2018: Year of Innovation

07 Jan 2018: Year of Innovation

For BKL, 2018 was a year of innovation.

Why? For starters, the firm received the Innovation Award from the North Vancouver Chamber as part of the 2018 Business Excellence Awards. The honour recognizes BKL’s use of unique technology and services, and the creative, problem-solving spirit its team brings to every project.

Paul Marks accepts the 2018 Innovation Award. The Award itself is made of laminated crystal that limits the ingress of celebration noise.

Check out this video, made by the chamber, to learn more about BKL’s work:

Thank you, North Vancouver Chamber!

Cover Story

The year of innovation continued with a glossy spread in a magazine—Innovation magazine, the official publication of Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia. Interviewed for a feature-length story, Katrina Scherebnyj and Mark Bliss appear on the cover of the September/October 2018 issue and, inside, they discuss all things acoustical.

Along with some basics about acoustics, acoustical engineering, and the health effects connected to long-term noise exposure, the article focuses on BKL’s work on the Pacific Autism Family Autism Centre in Richmond, BC. The centre is notable for its exceptionally quiet interior spaces, even though it’s located under a busy YVR flightpath. The story describes Katrina’s thoughtful approach to designing the acoustics, and outlines some of the sound-taming solutions she recommended to help limit the effects of overhead jets.

Good acoustics? Check. Katrina Scherebnyj and Mark Bliss share the ins and outs of acoustics with readers of Innovation magazine.

Staff Innovations

In November, BKL sent a delegation to Victoria for the joint conference of the Canadian Acoustical Association and the Acoustical Society of America. During the sessions, Brigette Martin discussed noise control solutions for fitness centres, Katrina Scherebnyj presented on school acoustics, and Banda Logawa paid tribute to the late Murray Hodgson, a former UBC professor whom many acousticians, including Banda and Katrina, studied under.

Despite being trapped in this highly reverberant atrium, Katrina Scherebnyj, Banda Logawa, Graeme Garvin, Trevor Cheng, and Mark Bliss (left to right) enjoy their visit to Victoria for Acoustics Week in Canada.

Over the course of the year, the firm hired five new staff members, including four acousticians—Henk de Haan, Nick Dobbs, David Stepanavicius, and Eduardo Stehling—as well as Marketing and Communications Specialist Shirin Escarcha.

Expanding its team has allowed BKL to continue to provide top-notch client-focused service and solve acoustical problems on projects big and small. The new team members arrived with diverse career backgrounds and training; this adds to the firm’s accumulative knowledge and experiences, solidifying BKL’s place as the premier acoustical consultancy in Western Canada.