Wellesley Community Centre Pool Addition

Toronto, ON
Construction Cost: $20 Million
Area / Square Feet: 25,000 sq.ft.
Occupancy Date: June 2019

The pool addition constitutes phase 2 in a project completed by MJMA and ZAS Architects in 2005 — the Wellesley Community Centre, which occupies two-thirds of a block in downtown Toronto.

The addition expands the facility to include new aquatics amenities, building off its eastern elevation into a previously unprogrammed lawn area to mediate a connection between the city’s urban core and St. Jamestown, one of Canada’s densest and most ethnically diverse communities. A city-operated hybrid civic building, the pool now provides an active street edge along its primary Sherbourne Street elevation to the west, and establishes a new green park zone along the site’s eastern edge, facing St. Jamestown.

Clad in glass and custom-profile zinc, the addition houses a light-filled aquatics hall with a five-lane, 25-meter lap pool, a leisure and hydrotherapy pool, and a steam room. Following consultation with the community, a planned water slide was replaced with a diving platform that includes an integrated waterfall feature. The Centre’s existing two-gendered and family change room program has been expanded and updated into a pair of universally accessible change rooms separated from the staff areas and pool deck by glass partitions to maintain an open visual connection between these spaces.

QUICK FACTS

LEAD ARCHITECT: MJMA

AQUATIC DESIGN CONSULTANT: Acapulco Pools

COMPONENTS

  • Five-lane, 25-meter lap pool
  • Leisure and hydrotherapy pool
  • Steam room
  • Diving platform with waterfall feature
  • Universally accessible change rooms

SUPPLIERS

Pace Clocks, Lane Markers: Competitor Swim

Filtration Systems: Fluidra

Ladders/Grab Bars, Starting Blocks: Spectrum Aquatics

Swimsuit Extractor: SUITMATE® by Extractor Corporation