East Lions Community Centre

MJMA master-planned the rejuvenation of East Lions Park and designed a new 3,920sm (42,200sf) community centre to replace an end-of-life outdoor pool located in the park. The project eschews the trend of consolidation and regionalization of infrastructure on peripheral or centralized drive-to sites and the attendant notion that ‘bigger is better’. It instead demonstrates how small-scale community buildings can have great impact and maintain an existing delicate ‘spirit of place’, while delivering an appropriately scaled and programmed facility that re-naturalizes its site and connects new and existing street and green infrastructure.

Conceived as a park pavilion, gathering and welcoming users on all sides, the facility’s design also drew inspiration from the local craft guilds who have spaces within it. The building is a tapestry that projects a singular iconic presence but is refined through texture, shadow, and light—to float, frame, and fit within the finer grain of the surrounding neighborhood and culture.