City of Vancouver to build a major new Marpole community centre

2022 concept for the new Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre in Vancouver's Oak Park. (Diamond Schmitt Architects/City of Vancouver)

If all goes as planned, the brand new Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre will open in late 2025, marking the City of Vancouver’s first major new public community and recreational centre in 15 years — since the construction of Hillcrest Community Centre in time for the 2010 Olympics.

Planning efforts to replace the aging community centre at Oak Park have been a work in progress for more than a decade, but the project is now finally going ahead with the hiring of several contractors, and the newly submitted development permit application, which reveals the project’s new design and features.

The existing community centre is located at the north end of Oak Park, while the new larger facility is slated for the south end of the park — at the northeast corner of the intersection of Oak Street and Park Drive (63rd Avenue).

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Based on the municipal government’s procurement materials for a construction manager, the bidding phase for a construction contractor is timed to begin in late 2022, which will lead to the start of construction in Spring 2023.

Demolition work on the existing community centre will begin in early 2026, and its footprint will be converted into replacement green space to offset the lost green space at the south end of the park for the new facility.

Future site of the new facility:

marpole-oakridge community centre vancouver 2022 design

Site of the new Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre at Vancouver’s Oak Park. (Google Maps)

Layout of the new facility:

2022 concept for the new Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre in Vancouver’s Oak Park. (Diamond Schmitt Architects/City of Vancouver)

The project’s construction budget was previously estimated at up to $70 million, but this figure is based on a 2021 estimate before the onset of high inflation. This figure also does not include the City’s costs related to project administration, planning, and consultants, including the $4.8 million contract to Diamond Schmitt Architects for the new facility’s design.

The new facility will be a mass timber structure with a design that takes cues and inspiration from natural forms and First Nations concepts. It will be a highly sustainable design — built to Passive House, LEED Gold, and Zero Carbon green building standards, with features that include a rain capture and cleaning system capable of processing the first 48 mm of rainfall during a 24-hour period.

“Rather than solely embracing the familiar vocabulary of western architecture, we have elected to take our inspiration by recalling natural forms that evoke different associations to the patrons of the facility,” reads the design rationale.

“The gently curving roof, made of a set of related elements gives a united but distinctive organization that is effective in breaking down the scale of the building. The roof forms are expressive, but not extravagant. The glulaminated beams that comprise the structure are equally capable of being fabricated in straight segments as they are in curves.”

2022 concept for the new Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre in Vancouver’s Oak Park. (Diamond Schmitt Architects/City of Vancouver)

The community centre component on the first level will entail new multi-purpose spaces, including a fitness centre, gymnasium, commercial kitchen, social spaces for seniors and teenagers, and a before-and-after school space for up to 60 kids.

A childcare facility with a capacity for up to 69 kids will be situated on the second level, including a large south-facing outdoor play area.

There will also be a significant outdoor aquatic centre, consisting of three pools — a 4,550 sq ft, five-lane lap swimming pool; a 2,120 sq ft leisure pool; and a 600 sq ft hot whirlpool. This outdoor aquatic centre will be accessed from the community centre’s lobby.

To the east of the secure enclosure for the outdoor aquatic centre, there will be a sizeable splash park, playground, and circular-shaped public plaza for community events. And to the north of the new building, there will be two outdoor basketball courts with dedicated seating areas and an outdoor fitness gym.

2022 concept for the new Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre in Vancouver’s Oak Park. (Diamond Schmitt Architects/City of Vancouver)

As well, the new building will provide improved supporting facilities for Oak Park, including replacement fieldhouse spaces such as public washrooms, change rooms/team rooms for field use, and storage for gardens and field sports.

A single underground level will accommodate 98 vehicle parking stalls — significantly lower than the 214 stalls required under City policies — and 75 secured bike parking spaces.

The new community and recreational facility will span 183,000 sq ft, including 43,000 sq ft for dedicated community centre use, 10,700 sq ft for the childcare facility, 10,500 sq ft for the outdoor aquatic centre, 47,000 sq ft of service space, and 88,000 sq ft of underground space.

This new design for Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre carries a significantly larger scope than the rejected replacement facility concept conceived a decade ago by the Vancouver Park Board and Patkau Architects, which envisioned a new architecturally distinct building on the surface parking lot east of the existing community centre at the north end of Oak Park.

2022 concept for the new Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre in Vancouver’s Oak Park. (Diamond Schmitt Architects/City of Vancouver)

This new facility is intended to not only replace the existing facility but help meet the immense future demand from the area’s growing population as a direct result of the Cambie Corridor Plan.

By 2024, there will also be a new community centre within the base of a social housing tower at the Oakridge Centre (Oakridge Park) redevelopment. Currently, under construction, this stacked, five-storey facility integrated with the mall complex will include Vancouver Public Library’s second-largest branch, a childcare facility, dedicated community centre spaces, a seniors’ activity centre, a fitness gym, performance space, artist studios, and music rooms. Quadreal Property Group and Westbank are funding this City-owned community centre as a community amenity contribution.

The area will also gain a $155-million privately-operated community, recreational, and aquatic centre through the redevelopment of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver at the southeast corner of the intersection of Oak Street and West 41st Avenue. The non-profit organization intends to open the new eight-storey, 245,000 sq ft facility by 2025.

As well, the YMCA of Greater Vancouver intends to redevelop its Langara YMCA — located on West 49th Avenue, immediately west of Langara College — with a new facility entailing an aquatic centre, gymnasium, indoor walking track, multi-purpose rooms, family centre, and childcare. This expanded YMCA hub within the Cambie Corridor Plan will be a four-storey, 60,000 sq ft building.

2020 artistic rendering of the new community centre at Oakridge Centre. (Westbank)

Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver 950 West 41st Avenue

2022 artistic rendering of the first phase of the new community and recreation hub of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. (Acton Ostry Architects)

Artistic rendering of the new Langara Family YMCA. (Endall Elliot Associates/YMCA of Greater Vancouver Properties Foundation)

While suburban municipalities are entering a major building boom of destination-sized community, recreational, and aquatic centres, Vancouver is falling behind in its pace to not only build more facilities to meet existing and future demand but replace aging and seismically vulnerable facilities.

Earlier this year, a Vancouver Park Board report stated that 11 community centres are either in “poor” or “very poor” condition, and will require major reinvestments for renovations or replacement over the next 10 to 20 years. Funding has not been secured for the vast majority of these troubled facilities.

Over the coming years, the municipal government and the Park Board are looking to expedite the construction of new and expanded replacement facilities for the West End Community Centre and Vancouver Aquatic Centre, which saw an exterior wall near the main entrance collapse earlier this year.

Most of Vancouver’s public recreation facilities were built between 1945 and 1980, and the City began renewing these facilities in the 1990s.

marpole-oakridge community centre vancouver 2011 cancelled design

2011 cancelled concept for the new replacement Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre in Vancouver’s Oak Park. (Patkau Architects/Vancouver Park Board)

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