Stantec consultant Carla Guerrera was recognized as one of the world’s “Top 40 Under 40″ urban planners by the Urban Land Institute at its fall meeting in New York City earlier this week.

“I feel truly humbled to have been recognized among such an inspiring group of global land use professionals,” she told the Vancouver Sun.

Guerrera’s specialty is returning derelict or contaminated industrial and commercial sites back into what she calls “celebrated destinations.”

As a project leader for the West Don Lands redevelopment, Guerrera oversaw the transformation of 80-acres of former industrial land into a waterfront community containing 900 units of market housing, 240 units of affordable housing and 23 acres of parks.

“These vacant, derelict sites are often community liabilities and no one wants to be there,” she said. “The challenge is turning them into beautiful assets like the Toronto waterfront we did, or the site we worked on in North Vancouver, which revitalized the Lonsdale corridor.”

In North Vancouver, Guerrera was involved in the urban design of the headquarters of Blue Shore Financial—15 storeys of residential apartments on what was formerly the site of a vacant gas station. Now she is leading a team on plans to further develop the Thompson Rivers University campus in Kamloops.

“We want to change the campus from a commuter campus to a more walkable destination campus and to give students a better experience overall,” she said. What’s really exciting is we are helping Thompson Rivers use their land to generate revenue from market development, which can then get reinvested back into academic development.”