Depleted sand, gravel, and crushed stone quarries have long offered valuable landforms ready for adaptive reuse. Some of the earliest U.S. examples date back to 1800s Massachusetts, where former sand and gravel pits became well-drained sites for government buildings, homes, and commercial development. Today, reclaimed aggregate properties across the country support golf courses, residential communities, malls, strawberry farms, office parks, solar farms, deep-water quarry cooling systems, emergency water reservoirs, and even hotels. This trend is growing internationally as well, with notable projects such as the InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland Resort and the proposed Sac-Tun Cruise Port and tourist destination in Mexico showcasing the global potential of quarry transformation.
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About Steven
Steve’s primary professional interests are Aggregates and Petrography. He has a MS in Geology from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and a BS in Geology from nearby George Washington University. Steve is Chair of AEG Atlanta, past Chair of AEG BWH, Treasurer of the AIPG Atlanta Section, past Chair of SME DC and of the Industrial Minerals and Aggregates Division of SME, the 2014 recipient of the Herbert C. Hoover Award from the Washington DC Section of SME, and active in other professional societies. He is Registered or Certified as a Geologist by AIPG and in Georgia, Maine, Virginia and other states.
