Award

A PR IL 2017 | 49 NexSource Centre RENDERINGS COURTESY HDR|CEI ARCHITECTURE ASSOCIATES NexSource Centre by JESSICA KIRBY T he story of the NexSource Centre in Sylvan Lake, Alberta is as much about community spirit as it is about building design and construction. The hockey-loving town started out with two arenas, a curling rink and an aquatic centre placed separately on a single site, but lacking a sense of connection between them. In a short span of time, one arena's roof collapsed due to snow load and the curling rink was condemned because of its age, leaving the community with a single ice surface. From the ashes, a new, connected, welcoming facility has emerged. The objective for the design team was to tie the new and renovated buildings into the existing Sylvan Lake Multiplex (which comprises a hockey rink with seating capacity for over 1,000) as well as with the existing aquatics centre. The replacement arena facility contains an 85- by 200-feet NHL sized ice sheet, twinned with the existing multiplex. It was expanded beyond its original incarnation with a multi- use component that includes a five- sheet curling rink, a walking/running track, seniors centre, meeting/ banquet facilities, multi-purpose rooms, a commercial kitchen, and space for children and youth. Mary Chow, architect with HDR|CEI Architecture, says the team and municipal representatives attended a three-day design charrette to establish the community's needs regarding development of a replacement arena. "They wanted a place that prioritized a sense of community," says Chow. "That was the main inspiration moving forward – creating a place where people can come and gather." The existing spectator arena, called the multiplex, was meant to tie the adjacent buildings together, but didn't achieve that purpose, aside from an enclosed walkway that was its only connection with the second arena. "With these buildings, the stand- alone curling rink and the stand-alone aquatic centre, the site didn't present itself as a comprehensive whole," says Chow. "It was all sorts of buildings spread out with parking in between. We wanted to create a singular place so when the community comes to it, they are able to access all their recreational programming from one building." One of the facility's important aspects was having access from both 48th Street and 49th Avenue. "Originally a road cut down though the middle of the site and the town didn't want to lose that sense of access that the community already understood," says Chow. The team created a central spine that would continue to connect the two main streets and allow patrons to come from both the north and the south. "The central spine became a critical architectural design element for us," says Chow. "We wanted to create just as strong an entry experience from the south as from the north, so no matter where patrons enter, they can see the reception and program rooms. It is a pretty intentional way of creating an easy understanding of the space." Arenas tend to be utilitarian in appearance – steel, open ceiling structures – but NexSource welcomes visitors with an inviting esthetic using warm laminated veneer lumber (LVL) panels in the roof and wood elements into the interior finishes, particularly at the entries. The building envelope is constructed using an insulated metal panel with wood veneer phenolic to highlight the feature areas. An essential part of the project was the design and implementation of a Thermenex mechanical system, which significantly reduces operational costs in the building. The system essentially monitors areas in the building that produce excess heat, such as the refrigeration system, and displaces that excess to other places in the building that need it. "It is a pretty comprehensive system of pipes that run through the building, connecting to anything that generates heat or requires heat," says Chow. "Previous energy models on this system say the system inputs one unit of energy and outputs five." Jeff Weston, developer of the Thermenex system, says this project included a TIAB (Thermenex in a box), which is a premanufactured mechanical penthouse with the Thermenex system, the air handling unit, chillers, humidifiers and all the main pumps inside the box. "The client wanted a sustainable solution for the facility, and they wanted it to be a vast improvement over what they'd had before," says Weston. "Typically, the Thermenex system can help a building achieve 40 to 90 percent greenhouse gas emissions reduction and 40 to 50 percent total energy cost reduction." The Thermenex system at NexSource was unique in that it was

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