The UBC Chan Gunn Sports Medicine Pavilion at dusk.

UBC Chan Gunn Sports Medicine Pavilion

Location

Vancouver, BC

The new Chan Gunn Pavilion replaced the aging Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre and provides state of the art medical care, diagnostic facilities, fitness, and health improvement programs for competitive athletes and the public. 

Shoehorned into a tight site, the new pavilion also helps to provide spatial definition to the Thunderbird Arena’s entrance plaza while maintaining a distinct architectural identity befitting its role as an independent facility.

The building program is reflected in the architectural composition since the ground level is largely glazed to create a light-filled and open physiotherapy clinic and exercise area, while exam rooms that require privacy are located to the interior of the building.  Research and teaching functions are located on the second level and are identified by a ribbon of charred wood that wraps from exterior to interior and serves as a key design feature linking the various program elements.

Disciplines

Areas of impact

Blurred figures walk past the exterior entry of the facility.

hcma’s Communication Design team also created a graphic interior and exterior that helps to express the clinic’s central theme of “Return to Play”.

A woman runs past the camera. The camera captures her through a window.
Blurred figures walk up a central staircase. Above, a feature ceiling with wood slats and multiple long, rectangular pendant lights.

The project is LEED Gold certified and features a natural ventilation strategy, which influenced many aspects of the building design.

Students sit within a classroom in the pavilion. The desks and chairs all have wheels for flexibility, and there is a wood-slat feature ceiling.
A bright, white treatment area within the facility. There are several treatment beds and at one of them, a physio is treating a patient.
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