Urban communities—in both cities and suburbs—are rapidly transforming. Demographic and economic shifts, a pandemic, increased funding, and digital adoption are changing how we live but also creating an opportunity to make our communities more livable than ever before. We can plan a better future by bringing together discipline experts—planning, urban design, mobility, architecture, development, and resilience—to solve complex urban challenges. How can we make our urban places future ready?
Making urban places work for people
Sustainable & resilient
Healthy & Green
Equitable & diverse
Connected & Smart
Walkable & Multimodal
Solutions that focus on net zero—energy, waste, water, and carbon—and regenerative design can impact how we manage natural resources and support a healthy planet. Through resilient design, communities can prepare for potential threats—whether sea level rise, extreme heat, or a global pandemic.
Sustainable and resilient places
Grid modernization
From energy storage to transportation electrification, the way we power our communities is changing. Learn how microgrids provide reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy solutions.
Modernizing Assets
As suburbs compete for investment and growth, they can transform outmoded malls and office parks into walkable centers. Learn how suburbs can enhance economic competitiveness, fiscal sustainability, equity, and resilience.
Community resilience
Anticipating shocks and stresses of the future—whether drought, flood, power failure or pandemic—needs to be part of any community plan. Learn about Stantec’s community resilience concept, the Lily Pad Network.
Blue/green infrastructure
By utilizing a “Living with Water” approach, communities can more effectively manage and retain stormwater so drainage systems don’t get overwhelmed. Learn about our Blue and Green Corridors project.
Sustainable design and new strategies will help retrofit our built environment, and ultimately lead us to zero. Read about evolv1, the first commercial building in Canada to achieve dual NetZero Carbon certification.
Net-zero energy & net-zero carbon
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Net-zero energy and net-zero carbon
Creating places for everyone and celebrating our differences is fundamental to successful design outcomes. Neighborhoods and districts that are designed with generational, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity are ultimately the most successful.
Equitable and diverse places
Community engagement
From in-person events to virtual engagement, beginning any planning process needs to start with the community. Learn more about how we’re creating equitable outcomes through public participation.
Mixed-use development
Successful developments connect people and places—physically and socially—by creating memorable, enduring experiences. Learn more about our work at MacGregor Square in Denver.
Equitable development
Through a thoughtful, meaningful, and inclusive planning process, we can create communities that are truly designed for all residents. Read about lessons learned during the pandemic in creating social equity and wellness.
Innovative urban housing
Mixed-income, micro-units, multi-generational— cities need inclusive housing options across income groups. Read more about equitable housing design.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it abundantly clear that we have the responsibility to offer design solutions that allow future generations to live their best lives, in safe and socially oriented communities. Ideas from academia and community organizations can be paired with planning and design practices to achieve healthier and happier places.
Healthy and green places
Happy places
What makes a community happy? Studies have provided ample evidence that safe, pedestrian-oriented, walkable streets are key. Learn more about designing happy places.
Wellness
How our communities are planned, designed, and built can have a major influence on our health. Learn more about the role design can play in promoting well-being.
Electric vehicles (EV)
Cities are moving quickly to reduce their carbon footprint—from zero emission buses to microgrids to EV infrastructure. Read more about integrating EV solutions.
Open space/urban parks
Interconnected quality open space and public realm are critical and essential to creating vibrant, livable communities. Read more about creating places for people.
From creating truly multimodal networks to planning for autonomous vehicles, it’s important to make major investments that realize value for the community. We need to start planning the infrastructure to support these changes to create a more adaptable and accessible future.
Walkable and multimodal places
With ever-changing mobility options, we need to rethink what a curb is for—not just a place to park a car. Learn more about dynamic curbs.
Curbside management
Micromobility
Dockless bikes, e-scooters, and personal mobility devices are convenient modes of transportation and can change our entire transportation system. Learn more about micromobility.
Transit-oriented Development (TOD)
TOD is more than identifying development needs to support transit investment, it’s an opportunity to envision your community in a new way. Learn more about the many facets of TOD.
Complete streets
A street isn’t complete until it integrates transit, vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian modes. Learn more about improving mobility and turning streets into places for people.
It’s more than embracing technology; it is ensuring we are making the right decisions and investments not only for today, but to create more inclusive outcomes for the future. Using better information to design our cities will make our communities more vibrant, healthy, and resilient.
Connected and smart places
Driven by data
Gathering the right data and creating visualizations to interpret it enables true data-driven planning decisions. Learn how we’re helping clients make the most informed decisions.
People-first design
The smartest cities put people first. Find out more about how using technology can create more livable, walkable, connected communities.
Technology-enabled
The digital twin is a powerful game-changer in sustainable design. Learn how digital twins can make our buildings and cities smarter.
Accelerating autonomy
Each community needs its own roadmap to deploying automated vehicles (AVs), designed to solve transportation challenges, while making it safer and more accessible. Read more in our AV deployment playbook.
