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Create a media accountPress Kit | no. 1456-09
Press release only in English
The result of a dynamic partnership between the YMCA of Hamilton|Burlington|Brantford and Wilfrid Laurier University, the Laurier Brantford YMCA revitalizes the City of Brantford as a hub for community health, recreation and wellness. The two clients worked together through a highly collaborative design process that ensured all ideas and possibilities were uncovered and needs best met as they shaped a project to create exciting new opportunities for students and local residents.
Located at the confluence of a dynamic city edge, the center is conceived as an integrated design that offers the public a unified and cohesive experience asserting a new identity to the block and city as a whole. The design focuses on three themes – memory, movement and landscape – as it draws upon the rhythms and patterns of buildings that previously filled the location while creating new possibilities.
"This project marks the heritage of Brantford with purposeful touches like accenting the building's glazing pattern along the Colborne Street facade with superimposed plot lines of mullions to retain the rhythm of the streetscape the YMCA replaced," explains James Lai, project architect for CannonDesign. "And, at the same time, the programming, partnerships and energy this building makes possible all point to a more dynamic future for the city."
The center revitalizes the city’s downtown and creates exciting opportunities for recreation programming.
The 120,000-sf facility includes:
The project received a prestigious Progressive Architecture (P/A) Award from Architect magazine in 2012 when it was in design. At that point, the jury said of the project: “It brings a historical neighborhood into the 21st century.”
The project is meaningful to its site as it replaces vacant row houses and is integrated into a sloped hillside to ensure it is visually pleasant and appropriate. Inside, the building welcomes abundant natural light and open views inside and out of the building.
The project was delayed 18 months due to an extensive archaeological dig that unearthed more than 400,000 artifacts dating from 500 BCE to the 21st century.
PROJECT DETAILS
Laurier Brantford YMCA
Brantford, ON, Canada
Completion Year; 2018
120,000 SF
More About CannonDesign
CannonDesign is an integrated global design firm that unites a dynamic team of architects, engineers, industry experts and builders driven by a singular goal - to help solve their clients' and society's greatest challenges. The firm's design teams partner with clients across a multitude of industries including healthcare, education, science + technology, corporate/commercial, civic and sports. In both 2017 and 2019, Fast Company named CannonDesign one of the world’s most innovative architecture companies.
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