Update: Our Urban Planning Student(s)

It has been about a year since we posted anything in our blog series on our urban planning student Alex Bergeron.

You may recall that Alex has been engaged in his Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) program at the University of Colorado Denver since August 2013. This blog will give an update on where Alex is in his program and also introduce two other team members that are pursuing the same degree!

Alex:

A while back, Alex was not having a happy time in his academic program. He found it to be very challenging to handle the demands of regular employment here at CAP Management and of his academic workload at the same time. He was not alone! Many people complete graduate school while holding professional positions. Taking advice from people in similar places, Alex decided that he needed to extend the amount of time he would spend in school in order to have less of a workload and more free time for well-being. Clearly, this was the right choice for Alex as he is doing very well for himself at work and in school. Just recently he won the Top Partner award from Denver Water for CAP Management for his retrofitting work at the large Shadow Wood Condominium Association. Academically, Alex has been excelling. Just today he found out that for his Capstone project, which allows him to graduate after being successfully completed, he will be working with the federal Bureau of Land Management to plan Browns Canyon National Monument. The national treasure located in Chaffee County was declared a monument in February (see our blog on the topic). Alex is so passionate about public lands so this is perfect. Balance struck! We wish him luck in his final semester.

Jake:

In addition to having Alex, over the past year or so we have taken on two other employees from the CU Department of Planning. Jacob Schmitz, who is completing his undergraduate program in planning and will begin the master’s program in the fall, is being put to work in mapping (lots of great software knowledge that school provides!) and covenant enforcement. If you see Jake walking your property with his iPad taking note of the rule breakers, be sure to give him a friendly hello.

Liia:

Liia Koiv-Haus is our other in-training planning professional. Her expertise are predominantly in landscape architecture. She, very impressively, is working towards a dual master’s degree in urban planning and landscape architecture. She has put her skills to great use here at CAP Management. This week, she presented three hand-crafted landscaping concepts to the President of the Board of the 888 Condominium Association. That HOA has requested a fresh start for their landscaping and Liia answered the call with professionalism and skill. We’re happy to have her on!

Our office is located just a few blocks from the CU Denver College of Architecture and Planning. We are happy to provide employment and internship opportunities to this talented pool of emerging professionals. After all, HOAs are a fundamental part of Colorado’s urban environments!