Hillcrest Centre
Vancouver, B.C.
Year in Showcase: 2012
Project Description
As the largest facility of its kind in the Vancouver Park Board system, the Hillcrest Centre was part of a broader strategy that transformed a series of adjacent public parks through the sensitive consolidation and reorganization of existing facilities. The project involved the conversion of the shell space of the Vancouver Olympic Curling Venue into a variety of legacy community uses, including a community center featuring an NHL-size ice rink, a curling club with eight ice sheets, a full-size gym, a large fitness center, multipurpose rooms, an aerobics and games room, arts and crafts rooms, childcare space and a branch library.
The expressive volume of the building springs from a desire to both control and mitigate the negative aspects of building mass in a primarily single-family-housing neighborhood. The robust shell volume envelops the community uses, simultaneously containing them and opening them to the adjacent pedestrian civic spaces. Applications of wood — interior cladding, window casings and millwork — lend acoustic dampening and a warm aesthetic, as well as a connection to the surrounding landscape and history of industry in British Columbia.
The project sits at the intersection of the broader city of Vancouver and the local community. The main building concourse is a two-ended system serving both constituents: One entry faces the citywide vehicular access to the west, while the second is oriented toward a network of pedestrian paths that branch out toward the nearby neighborhood nodes. The result is a dynamic concourse that acts as a place of socialization while functioning as a transparent space.
Judges' Comments
Project Details
Architect of Record: Hughes Condon Marler Architects
Construction Cost: $87.5 million (Canadian)
Square Feet: 144,775
Occupancy: May 2011
Vendors
Basketball: Centaur Floor Systems Llc
Basketball: Robbins Sports Surfaces
Basketball Backboards/Supports: Centaur Floor Systems Llc
Dashers: Cascadia Sport Systems
Divider Curtains: Centaur Floor Systems Llc
Flooring, Aerobics: Robbins Sports Surfaces
Flooring, Fitness Center:
Mondo
Lighting: Ge
Lockers: Hovik Industries Ltd.
Lockers: Shanahan's Manufacturing
Multipurpose: Centaur Floor Systems Llc
Multipurpose: Robbins Sports Surfaces
Refrigeration Units: Cimco Refrigeration
Scoreboards/Timing Systems: Daktronics Inc.
Shower/Toilet Partitions: Bobrick Washroom Equipment Inc.
Shower/Toilet Partitions: Hovik Industries Ltd.
Volleyball: Centaur Floor Systems Llc
Volleyball: Robbins Sports Surfaces
