Orillia Recreation Centre

The Orillia Community Recreation Centre and its 26-acre naturalized ‘Foundry Park’ reimagine Orillia’s industrial history and reference both the site’s previous use as a foundry and the city’s legacy of brick civic buildings. The project is an exemplary redevelopment of a brownfield site: it transforms a previously uninhabitable location into a new social heart for the city that supports an array of current and future uses.

MJMA’s design for the new Recreation Centre included the creation of the 26-acre Foundry Park in the heart of the city. Foundry Park now offers access to a welcoming naturalized landscape that is also connected to a much loved and still growing civic trail system. The Recreation Centre is cradled within the new, gently undulating landscape, while building and park together have a unified and distinct identity that interprets the site’s history as a foundry and Orillia’s industrial past.