ELS began this work by helping the city and its stakeholders narrow down the potential project locations. Following ELS’ extensive series of community workshops and online engagement, we brought the options from six down to three. Ultimately, participants selected Northgate Park as the site of the new facility; an ideal location, it is easily accessible on foot or by car, transit, or bike, and it is close to other community resources.

A key priority for this work has been to minimize the project’s impact on the surrounding neighborhood and environment. The building has two distinct natatorium volumes, one comprising the fun water area and the other the fast water pool; each volume is separated by a glass wall so that they can be operated independently, with specific air environments calibrated to each body of water’s temperature. Basic shed-like forms define each volume, with roof designs that maximize the benefits of PV and PVT arrays hovering atop vegetation at the roof. In siting the building, special care has been taken to avoid disturbing existing heritage trees. The project is targeting LEED Gold.