Churchill Meadows Community Centre and Mattamy Sports Park
Mississauga, Ontario
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Aquatic Centre, Triple Gymnasium, Studios, Multipurpose Room, Community Kitchen, Outdoor Basketball Court, Tournament-Quality Sports Fields, Seasonal Dome, Playground, Splash Pad, Skate Park, Skating Rink, Outdoor Fitness, Amphitheatre Lawn, Multi-Use Trails, Transit Station
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Structural: Blackwell
Mechanical / Electrical: Smith + Andersen
Civil: EMC
Landscape: PMA
Sports Field + Dome: JGA Inc -
2025 Architizer A+ Award
2024 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture
2024 Lieutenant Governor’s Award: Design Excellence in Architecture
2024 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize: Outstanding Shortlist
2024 Ontario Association of Architects (OAA): Design Excellence Award
2024 Canadian Interiors: Best of Canada Award
2024 Dezeen Award: Health and Wellbeing
2024 Dezeen Award: Civic
2023 World Architecture Festival (WAF) Award: Civic & Community Shortlist
2023 International Olympic Committee (IOC) / International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS): Architecture Prize
2023 ARCHITECT Magazine Award: Honor Award
2023 Mississauga Urban Design Award: Award of Excellence & Health by Design
2023 Athletic Business: Facilities of Merit Design Award
2023 Canadian Wood Council: Wood Design & Building Honour Award
2023 Ontario Wood WORKS! Design Award
2022 Architect's Newspaper Best of Design Award: Civic
2022 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Canada: Design Award of Excellence
2022 American Institute of Architects (AIA) International: Design Award of Merit
2017 Canadian Architect: Award of Excellence
The project transformed a 50-acre agricultural field into a pavilion-like community centre integrated with a richly textured park — creating a new vital neighbourhood landmark and city-wide destination that coalesces the community around experiences of sport, recreation, and leisure. The striking canopy on the building’s park-facing façades extends its Mass Timber structure. Inside, the lobby, pools, and gyms are connected to one another and to the park through full-height glazing and ease of circulation. These spaces are covered with a stretched membrane assembly that is micro-perforated to let sound pass through to acoustic insulation. The ceiling also has inverted peaks that form rhythmic loops across the length of the building’s interior — a configuration that diffuses light from a series of sawtooth skylights above while reducing noise, glare, and excess heat gain, but with an overall effect that evokes serenely-lit caverns.
The upper storey of the parking entrance elevation is clad in standing-seam metal and modulated with bold faceting that opens up the building’s form towards approaching visitors and the sky.
Acting as a pavilion, the Community Centre is intimately integrated with its surrounding landscape both programmatically and formally — something often lacking in projects with separate building and park components.
The building’s deep exterior cantilevers offer shelter and shade for the walking track around its perimeter and for those using the park amenities. The striking canopy that runs along the west and south façades extends and makes visible the building’s mass timber structure — an array of glulam columns that provide structural and curtainwall framing.
The parti arranges the interior spaces into two bars running the length of the building: the wider bar, on the west, houses the double-height triple gymnasium and the aquatics hall with lap and leisure pools; that on the east has the reception and wet and dry changerooms.
On the east bar’s second level is a teaching kitchen, multipurpose and fitness rooms, and a mezzanine hallway with seating overlooking the pools, lobby, and gym. The event-space lobby bisects the plan across its length, linking the parking and park entrances and offering direct, level access to the park. At virtually every point in the plan, the facility’s primary program spaces are transparent to the outside.
