Atlas Tube Centre & WFCU Pool

TOWN OF LAKESHORE ATLAS TUBE CENTRE Lakeshore / Ontario / Canada

BACKGROUND THE ATLAS TUBE RECREATION CENTRE IS DESIGNED TO BE THE COLLECTIVE RECREATION AND SOCIAL CENTRE OF THE TOWN OF LAKESHORE.

The Atlas Tube Centre is in the Town of Lakeshore, Ontario, located on the south shore of Lake St. Clair, 35 kilometres west of Windsor and Detroit. With an economy historically based on agriculture, the Town is rapidly growing as a residential area of Windsor. The new facility is intended to be the community hub of the expanded town.

The new facility is designed on a narrow 52 ha. site that stretches 2.4 km between concession roads in Lakeshore. The site is bounded on the north by a Canadian Pacific railroad track alignment, which in the past has restricted the development of the Town to an area between the tracks and the shore of Lake St. Clair, approximately 1 km to the north.

The Atlas Tube Centre is designed to be the collective recreation and social centre of the Town of Lakeshore. The project is programmed to replace aging arenas, address the need for aquatics, and to consolidate public assembly uses including library, gymnasium, and meting rooms. The design had to respond to unusual constraints; the schedule called for project tendering to meet federal and provincial funding deadlines, although the final project budget and building areas were uncertain through the design. The organization of the building and structural configuration had to respond directly to the extreme elasticity of the program and floor area.

USA

CANADA

DETROIT TECUMSEH

WINDSOR

TOWN OF LAKESHORE

CONTEXT

SITE

The malleable program suggested two parallel accordion-like bars that could expand and contract without affecting the clear public circulatory system. A ‘cold program’ bar organizes a linear and expandable progression of long-span arenas with viewing lobby along the public edge. A parallel bar aligns the ‘warm’ components of shorter-span community rooms, gymnasium, library, and the addition of the aquatic centre. Continuous public corridors line the central park space that separates the bars. A central entrance lobby with public meeting rooms forms the connecting tissue between the two plan bars and allows for large social space and community gathering.

Schedule constraints and an austere budget of well under $200 per sf (with buildings of a similar program often double) for an assembly building of this size suggested the use of a single utilitarian building system. The customized response creates civic architecture from these humble components and finishes.

The plan organizes rational public circulation around a central public open space. The program bars are expandable with additional program modules maintaining the clarity of the circulatory system and allowing for future additions without disruption to the operation of the existing building programs.

The Atlas Tube Centre handles the majority of the recreational programming for the Town and has become the most important civic space within the Town for events, tournaments, trade shows, performances, wellness, study, and social hang-out.

Since opening, usership is rapidly growing. The former facility saw 1,200 registrations per year. The new Atlas Tube Centre received 1,600 new registrations in its first quarter alone, and anticipates 10,000 registrations per year with the recent completion of the phase 2 Aquatic Centre.

WOODED AREA WITH TRAILS

PLAYGROUND NORTH LANDSCAPE AMENITY SPLASH PAD

CENTRAL PEDESTRIAN PARK

FULL SIZE SOCCER FIELDS SWM POND 200 SOCCER PARKING CENTRAL PEDESTRIAN PARK

WASHROOM PAVILION

5

200 PARKING

PLANTING IN BIOSWALE SOUTH FACING ENTRANCE PLAZA

SKATE PARK

100 SOCCER PARKING SWM POND WASHROOM PAVILION

SITE PLAN

BMX PARK PRACTICE SOCCER FIELDS

17 8 9 10 15

6

3 7

12

6

14 7

5

1 6

13 2

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

16

12

14

4

11

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

MAIN ENTRANCE FUTURE AQUATICS ENTRANCE PUBLIC LOBBY CUSTOMER SERVICE ICE PADS ARENA CHANGE ROOMS FUTURE AQUATICS HALLS AQUATICS CHANGE ROOMS GYMNASIUM GYMNASIUM CHANGE ROOMS LIBRARY MULTI-PURPOSE ROOMS ARENA EXPANSION

SUSTAINABILITY Arena and aquatic building types are major energy consumers; the configuration of the building forms a functional response. Each programmatic plan bar is specifically designed to meet parameters for daylighting and sustainability. The long span arena roofs are formed in a sawtooth profile to support a 65,000 sf photo-voltaic panel array to the south and with large polycarbonate glazing panels facing north for non-glare light into the deep plan arena halls. The provides full panoramic park views of the surrounding fields with glare-free natural lighting, and perimeter tinted glass with linear skylight slots to provide gallery quality balanced soft light.

THE BUILDING IS NAMED THE ATLAS TUBE CENTRE TO RECOGNIZE THE PROJECT’S PRIMARY PRIVATE DONOR. ATLAS TUBE IS A LOCAL STEEL FABRICATOR AND MADE BOTH A FINANCIAL DONATION AND CONTRIBUTION IN THE SUPPLY OF STRUCTURAL STEEL.

THE BUILDING IS NAMED THE ATLAS TUBE CENTRE TO RECOGNIZE THE PROJECT’S PRIMARY PRIVATE DONOR. ATLAS TUBE IS A LOCAL STEEL FABRICATOR AND MADE BOTH A FINANCIAL DONATION AND CONTRIBUTION IN THE SUPPLY OF STRUCTURAL STEEL.

PHASE 2 POOL

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Copyright Š 2017 by MJMA All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited.

For more information about this project, please contact:

Amanda Chong T: 416-593-6796 ext 245 E: achong@mjma.com www.mjma.ca