
Shelagh Thiessen
Shelagh Thiessen is a Resort Planner and Illustrator at Ecosign. Obtaining her Bachelor (Honours) of Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph and Diploma (Honours) in Landscape Architectural Technology from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Shelagh began working in the resort planning industry in 2002; she joined Ecosign's Europe office in Austria in 2011-2012 as a contractor, and Ecosign’s Whistler office in 2016. With a focus on base area, village design, real estate, and recreational activities, Shelagh applies her professional creativity through hand drawn, rendered concepts and presentation illustrations. To date, she is most proud of lending her expertise to two legacy projects in her home community of Whistler: she was on the design team and contributed to layout concepts for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games Whistler Athletes Village and post-games Legacy Neighbourhood; and she was a key contributor for the detailed concepts, layout and preliminary site grading of the Rainbow Estates neighbourhood in Whistler. Notable projects outside of Whistler that Shelagh is proud to have worked on include Snowbasin Village Master Plan in Utah, where she developed multiple design concepts integrating client input and creative solutions to grading challenges; Panorama Mountain Resort in British Columbia, where she worked on the village design and presentation concepts for her childhood-home mountain; and Changchun Lianhua Mountain Ski Resort, China, where she designed a detailed village and overall resort illustrative drawings as part of the master plan package, blending her hand sketching and computer graphic skills.
Outside of the workplace, Shelagh extensively contributes to Whistler’s community fabric through her volunteerism: she has been on the Board of Directors for Arts Whistler for six years and is currently serving as Board Chair; she has been the Team Manager for the Whistler Mountain Edges Competitive Adult Skating Team since 2021 and a Program Volunteer for Whistler Skating Club’s events (including children’s learn to skate programs) since 2018; and she has facilitated and managed numerous community drawing groups since 2011 including Whistler Figure Drawing Group, Sketchy Whistler Group, and Dr. Sketchy Whistler. Shelagh’s favourite mountains to recreate on are Whistler and Blackcomb (but also gives an honourable mention to Sun Peaks!), all of which she engages with through skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, snowshoeing, golfing, hiking, stand-up paddle-boarding, biking, wake-surfing, and Whistler’s outdoor concert series.
Prior to living in Whistler, Shelagh called Invermere, British Columbia, Edmonton, Alberta and Guelph, Ontario home. When reflecting on what she wants people to know about her, Shelagh is proud to share her industry longevity and community volunteerism, as well as her recreational pastime of being part owner of an RV Campground in Green Lake, South Cariboo, British Columbia.