Western North York Community Centre
Toronto, Ontario
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Aquatic Centre, Gymnasium, Track, Fitness, Child Care, Multipurpose Rooms, Activity Rooms, Youth Room, Community Kitchen, Community Art Gallery, Outdoor Multi-Sport Court, Playgrounds
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Child Care Architects: Bortolotto
Structural: Blackwell
Mechanical / Electrical: Smith + Andersen
Civil: EMC
Landscape: MJMA
Geo-Exchange: Salas O’Brien
Triple Bottom Line Analysis: Autocase -
2025 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC): Research & Innovation Award
2023 Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) Branding Award: Element Award (Environmental / Experiential)
2022 World Architecture Festival (WAF) Award: Civic & Community Shortlist (Future Project)
2021 Canadian Architect: Award of Excellence
For its diverse and growing community that previously lacked public gathering space, the Western North York Community Centre is a vibrant new civic centrepiece. With an emphasis on connections to the outside, the facility offers social, recreational, and wellness amenities that will serve all residents well into the future. To this end, the project’s multifaceted community engagement process set new standards for conducting public consultation work.
The building and its adjacent park demonstrate the same spirit of consolidating community, forming much-needed infrastructural conduits that link areas of the surrounding green and urban fabric. The facility also harnesses an open-loop geothermal system within an aquifer on the site — one of the key features that made its design one of the first Net-Zero emissions buildings in North America and the world’s first Net-Zero Positive Energy aquatic-based community centre.
Situated in a largely commuter neighbourhood in the northwestern part of Toronto, the long narrow site runs north-south. The new building and park provide a protected pedestrian promenade that connects neighbourhoods previously cut off from one another: walking, cycling, skateboarding, running, and scootering between the two halves of the community can now happen safely, without the need to cross busy roads or parking areas.
The building is enlivened with the texture and rhythm of terracotta cladding on the upper level that has a random configuration of five standard units with different linear textures. This material and the high-performing cement panels on the lower level have been selected for their sustainability, their dry-seal system allowing them to be removed and repurposed.
The organization of the interior spaces along the length of the plan uses the site’s narrow width to advantage: each of the major grade-level interior spaces — child care centre, aquatics hall, and ‘social heart’ lobby — is paired with a similarly proportioned outdoor room along the exterior promenade, and indoors and out are made continuous by means of sliding doors.
A skylight traverses the length of the building, acting as an organizational device and flooding both levels with natural light.
Development of the Western North York Community Centre involved a significant community consultation program, and the creation of "Create Your Place" to encourage local residents to shape the design of the building and its program.
