvement in the delivery of consulting services to our clients related to soil and groundwater contamination issues and provide internal advice and guidance to Terrapex’s management with respect to development and implementation of long-term strategies.

Terrapex’s executive and senior management team are very well prepared and excited to lead the Company into its next chapter of growth and development. In Mike’s words to our staff,

“One thing I’ve done really well is to surround myself with exceptional people. Along with their wealth of experience, Terrapex’s management team brings a broad diversity of personality, perspective, and expertise to the table. Every day they have made my job immeasurably easier.

Terrapex has afforded me with incredible life experience that I can’t begin to articulate. I’ve had the privilege of meeting and working with so many of the very best in our industry. I’ve never stopped learning – about environmental consulting, about business management, and most of all about people.”

All of us at Terrapex are happy that Mike will have more time to enjoy life outside of work, and that Terrapex will continue to move forward with his support and guidance.

Terrapex is pleased to welcome Zen Keizars. Zen is a Senior Hydrogeologist with over 20 years of experience leading multi disciplinary projects throughout the United States, South Africa, Bermuda, Namibia, and Canada. His extensive ground-level experience and broad theoretical skill-set are ideal for providing fast and adaptive technical support at any level.

Zen is a Past President of Professional Geoscientists Ontario (PGO; previously APGO) and continues to contribute to the PGO as the Communications Committee Chair. In recognition of his reputation for leadership and professionalism, Zen is an invited advisor to technical committees with several municipalities, a Fellow of Geoscience Canada, and a sessional instructor at Trent University, providing instruction in Geophysics (3rd year) and Structural Geology (3rd year).

As a Senior Hydrogeologist at Terrapex, Zen’s areas of focus include the management of dewatering hydrogeology investigations, groundwater under direct influence (GUDI) investigations, radiological investigations, and feature based water balance (FBWB) assessments.

Please feel free to contact us with any inquiries on how we can assist and/or support you in your hydrogeology needs.

Terrapex is pleased to welcome Chris Parent as Senior Biologist and Project Manager. Chris has more than 20 years of experience in the public and private sectors related to wildlife biology and species at risk. During his career, he has managed, undertaken or contributed to more than 100 projects, including subwatershed studies, Class Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Studies, with a specific emphasis on wildlife species at risk, particularly herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians). He has a particular interest in the development and implementation of mitigation measures to reduce development impacts on wildlife.

Chris completed a B.Sc. in Zoology and a M.Sc. in Biology. He is a MNRF-certified Butternut Health Assessor and also serves as a part-time instructor in Niagara College’s Ecosystem Restoration Graduate Certificate Program.

As a Senior Biologist and Project Manager, Chris will be involved in the completion of life science inventories, and will manage all aspects of environmental impact assessment, including the design of technical study protocols, the collection and analysis of data, and reporting.

Please contact us with any inquiries on how we can assist and/or support you with your biological and ecological surveys and other environmental impact assessment needs.