Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre

Location
North Vancouver, BC

The new Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre (HJCRC) will bring a new rhythm of life for the North Shore community, fostering individual and collective wellness under one roof.

Our initial involvement in the 2017 feasibility study helped identify options for the replacement of the existing Centre. To build on its legacy, our design realizes the community’s aspirations for modern amenities, creating a place that welcomes the full recreational pursuits at all levels—while responding to the critical climate and social isolation challenges of our time.

Celebrating North Vancouver’s unique character

The City of North Vancouver is a waterfront municipality on the north shore of the Pacific Ocean’s Burrard Inlet. Surrounded by two other municipalities—West Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver—together they form an urban landscape at the foot of the North Shore Mountains.

The North Van lifestyle centres around its connection to the outdoors. On the outer limits, residential neighbourhoods end where rugged, forested slopes begin, making the city popular for its proximity to nature and picturesque outdoor recreation. HJCRC sits closer to North Vancouver’s central core, acting as a northern gateway to the city—which is densely populated with residential high-rises and civic infrastructure.

This geographical setting drives our approach to HJCRC, with the intention of bringing North Vancouver’s unique outdoor quality into the heart of the building.

Redefining recreation

Our design is focused around the belief that people should be free to choose how they participate in recreational pursuits—whether physical, social, intellectual, creative, or spiritual—and architecture should support that. The new HJCRC encourages the full spectrum of recreation, from hanging out with friends, to spontaneous play, to serious sport. These activities are made accessible and inviting to as many people as possible by pursuing Gold in the Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification program.

The new facility will include a gymnasium; a fitness space; arts and crafts studios; youth and preschool space; a 25-metre pool and a leisure pool; an NHL-sized rink, and a seniors’ centre. These spaces pinwheel around a central outdoor courtyard–a piece of the north shore, transplanted into the heart of the building–that infuses the daily experience of the building with natural light and views to the outside. The courtyard honours the legacy facility which utilized a similar approach, blurring the boundaries between indoor and outdoor.

Location

Accessible and sustainable

The existing HJCRC accounts for a significant 29% of the City’s building greenhouse gas emissions. With energy savings of 53% compared to the National Energy Code for Buildings 2015 baseline, the new HJCRC will play a key role in advancing the City’s Corporate Climate Action Plan. The future HJCRC is on track to become CAGBC Zero Carbon design certified.

Sustainable design strategies include maximized heat recovery through CO2 refrigeration; a highly insulated building envelope; reusing rain-water; natural daylight and solar strategies; low-energy pool filtration systems, and electric vehicle and bike charging stations.