Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre

Location: Edmonton, AB
Year: 2026
Status: Completed
Size: 17,000 m² / 183,000 ft²
Sustainability Certification: LEED Gold Certified
Collaborators: hcma architecture + design, FaulknerBrowns Architects
Awards: WAN, WAF, EUDA, CA Award

Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre brings together everyday recreation, community gathering and high-performance sport in a welcoming public facility. Designed by Dub Architects and hcma, in association with FaulknerBrowns Architects, the centre offers spaces for people of all ages and abilities to exercise, play and connect throughout Edmonton’s long winters. Gymnasium courts, fitness spaces, studios, an indoor playground, a bouldering wall and multipurpose rooms support a broad range of activities, from informal visits to organized training and competition.

The design brings these diverse uses together through an inventive arrangement of spaces. An elevated cycling track frees the ground floor for connected recreation and social areas, while a running track above offers views across the park. Courts within the track’s infield are reached by a ramp and generous social staircase, linking them to the community spaces below. This layered approach balances the precise requirements of international sport with the accessibility, flexibility and ease of movement essential to a community recreation centre. Activities remain visible to one another, creating a lively shared environment and inviting visitors to discover something new.

Accommodating a building of this scale within Coronation Park required an equally considered response to its setting. The established 35-hectare park is home to significant modernist buildings, including the Peter Hemingway Aquatic Centre, Queen Elizabeth II Planetarium and TELUS World of Science. Three large earth berms, carefully shaped rooflines and sloping exterior walls reduce the centre’s apparent height and help settle it into the landscape. New pedestrian and cycling loops connect with existing trails, extending the project’s contribution beyond its walls.

The building’s distinctive form emerges from the coordination of its internal program, structural demands and park context. An oval roof, rotated relative to the footprint below, creates a continuously changing façade that draws closely around the spaces it encloses. A 90-metre clear span accommodates the large activity areas, while exposed wood, natural light and bold colour bring warmth and a sense of welcome to the interior. The result gives a complex public building an approachable character, with places to pause, watch and gather alongside its more active spaces.

A shared entrance and enclosed link to the neighbouring Peter Hemingway Aquatic Centre connect the new amenities with its existing 50-metre pool. Together, the facilities uniquely support year-round, indoor triathlon training. By coordinating specialized sport requirements, everyday public use and a sensitive landscape setting, Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre creates a cohesive civic destination that strengthens the park’s role in Edmonton’s community life.