Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre

WINNER OF A 2024 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

There is a sense of conviction in the use of the geometry to create a simple volume and a very rational plan, while incorporating a very large and complex program. The play of berm and cutouts is successful in reducing its apparent size, and in allowing activities to relate to the exterior landscape. The resulting distinctive form achieves a harmony with the other stand-alone pavilions in the park. The use of copper introduces a material that is reflective at first, contributing to the sculptural aspect. As the copper ages, it will allow the volume to blend into the park.
–Andrea Wolff, juror

LOCATION Edmonton, Alberta

The new kid on the block—Edmonton’s Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre—aims to play nicely with notable architectural neighbours, while bringing high-performance sport and community recreation together under one roof. Part velodrome and part community athletics hub, the centre is the latest addition to a 35-hectare 1950s city park. 

Three existing buildings surround it. The smallest and most charming is Canada’s first public planetarium (1960). The other two are rock stars. The Peter Hemingway Fitness and Leisure Centre (1967) a cable-stayed icon of organic modernism, resembles a gorgeous, partially collapsed glass tent; originally called Coronation Pool, it was renamed after its architect, in 2005. Douglas Cardinal’s science centre (1984), now part of the Telus World of Science, still looks like a spectral seashell/flying saucer, although additions have made it more earthbound than it used to be.

In this illustrious and assertive company, the sleek, elliptical new Sports and Recreation Centre keeps a relatively low profile. It nestles into three large earth berms that, as the award submission states, “optically reduce the height of the building, allowing the existing projects to maintain their standing in the park.”

Behind this deferential exterior, however, there’s a lot going on. A tunnel linking the new Sports and Recreation Centre to the Peter Hemingway centre enables the two facilities to operate in tandem as an indoor triathlon centre–a unique entity, and a valuable one for a city with very cold winters. Velodromes are highly technical facilities where competitive cyclists race at speeds up to 85 kilometres per hour on steeply banked oval tracks. Integrating a velodrome into a community recreation centre makes political sense because it mitigates the potential for an expensive, highly specialized sports facility to become a taxpayer irritation. What is novel about the new Edmonton facility is that its Union Cycliste Internationale-sanctioned cycling track is positioned a full storey above the community centre’s ground-level infield courts. Below and outboard the cycling track, but also above the recreation centre’s courts, is the four-lane running track. By making the cycling track fully visible from recreational activity levels, the design aspires to generate broader community interest in a sport that has yet to acquire a wide Canadian following.

The open, central community space is divided into two levels, with a flexible ‘urban court’ for informal recreation and gathering below the upper-level basketball courts. Washrooms and change rooms are tucked under the upper-level courts. Stairs, informal riser-style seating, and best of all, two long, shiny metal slides (!) link these two levels. Other indoor amenities like multiple fitness studios, a café, and childcare space further contribute to programming for users of all ages and abilities.

Outside, the landscape design for the new facility expands the range of outdoor activities available at Coronation Park. Still respecting the mature park’s existing context, the refreshed landscape improves wayfinding on a site that became fragmented over time as successive developments eroded the clarity of the park’s original plan.

CLIENT City of Edmonton | ARCHITECT TEAM hcma— Michael Henderson (MRAIC), Darryl Condon (FRAIC), Paul Fast (MRAIC), Michael Rivest (MRAIC), Darin Harding, Derek Harris, Jennifer Sparks, Carter Gallant, Wendy Li, Jasmine Lam, Genevieve Simms, James Kokotilo, Nathan Keebler, Marcus Van Vliet, Alice Rooney, Aaron Bohnert; Dub Architects—Michael Dub (MRAIC), Bobby Harris (MRAIC), Gene Dub, Cass Milford, Stephen Smolski, Ciaran Bonar, Chris Woodroffe, Graeme Haunholter; Faulkner Browns— Michael Hall, Sherief El-Salamani, Paul Rigby, Archie Wang, David Noble, Andrew Parkin, Shirley Lui, Cristina Ubeda | STRUCTURAL Fast + Epp | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Williams Engineering | CIVIL WSP | LANDSCAPE PFS Studio | AREA 16,500 m2 | BUDGET $150 M | STATUS Under construction | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2026

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (EUI) 122.5 kWh/m2/year | THERMAL ENERGY DEMAND INTENSITY (TEDI) 28.9 kWh/m2/year | GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS INTENSITY (GHGI) 49.2 kg CO2e/m2 | WATER USE INTENSITY (WUI) 0.56 m3/m2/year

As appeared in the December 2024 issue of Canadian Architect magazine

See all the 2024 Awards of Excellence winners

You can read our jury’s full comments here.

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