Atlas Tube Recreation Centre and Library
Belle River, Ontario
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Phase 1: Triple-Pad Arena (1000-Seats), Concession, Indoor Track, Gymnasium, Fitness, Branch Library, Child Care, Multipurpose Rooms, Cricket Fields, Soccer Fields
Phase 2: Aquatic Centre (6-Lane 25m Lap Pool, Leisure Pool, Lazy River), Outdoor Sports Courts, Playground, Splash Pad, Multi-Use Trail
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Structural: Blackwell
Mechanical / Electrical: Smith + Andersen
Civil: EMC
Landscape: PMA -
2015 Athletic Business: Facilities of Merit Design Award
2015 Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario (ARIDO): Award of Merit
Programmed to replace aging arenas, address the need for aquatics, and consolidate public assembly uses (including a public library, gymnasium, and meeting rooms), the Atlas Tube Centre has become the collective recreational and social nucleus of the Town of Lakeshore, Ontario. Its design also had to respond to unusual constraints: because of uncertain provincial and federal funding, coupled with tendering deadlines set by the schedule, the building’s organization and structural configuration had to be able to expand and contract during the project’s development.
The spaces of the 200,000-sf complex are unified by a consistent palette of wood and serene white as well as a comprehensive wayfinding and graphics identity program. The primary arena has spectator seating for 1,000 and a concourse-level walking/running track with exterior glazing. In the natatorium, glazed sliding doors open onto outdoor terraces in the surrounding park and provide natural ventilation, one of project’s many sustainability measures.
The project master-planned the athletics and recreation building with a 52-ha park complex that includes sports fields, playgrounds, gardens, wooded trails, and naturalized areas.
The U-shaped planning of the building allows for extensive exterior glazing and expansive views between the primary interior spaces and park.
The central component of the plan houses a highly transparent main entrance, lobby, and multipurpose rooms. It links two program bars: the ‘cold’ bar to the west has a series of three arenas, with a fourth planned; the ‘warm’ bar to the east houses the branch public library, gymnasium, and Phase 2 aquatic centre.
The sawtooth roof over the arenas allows for 60,000-sf of south-facing photovoltaic arrays and north-facing clerestory windows, the latter providing generous natural, glare-free light.
The arenas are multipurpose, convertible spaces that accommodate town events, concerts, trade shows, and court-based sports; they have, for instance, hosted playoffs for the National Basketball League of Canada.
The building’s configuration also creates a rational and continuous circulation system that gives access to all major program spaces and enables their services to continue uninterrupted during any changes to the complex, as was achieved with the Phase 2 addition of the aquatics centre.
Balanced light in the natatorium provides bather comfort and safety.
Signage and wayfinding throughout the building, including a feature donor wall, are fashioned from steel tubes — a witty reference to the project’s primary private donor (Atlas Tube is a local steel fabricator who made both a financial donation and a contribution with the supply of structural steel).
