A Community Vision Realized

Northside Community Centre is a new multipurpose public facility that serves the residents of the northwest area of Red Deer, Alberta — providing essential community programming with social and arts-oriented spaces to a region of the city that was previously lacking.

Tasked to lead the design of the new facility, HDR first began the design process by facilitating preliminary community and stakeholder discussions related to the facility, which focused on confirming the community needs and exploring the vision of a district-level community centre. With input from and also backed by the community, the new facility, which is currently operated by the YMCA, is a realized collaborative vision.

Program elements include multipurpose rooms, a dedicated youth space, spaces for arts and culture, community kitchen, dance and yoga studio, gymnasium, fitness facilities and more. Operable partitions in the central gym space enable adaptability by easily converting the large space into multi-use rooms for various activities and purposes.  

Early site energy analysis determined the best position of the building on the site to optimize solar gain throughout the various seasons. The new facility is located adjacent to Glendale Middle School and the Glendale Skateboard Park. Two entry points were incorporated within the building in order to create strong connections between the dedicated youth space and to the school and skate park.

The building form was envisioned to have a strong identity within the community. The exterior material palette consists of two main materials: textured concrete panels and tinted glass. The use of concrete gives the building its permanence, its durability and an inherent thermal mass. Tinted glass provides an element of colour, complementing but at the same contrasting the concrete. Double height windows in shades of blue mark the two main entry points, emulating a lantern effect and acting as a welcoming beacon for the community.