Peaks and Pressures: From Resort to Resilient Mountain Towns

Mountain towns face increasing pressures from climate change—wildfire risk, volatile snowpacks, thawing permafrost, and seasonal unpredictability. Peaks and Pressures: From Resort to Resilient Mountain Towns will explore how alpine communities can evolve from recreation-based resorts into resilient, year-round places to live. Panelists Eric Callender, Vice President of Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners, and Erick Villagomez, a part-time lecturer, independent researcher and designer at UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning, will examine case studies from Revelstoke, Aspen, and Andean mountain towns, highlighting strategies in design, infrastructure, and architecture for resilience. They will also reflect on how Whistler compares—its strengths, tensions, and opportunities—in light of these global examples. For Whistler, this conversation offers timely insight into how the community can adapt, thrive, and lead in a changing mountain world.

Meet the Speakers

Eric Callender, Vice President, Ecosign

Eric Callender has been a member of the Ecosign team since 1997 and is a graduate of the Architectural and Building Engineering Technology Program from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

As a key member of the Ecosign team, Eric contributes to the mountain master planning and base area planning of Ecosign’s projects worldwide. Specific mountain planning skills include: ski trail and ski lift planning, detailed lift terminal grading, ski trail grading and terrain modifications, terrain park and halfpipe design, and snow tubing park design. Eric has personally conducted ski trail and ski lift field layouts, performed existing ski trail GPS surveys, and completed detailed site inspections for mountain resorts in numerous countries including Canada, the United States of America, Russia, Lebanon, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

In addition to his mountain resort planning and design experience, Eric is an expert in Computer Assisted Design technologies, which allows him to incorporate state-of-the-art techniques such as three-dimensional modeling and visualization throughout the design process. Eric's professional experience also encompasses custom architectural residential and commercial design, building permit and development permit applications, as well as construction management.

Eric is a C.S.I.A Level III Ski Instructor, C.S.C.F. Level II Ski Coach, is an avid backcountry skier, and a proficient snowboarder. Other personal mountain recreation interests include terrain-park riding, cross-country and downhill mountain biking, and paragliding.

Erick Villagomez, Part-Time Lecturer, School of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia

Erick Villagomez is an educator, independent researcher and designer with academic and professional interests in the human settlements at all scales. He is an adjunct professor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Chip and Shannon Wilson School of Design within the Interior Design program. For several years, he was also an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture where he taught a number of graduate and undergraduate courses focused on settlements. Erick is the founding principal of Metis Design-Build — a practice that works on diverse projects ranging from small-scale architecture to urban design consulting — and the Editor-in-Chief of Spacing Vancouver, an online publication looking at Metro Vancouver’s public realm and urban landscape. Urban cartography and illustration are also a part of Erick’s diverse practice. Constantly drawing and painting digitally, he maintains a bi-weekly urban sketching column called Visual Thoughts on Spacing Vancouver. Check out his artistic gallivants.

Host or Publisher Whistler Institute of Learning Society