Architect : MJMA Architecture & Design
Associate Architect : a+LiNK Architecture Inc.
Total Construction Cost : $21M
Square Feet : 42,000
Project Description:
The East London Community Centre is a destination for visitors throughout the neighborhood and beyond. Its stimulating, fun and inviting environment is capable of hosting a much wider variety of programming that caters to all demographics to promote community-wide recreation, health, culture and learning.
Occupying an L-shaped footprint, the two-story center faces the interior of the park with a stately translucent facade, and a generous entrance courtyard on the park-facing side is sheltered by three sheer walls, including a curtainwall that visually connects it to the lobby inside. Inside, the center expands the park’s athletics programming with an aquatics center — comprising a six-lane, 25-meter lap pool and a leisure pool supported by universal change rooms and a large gymnasium. An additional complex of rooms, including multipurpose and activity rooms, a community kitchen and art rooms, provide a new home to East London artisans, thereby expanding the park’s programmatic offerings to include not only outdoor sports, but indoor sports, recreation and cultural programming, as well.
Though an energy-intensive facility, the center is targeted for LEED Silver certification, to be achieved by measures such as a 10-kilowatt rooftop solar PV array that links to a didactic LED dashboard display showing visitors the system’s energy-production stats.
