5 minute read
BMX Supercross Legacy Track
CAROL KLEINFELDT, KMA Architects
When the 2015 Toronto Pan Am/ Para Pan Am Legacy Track request for proposals for this project was issued, our team thought, ‘what a great opportunity to work on a large scale, sculptured landscape project!, and then thought ‘we have never done anything like this and it will be a real reach for us’, which was the best reason we could think of to try.
This is play in architecture.
When we had the good fortune to be awarded the project, we began our intense research and discussions with those who understood the international sport of BMX Racing and began designing, as a team, one of the most rewarding experiences of our firm’s history. This is a playground structure at an exaggerated scale that suits the large Regional park and the team of clients, architects, engineers, landscape architects, earthwork professionals, contractor, builders and BMX riders. The clock was running down and the game was on!
The BMX Supercross Track is difficult to categorise. It is an object in a landscape and a landscape in its own right. It is a structure within a park that accommodates the park’s storage needs, two permanent start ramps for BMX Supercross events, one at 10 metres high and the other at 5m, a permanent, concrete and steel screened structure and a 517m ephemeral dirt track. It has a board-formed retaining wall over 27m long and ranging from 0.5 to 6m high. The track has been certified by Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) certification board and as such the only track in Canada, at the time, to be recognised.
The site of the track (determined prior to the design team being engaged) in Toronto’s Centennial Park was quickly found to be at a low point of the park and its drainage catchment area was enormous. More fun for the team! Building a dirt track in essentially a catchment area required an extensive underground drainage system, influencing structural and civil engineering interventions. These flows had to be managed to allow the track to be dry within 30 minutes of a rainfall, one of the criteria for BMX competitions, and the water quality had to satisfy the requirements of the Toronto Region Conservation Authority as a designated wetland area lies immediately to the south of the site.
While the drawings, drainage and detailing of the track are precise and unique, the built features were created in a very low-tech manner, like a soap box racing car. Off-the-shelf, various diameter, galvanised hollow metal tubes used to complete the structure’s roofing separation, partitions and safety barriers, gave us the advantages of a light-weight, inexpensive and readily available local material which is highly durable, maintenance free and aesthetically acceptable to the intended user group. The tubes create an everchanging shadow on the concrete surfaces and appear as a lantern at night, marking the location and subtly bringing life to the landscape and assisting the safety for night riders.The anti-climbing barrier at the end of the retaining wall, designed like a dinosaur’s tail. plays a tune when the wind blows.
The various concrete forms were simply made in a process known for centuries. Earth jumps and banked turns were created by talented bobcat artist/ operators with intimate knowledge of Supercross racing requirements and standards. They are able to read the crest placement of the jumps along the track on the section drawings and finesse these to capture the exact height of each peak and the depth width of each valley between them. Racing activity in rain, snow, compaction, etc. affects the track so that it requires constant maintenance, like many large sport venues. It is very much a living architecture.
The aesthetics of concrete allowed the practical considerations of storage, ramp heights and retaining wall sections to be expressed as individual architectural elements within a single structure. Board-formed concrete, prefinished concrete block and the smooth-faced framing members of the Starting Gates add to the distinct language of each element – at once separate and unified. These elements will age to become a naturalised feature in keeping with the site.
This playground/sculpture/structure is intended to bring excitement, comradery and fun to fans and participants of all ages and backgrounds as well as being an elegant representation of architectural play and team work. The huge prize for everyone was the Gold Medal winning ride by Canadian Tory Nyhaug who went on to become a world-renowned BMX Champion.
Project Information
2015 Pan Am and Para Pan Am Games BMX Supercross Legacy Track, Centennial Park, Toronto, Ontario
Building area: 575m2 built form; 2.55 ha. site area
Budget: $4,012,924.00
Client: City of Toronto
Architect: Kleinfeldt Mychajlowycz Architects Inc. Carol Kleinfeldt – Partner in Charge
Team members from KMA: Carol Kleinfeldt, Roman Mychajlowycz, Gerald Lambers, Chris Torres
Consultants:
Structural: Halsall Associates (WSP)
Electrical: Smith & Andersen
Landscape: Arium Design Group
Contractor: Gateman Milloy Inc
Specialist Consultants: Elite Trax Inc. (Track Design Consultant), EMC Group (Civil Engineering)
Photographer: Scott Norsworthy
CAROL KLEINFELDT, B Arch, MOAA, MAAA (retired), FRAIC, LEED AP, is principal of Kleinfeldt Mychajlowycz Architects in Toronto. www.kma.ca
