Bernie Morelli Recreation Centre
Hamilton, Ontario
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Aquatic Centre, Renovation to Heritage Jimmy Thompson Pool, Gymnasium, Indoor Track, Fitness, Wellness Centre, Multipurpose Room, Youth Room, Meeting Room, Cafe, Kitchen, Four-Season Outdoor Feature: Skating Loop, Splash Pad, Reflecting Pool
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Heritage: Stevens Burgess Architects
Structural: Blackwell
Mechanical / Electrical: Smith + Andersen
Civil: S. Llewellyn & Associates
Landscape: MJMA -
2020 Athletic Business: Facility of Merit Design Award
2019 Hamilton Urban Design: Award of Excellence (Public Buildings)
2019 Hamilton Urban Design: Award of Merit (Open Spaces & Public Spaces)
This project provided much needed greenspace and a vibrant new recreational and social hub for the community of east Hamilton. MJMA master-planned the site so that the Bernie Morelli Recreation Centre and its park work with existing structures and a new school, to form a vital new urban focus. The highly contextual design of the facility and park are sensitively related to their surroundings and to local geography, reflecting the strong civic pride so characteristic of Hamiltonians.
Filled with enlivening natural light, the complex serves all residents with recreational, cultural, and social amenities, including aquatic, fitness, and community gathering spaces, while the new landscape contributes pedestrian, cycling, and transit connections to the area.
MJMA master-planned the precinct: a new school, park, and recreation centre, the latter adjoined to the heritage Jimmy Thompson pool with a new accessible entry. The buildings frame three sides of the park — a generous public space that opens towards the north to form a grand civic ‘courtyard’ with the contiguous Tim Horton’s Field and its plaza, a stadium landmark identified with Hamiltonian athletics for almost a century.
The magnetic centre of the park is the Serafini Family Ice & Splash Pad, a feature that offers year-round animation and a focus for contemplation, functioning as a summer splash pad, a winter skating loop, and a reflecting pond in the spring and fall.
The building’s massing and materiality respect the adjoining heritage structure and adjacent residential neighbourhood. A new entrance plaza leads to the lobby and is overlooked by the large, second-level multi-purpose room.
The lobby opens fluidly into generously proportioned circulation routes, offering clear access to all program spaces.
Amenities include leisure and hydrotherapy pools, a gymnasium with a mezzanine-level track, and various fitness and community rooms. The old pool building adjoins the new facility and is upgraded with fully accessible circulation.
The materiality of the building, like that of the park, references the deciduous forests of Southern Ontario and the exposed limestone face of the Niagara Escarpment, Hamilton's iconic topographical feature.
