People

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Nicholas Sills
M.Sc. BFH, B.Sc. UBC
Whistler, Canada

Interests: Ski touring, hiking, motorcycle travel, swimming, fine foods, photography, wood art.


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Brad Sills
B.ESc. Trent
Whistler, Canada

Interests: Camping, nordic skiing, search and rescue, wild fire management.

Vision

Mission Statement
We intend to see the Pacific North West develop a strong culture of intelligent, last, and inspiring buildings development based on local resources. 

Whirlwind Consultants strives to ensure forward thinking building principles are incorporated into local construction culture.  
To enable clients to build beautiful functional buildings that will be an inspiration for generations to come. 

History

Whirlwind Consulting started in the late 1970's when a young man, Brad Sills, moved to Whistler BC. He had a dream to build world class homes in the newly birthed resort mountain community.  By the 2000's Whirlwind had become a revered timber frame company known amongst the best in the Sea-to-Sky corridor. Brad's eldest son, Nicholas had been working in the company learning the basics of timber framing and high end home construction. In 2006 Brad ceased operations of  Whirlwind Homes to pursue his other life passion, Callaghan Country Wilderness Adventures. Nicholas headed off to university to further his education in construction by studying a B.Sc. at the University of British Columbia in advanced wood products processing. This education paired with a minor in commerce quickly enabled Nicholas to find a job building unique timber based projects with StructureCraft Builders. Nicholas eventually decided to further his education in advanced timber construction techniques with new perspectives by taking a M.Sc. of Wood Technology in Timber Engineering with the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. It was during his time in Europe that Nicholas searched for new ways to optimize and integrate building design linked to analytical data. The concept for multi-criteria optimization of hybrid timber structures was born as a master's thesis project.  The rebirth of Whirlwind took place when Brad and Nicholas partnered on the Garibaldi Fire Hall project to upgrade the system from a steel structure to a nearly fully Cross Laminated Timber project.  Nicholas relaunched Whirlwind as a consultancy service focusing on multi-criteria optimization for preliminary building design.

Nicholas also runs WoodSkyscrapers.com, with extensive knowledge of global tall wood projects. 

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