MacBain Community Centre, YMCA and Library
Niagara Falls, Ontario
In Collaboration with Chapman Murray Associates
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Aquatic Centre, Gymnasium, Track, Fitness, Multi-Use Studios, Indoor Track, Multipurpose Rooms, Health Clinic, Library, Child Care
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Structural: Yolles
Mechanical: Keen
Electrical: LKM
Civil: Robert Martin
Landscape: Paula Berketo -
2008 Athletic Business: Facilities of Merit Design Award
2007 Recreation Management: Innovative Architecture and Design Awards
The MacBain Community Centre in Niagara Falls is a true community condenser. Its location on the town’s outskirts was determined by the need for public programs for underserviced residential areas. The project also remediated its brownfield site, which included restoring drainage conditions and planting the area north of the building as parkland.
The over 100,000-sf hybrid facility unifies community programs and services from multiple institutions under one roof: a YMCA, a branch of the Niagara Falls Public Library, municipal offices for the Town Department of Community Services, a Daycare Centre, Coronation 50 Plus Seniors Centre, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Niagara, and private health care providers. The merging and mutual support of these results in demonstrably more efficient operational, staffing, and energy savings, as well as social intensification: YMCA memberships tripled, while the library has become one of the busiest in the system.
The exterior is enlivened by textural brick, varied setbacks and glazing, and views into the facility’s inner activities.
A distinctive ‘daisy’ building plan places the large program rooms of the aquatic centre, gymnasium, and library around a ‘social heart’ lobby, creating a vibrant internal civic space that also allows the various agencies to share the lobby’s functions.
The facility has a transparency and lightness that belies its size and dense programming. Running the length of the building, a continuous series of elongated, parallel skylights with etched white polycarbonate glazing delivers pleasing, reduced-glare natural light deep into the plan.
