BA Consulting Group Ltd.

BA Group started operations 50 years ago in 1974. Since then, we have grown to become one of the GTA’s leading transportation planning and engineering consultancies for land development.   To celebrate this milestone BA Group hosted a 50th Anniversary Client Appreciation Party on October 29th, 2024 in our Toronto office. The event had over 200 clients and industry partners who came to celebrate 50 incredible years of partnership and problem solving with our staff. We were also thrilled to welcome back many BA Alumni who have been part of the firm’s 50-year journey.   Our success has been made possible because of our incredible staff, our valued partnerships with our clients, and the teamwork and trust we have with our industry colleagues. Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us.   Looking ahead, BA Group will continue to build on the things that have made us successful – high quality, solution-oriented transportation consulting services based on close collaboration between landowners, architects, designers, engineers, and planners.   We are looking forward to collaborating for the next 50 years!

Christie Jeong, P.Eng and Theressa C. are highly skilled Engineers within our Transportation Design practice area, and we’re excited to announce that they've successfully earned their P.Eng designation this year. Congratulations Christie and Theressa and thank you for your commitment to the profession!

We’re excited to announce the promotion of Ian Clark, MCIP, RPP, from Associate to Senior Associate! Ian has advanced through several roles: Transportation Planner, Lead Transportation Analyst, Associate, and Senior Associate. He is a Registered Professional Planner, keenly interested in advancing and applying sustainable and efficient transportation solutions to city building and design. His focus is on advancing the objectives and needs of clients while simultaneously improving transportation conditions more broadly. Ian has worked with private and public sector clients to advance various submissions through the planning process in the Greater Toronto Area. He has worked on a diverse portfolio of projects from small site access designs to transit station expansions to mixed-use master plan developments in suburban and constrained urban environments. Some of his notable ongoing projects, having supported their development through various planning phases, include the East Harbour Master Plan, Scarborough Junction Master Plan, Crosstown Master Plan, Reimagine Galleria Master Plan, Union Park redevelopment, Mirvish Village redevelopment, and Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan in Guelph. Congratulations to Ian for his promotion and achievements!

We were pleased to host this ULI Toronto event on “Shaping the Future of Employment Lands in the GTA: Celestica (Crosstown), Lakeview and Steelport (Stelco)”. Our Principal Amy Jiang served as the moderator for the evening and was joined by six panel members for a lively and informative discussion.

We're looking forward to hosting this event! Our Principal, Amy Jiang will be the moderator for the evening.

We are thrilled to announce the promotion of Margaret Briegmann, P.Eng, to Principal at BA Group.    Margaret has produced high-quality transportation plans at BA Group for over 20 years. Her work includes transportation impact and long-range planning studies, involving in-depth analysis of multi-modal facilities.   Margaret also volunteers her time collaborating with architects, artists, and urban planners on public spaces in our city, including June Callwood Park, Historic Fort York, and the Toronto Sculpture Garden. She has built a reputation of quality and respect amongst her clients and peers through her work in engineering, volunteering, and academia.   In addition to holding the Consulting Engineer designation from Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), Margaret is a Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and a Member of Lambda Alpha International (LAI), the honorary global land economics society. Her commitment to mentorship and dedication to our industry is recognized by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Toronto – she is honoured as a Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) Champion for her excellence in real estate development, land use, and city-building.  We welcome Margaret’s leadership to the Principal group as we approach our 50th anniversary celebrations.

We are celebrating! Fifty years ago, BA Group started operations in Toronto.   BA Group has a rich history. Our firm started as the Canadian branch office of the Chicago based Barton Aschman-Associates (BAA). Barton-Ashman Associates was a specialist transportation firm in the Chicago area that was founded on the idea that the fields of transportation engineering and transportation planning had become too isolated from each other. Transportation engineers and transportation planners needed to come together to create the best solutions to the complex challenges that come with urban land development. It was George Barton, a traffic engineer, and Ted Ashman, a transportation planner – that came together in 1960 to form Barton-Ashman Associates.   In the late 1960’s BAA had started to establish a growing base of work in the Greater Toronto Area. BAA had become involved with the transportation planning for several of the major regional shopping centres in the GTA. One of these projects was a transformative project in downtown Toronto that later became known as the Eaton Centre. To accommodate this BAA hired its first Canadian employee in 1969 – Edward Levy. A few years later, it had become abundantly clear that BAA needed to establish a permanent Canadian office in the Toronto area in order for the business to continue to grow. And thus, thanks to a forceful recommendation from Edward Levy and Dick Gern, BAA opened a new Canadian office on Avenue Road in February 1974. That small Canadian office of BAA, which later became a wholly independent Canadian firm in 1987, is now known as BA Consulting Group Ltd.   Since our beginnings in 1974, BA Group has grown to become one of the GTA’s leading transportation planning and engineering consultancies for land development projects. Our team now features more than 100 individuals who specialize in solving complex transportation problems. While other transportation consultants work from within large, generalist engineering firms, BA Group has, for 50 years, continued to focus purely on transportation issues in support of high-quality urban environments. And perhaps most importantly – BA Group continues to approach our work in the way George Barton and Ted Ashman envisioned: through close collaboration between landowners, architects, designers, engineers, and planners to seek the best outcomes.   To commemorate our 50th Anniversary, BA Group will be sharing several exciting announcements over the coming months. Our 50th Anniversary celebrations will culminate in a corporate celebration held this fall. Stay tuned for more news to come!

June is Pride Month! BA Group is celebrating Pride Month in June and continues to support the 2SLGBTQIA+ community values of authenticity, respect, integrity, freedom, community, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Did you know that the rainbow flag, originally designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, has undergone many revisions and variations. The iterations of the rainbow flag continue to influence and inspire through the theme of “progress”. BA Group continues to be committed to providing and celebrating a working environment that allows for equal job opportunities and an 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusive workplace. We highlight events and celebrations in the cities that we are based in: - Festival Weekend for Pride in Toronto is from Friday, June 29th to Sunday, June 30 with many pride events throughout June. - Kitchener local festivities include tri-Pride Summerfest (June 1st) and the 3rd annual Pride Ride (June 7th), which celebrate both Pride Month and Bike Month. - Capital Pride in Ottawa is celebrated from mid to late August! Links: https://lnkd.in/gXch_X2f Pride 2024 - SPECTRUM (ourspectrum.com) https://capitalpride.ca/ 

On February 21st, we celebrated the 90th birthday of one of BA Group's founding principals, Edward Levy. It was a heartwarming occasion as the entire BA Group office came together to celebrate this special milestone, enjoying cake and sharing happy moments together. The celebration was made even more memorable with the presence of distinguished guests. We were honored to host many transportation industry veterans from across the GTA who worked and collaborated with Ed during his career. Thank you to Steve Wickens, Andy Manahan, Marty Collier, Marcy Burchfield, David Crowley, Robert Millward, and Paul Bedford for joining us. Ed was also surprised by Pat Gibson who flew in from Los Angeles for the event. Pat worked closely with Ed in Chicago for Barton Aschman Associates prior to Ed moving to Toronto in 1974 to open the Canadian office which later became BA Group!   In recognition of Ed’s extraordinary legacy and invaluable contributions to BA Group, BA Group’s CEO Mark Jamieson announced that the main boardroom in BA Group’s new Toronto office at 95 St. Clair Avenue West would be proudly named the "Edward J. Levy Boardroom.”   Happy Birthday Ed!