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A PR IL 2018 | 53 Laurier Brantford YMCA Athletic and Recreation Centre RENDERINGS COURTESY CANNONDESIGN Laurier Brantford YMCA Athletic and Recreation Centre by ROBIN BRUNET T he ideal partnership is one in which close collaboration benefits mul- tiple parties, and this is certainly the case with the Laurier Brantford YMCA Athletic and Recreation Centre, which is the outcome of the City of Brantford teaming with Wilfred Laurier University in 2012 to create a new rec- reation complex for university students as well as the entire community. Located between two parallel streets running east/west that have a 35-foot height differential, the massive 118,000-square-foot facility consists of an elevated rectangular two-storey "Bar-Building" on Colborne Street. The remainder of the complex then steps down and is nestled into the slope sep- arating Water from Colborne Street just below the Bar Building. Within the sloped site is a sports and recreation facility housing an aquatic centre with its 25-metre pool, a community gym, and a varsity sport centre. Encompassing 90 percent of the entire complex, this 445-foot-long structure is merged into the hillside and visually interconnects the complex with interior glazing from a double- height lobby space. It also has a green roof system that is separated by a pedestrian outdoor plaza and bridge, connecting Colborne Street to a public parking parkade on the south of Water Street. There's more: multi-purpose spaces for fitness classes and social, educa- tional and cultural programming; teaching spaces for community educa- tion; cardio, strength and weight areas for individual fitness and community- based health-care programs; a large gymnasium (with retractable seating for 1,200 spectators); and multi-pur- pose studios. The Centre represents an architec- tural landmark in the revitalization of Brantford's downtown core; and as Max Blouw, former president and vice- chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University remarked when construction began three years ago, "This project is vitally important to Laurier's expansion plans in downtown Brantford. With this new facility, Laurier students will have access to one of the finest athletic cen- tres in the country." But as with any project of this mag- nitude, bringing Laurier Brantford YMCA to life wasn't easy. "Construction was very challenging due to the unique site conditions discovered after ground was broken," says James Lai, associate VP with CannonDesign. "We were up to the challenge and worked closely with the contractors and the clients to pro- vide a building within budget that met all the program requirements and that we can all be proud of." The design team engaged the city and university as well as the greater community in a highly collaborative process to ensure that all ideas and possibilities were covered and needs best met. From this, CannonDesign conceived the facility as something that would offer the public a cohesive experience, asserting a new identity to the block and city as a whole (as well as allowing for magnificent views across to the nearby Grand River). The design focused on three themes: memory, movement, and landscape – drawing upon the rhythms and pat- terns of buildings that previously filled the location. Lai explains, "At the Colborne street level at the top of the sloped site, over 40 old buildings, including row homes, were demolished before the first phase of the facility's construction, and even though our two-storey Bar Building structure is distinctly modern, we studied the appearance of the row homes and developed a pattern remi- niscent of their skyline that would be borne via frittering and other elements in our curtain wall glazing system." D. Grant Construction Limited, which had previously built the Laurier Brantford Research and Academic Centre East and West for the University, began construction on the new Laurier Brantford YMCA in May of 2015 with excavation, lagging, shoring on Water Street, and sewer work on Colborne Street. Unfortunately, it was discovered that methane gas had per- meated the soil, requiring its costly disposal as well as the creation and installation of a sub-slab vapour extraction system. Given the steep grade into which the facility would be built, an underground dewatering sys- tem was also developed. Although CannonDesign envisioned the facility having an elaborate land- scaped roof with walkways and links between Water and Colborne streets, "the budget dictated that this be trans- formed into a green roof for viewing only," says Lai. A unique aspect of the project came about when an archaeological dig of the site uncovered nearly 400,000 pot- tery shards, coins, and other artifacts, some dating as far back as 500 BC. The quantity and calibre of the objects found reportedly rank this as the most significant archeological discovery in Ontario since the construction of the Rogers Centre in the 1980s. 7:11 AM 10:20 AM 9:58 AM

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