Architect selected for brand-new Vancouver Aquatic Centre redevelopment

Architect selected for new Vancouver Aquatic Centre redevelopment

The new UBC Aquatic Centre. (Acton Ostry Architects)

Next week, Vancouver City Council is expected to approve City of Vancouver staff’s recommendation to finalize the contract with Acton Ostry Architects to design the brand-new replacement and expanded Vancouver Aquatic Centre.

Built in 1974, the aquatic centre at Sunset Beach in downtown Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood is now one of the city’s oldest and reaching the end of its lifespan. Its building systems are aging, a portion of the exterior of the structure even crumbled in March 2022, and it no longer meets the needs of the growing population.

Acton Ostry Architects’ contract to plan and design the new facility is worth $13.2 million, spanning seven years through the project’s construction completion.

According to City staff, the company submitted the lowest-priced bid, and the evaluation of the proposals determined that they would offer the “best overall value to the City.”

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The existing facility has a total floor area of 75,000 sq ft, entailing a 50-metre lap pool with eight lanes, a dive tank with a 10-metre diving platform, and spectator seating areas, which makes it Vancouver’s only pool capable of hosting competitions. There is also a hot pool, sauna, a fitness gym, and a shallow “teach tank.”

vancouver aquatic centre exterior bike lane beach avenue f

Exterior of the existing Vancouver Aquatic Centre on Beach Avenue. (Shutterstock)

Interior of the existing Vancouver Aquatic Centre. (Shutterstock)

A partial collapse of the exterior wall near the main entrance of the aging Vancouver Aquatic Centre in March 2022. (Daily Hive)

The new replacement facility will be roughly twice the size at 135,000 sq ft. It will have a 50-metre lap pool, dive pool, and other competition-ready components, including spectator seating, as well as a leisure pool, teaching facilities, a fitness centre, hot pool, steam and sauna rooms, concession/food service space, a childcare facility, and other indoor and outdoor community spaces, including a public washroom accessible from the outdoors.

It will have a high degree of green and accessible design, with the City and Park Board pursuing the certifications of LEED Gold, Passive House, and Rick Hansen Accessibility Gold. Specific green design features include 100% electric energy use — which includes heating pool waters with electricity instead of the typical use of natural gas — and equipment that captures and cleans the first 48 mm of rainfall on the site within 24 hours.

The new UBC Aquatic Centre. (Acton Ostry Architects)

The project’s design work is expected to be conducted in 2024, with construction starting in 2026. This puts completion and opening towards the end of the decade.

In the 2022 civic election, through a plebiscite question on the ballot, voters permitted the City to borrow $103 million specifically for building a new replacement Vancouver Aquatic Centre. In the 2023 budget, $140 million has been set aside for the new aquatic centre over the 2023-2026 capital plan, in addition to $16 million for incorporating a childcare facility for up to 74 kids into the facility.

Acton Ostry Architects’ previous work with designing community and recreational facilities includes the 2009-built Killarney Community Centre Ice Rink in time for the 2010 Olympics, the 2017-built new UBC Aquatic Centre, and the 2017-built National Soccer Development Centre at UBC, which is the shared training base of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and various UBC and national teams.

The unsuccessful proponents were Dialog, Diamond and Schmitt Architects, HCMA Architecture & Design, and Shape Architecture.

If all goes as planned, the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre will be the first new “destination-sized” community centre and/or aquatic centre in Vancouver in about two decades — since the 2009 completion of Hillcrest Community Centre in time for the Olympics.

The new UBC Aquatic Centre. (Acton Ostry Architects)

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