Banff Recreation Centre

The Town of Banff is located in Banff National Park, Canada’s first national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is home to more than 8,700 residents and greets more than three million visitors from around the world each year.
Constructed in 1958, the town’s recreation center was in dire need of renewal – the roof of the curling rink was considered deficient, the hockey rink dressing rooms were no longer adequate, the ice refrigeration piping system needed replacement, and an additional ice rink was needed. The solution was a combination of demolition and reconstruction, refurbishment, and new construction.

Completed in 2011 to the LEED Silver standard, the redeveloped Banff Recreation Centre has a new curling rink, a new NHL-sized hockey arena, and new meeting rooms, lounges and concourse. The new construction uses wood and glass to provide views of the mountains, while providing superior thermal performance.

The town desired a special visitor experience unique to Banff and to highlight the facility’s 50-year history in the community. Throughout the center, users will find large feature spaces designed to showcase the natural environment and foster a greater appreciation and understanding of the park’s history. As well, memorabilia related to the building’s historical significance and role in the community are displayed and preserved for the enjoyment of future generations.

In this place of incredible natural beauty, there exists a rich history of building with wood in a manner that is at once utilitarian and expressive, traditional and modern. The Banff Recreation Centre embraces and extends this ethos,
while adding another, more contemporary layer of utility through practices of salvage, reuse and renewal.

The extensive use of wood for both cladding and structure, use of natural materials such as local rundle stone and limestone, exposed timber bracing and deep overhangs, and a design approach that reduces a large building to smaller components were all responses to Banff ’s best building traditions. Throughout the facility, local materials and design elements are incorporated to reinforce the sense of place. Large windows afford significant views from all spaces (including the hockey rinks) and bring the outside environment in. Additionally, significant outdoor spaces were created around the building to highlight the natural surroundings and draw the user’s attention to the grandeur of the natural environment that surrounds them.

The original curling ice was spanned by curved glulam beams with ends that had rotted due to weather exposure. These were salvaged and renewed by removing the rotted ends and re-dressing the remaining portions. The resulting beams are as good as new, albeit shorter than the originals. The new, four-sheet curling ice is spanned by these renewed beams, configured into a tilted and braced form that is combined with canted walls to meet the span requirements, while affording expansive mountain views and generous north daylight.

In addition to structural wood salvaged from the original building, glulams were salvaged from a demolished school located in Canmore, Alberta, just 25km (15 miles) away. These were refurbished and reused as purlins in the concourse between the new curling rink and refurbished existing rink.

Roof structure for the new ice rink is comprised of curved glulam trusses braced with steel tension members to achieve a long span with a lightweight appearance while complementing the structural materials of the original rink
components.

The site is adjacent to natural open space that had been abused over the last 40 years and was in need of reclamation. Invasive plant species were removed and replaced with native grasses, shrubs and trees, some of which were reclaimed from other portions of the site slated for development. Creek banks subject to human traffic-induced erosion were stabilized and replanted with native species. Parking areas were kept well away from a creek, with drainage directed to bioswales to gather and treat pollutants.