Emerald Hills Leisure Centre
Sherwood Park, Alberta
In Collaboration with Marshall Tittemore Architects
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Aquatic Centre (6-Lane 25m Lap Pool, 4-Lane 25m Fitness Pool with Movable Floor, Leisure Pool, Hydrotherapy Pool), Multipurpose Room
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Structural: RJC
Mechanical / Electrical: Smith + Andersen
Civil / Landscape: ISL -
2018 Athletic Business: Facilities of Merit Design Award
2017 Canadian Interiors: Best of Canada Design Award
2017 Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario (ARIDO): Design Award
2017 Alberta CISC Steel Design: Award of Excellence (Building Communities)
The Emerald Hills Leisure Centre is a civic landmark that builds community while bringing leisure, therapeutic, and learn-to-swim aquatics programming to residents of all ages and abilities in Edmonton’s Strathcona County. The project is located at the edge of large-scale retail area but is oriented towards residential neighbourhoods to the immediate east and south. Sited to share program spaces with an existing adjacent high school, the new Centre is a simple and cost-effective ‘big box’ volume that nonetheless imparts a sense of lightness and dynamic movement.
Its configuration takes advantage of views to a stormwater management lake and creates a landscaped courtyard that also serves the school. The design prioritizes accessibility and inclusivity, with universal changerooms, all four pools incorporating ramps, and a movable floor in the therapy pool. An advanced salt-water pool filtration system with a lower-than-normal chlorine requirement provides the highest level of water and air quality.
On the exterior, angled standing-seam metal panels appear to float above a black precast base. The aquatics hall and lobby form a single large, sculpted volume that announces the facility as the community’s new social hub.
Glazing was restricted to four areas to reduce energy use but is placed strategically — low, for views out to landscaped areas, and at clerestory level, to bounce light off the white triangulated ceiling and eliminate glare.
The project provides aquatics programming for the existing high school, while the school’s gymnasia, auditoria, and classrooms are conjoined with the new facility to create a vibrant evening and weekend community complex. The County also expands this functionality even further, with rehabilitation and therapy use by a new nearby hospital.
