Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre

Location
Edmonton, AB

Located in Edmonton’s historic Coronation Park, the new Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre is an innovative hub that inspires, connects, and encourages wellness for all ages and abilities.

With plans for completion in 2026, the new facility integrates a wide variety of recreation interests and skill levels. A fitness centre, gymnasia courts, walking/jogging track, and community spaces operate alongside a world-class velodrome, while complementing the existing Peter Hemingway Fitness and Leisure Centre.

This project is an architectural partnership between hcma and long-time collaborators dub architects, in association with FaulknerBrowns Architects. hcma and Resource Planning Group developed the comprehensive functional program for the centre, prior to design.

Site & context

Originally opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957, Edmonton’s Coronation Park contains a landscaped setting based on the Royal ‘sceptre’. The new facility will act as an instrument to bring cohesiveness to the fragmented and confusing park circulation system.

The building becomes a focal point, a destination, and a wayfinding tool for people navigating the park, generating a series of pedestrian and cycle loops that tie into and make sense of the existing trail system. In this way, the building is an active participant in the heritage landscape – providing activity, oversight and visual connections to an under-utilized part of the park.

The new building will connect to the award-winning and much-loved Peter Hemingway Fitness and Leisure Centre with a subterranean link from the new combined entrance hall. Because of the significant change to the use of the park, an update to the Coronation District Activity Park Site Development Plan was completed as part of the project.

Design challenge

Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre required the design team to consider how to mix high-performance sport with community recreation.

Velodromes are highly technical, featuring steeply banked oval tracks with teams of cyclists racing at speeds up to 85km/h. In contrast, community centres include both formal and informal programming for users of all ages and abilities, while emphasizing social connection points throughout. The design needed to carefully consider the needs of all users while ensuring that the velodrome and community spaces were not isolated from each other.

Design response

To ensure a high level of connectivity between community recreational facilities at the ground level, the cycle track was raised a full storey above the ground level floor. Direct views from the building entrance lead through a common public plaza and urban basketball court, with a physical and visual connection to the surrounding parkland beyond.

This unique design feature also distinguishes the facility from the majority of indoor cycling facilities in the world. By placing the cycle track on the upper level, the traditionally isolated sport will now be fully visible from the ground floor ‘social heart’ of the building, helping it to engage fully with the broader community.