An inclusive community facility for recreation and leisure.

The Remington YMCA in Quarry Park (Remington YMCA) serves Calgary and the surrounding area as a polestar for health, wellness, and community. The YMCA’s expansive glazing and bright, open spaces invoke a sense of connection, sparking interest and encouraging participation. As a bustling hub in a new urban community, the facility contributes to building vibrant communities with features such as leisure and competition pools, a hot tub and sauna, a gymnasium, running track, fitness area, daycare, and public library.

Guided by the goal to create an inclusive and connected interior environment, GEC developed a functional program that maximizes connections between program elements. While traditional wellness facilities typically separate each program element, the Remington YMCA celebrates the integration of activities. From the central spine of the facility, users can see the natatorium, the glass-walled gymnasium, the library and the daycare. One central control point leads a visitor to each distinct activity area. Extensive glazing allows natural light to illuminate most spaces and visually connects users with the outdoors. Timber is used prominently throughout the facility for its structural, aesthetic, and sustainable qualities. The glulam beams run the length of the facility supporting the long-span spaces and lending a natural warmth to the urban facility.

Universal inclusiveness and accessibility were pillars of the design, supporting all abilities and demographics for a safe, welcoming environment. Responding to Canada’s evolving cultural and family needs, GEC designed the YMCA’s universal change room: the first of its kind in Alberta and among few in Canada. The universal change room provides an open, barrier-free change area to support a diversity of abilities, orientations and family arrangements. The design eliminates the pressure on people to choose which change room to enter. In addition, the change rooms include oversized private change stalls for families and people with attendants.

Designed to meet LEED Gold, the facility includes sustainable features such as a heat and power co-generation system, which produces electrical and thermal energy from natural gas, significantly reducing waste energy and greenhouse gas emissions. The use of timber throughout the facility effectively sequesters carbon in the material, reducing the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere.