Brampton’s new community centre

Brampton’s Cassie Campbell Community Centre opened its doors in September, as the city’s largest and most modern multi-use community centre. Named after the captain of Canada’s gold medal Olympic women’s hockey team, the 15,800-square-metre-facility houses a twin-pad arena, aquatic centre, gymnasium, running track and fitness centre.

“The building is designed to be an urban landmark that clearly announces itself as a civic building and a hub of community life,” says Davinder Chadha, Senior Project Manager with the Building Construction Division, City of Brampton. “The architecture uses high quality materials with a natural aspect, such as wood and limestone, and offers dramatic roof lines to make a bold urban statement.”

Some of the materials employed in the structure include Prodema, a phenolic resin panel with an integrated layer of real wood veneer. “The architects, Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners, were instrumental in obtaining the necessary fire rating approvals from ULC to allow the use of this product in this application,” says Chadha.

The building offers numerous green features. High-efficiency fluorescent fixtures save energy, while outdoor fixtures feature sharp cut-offs to preserve the night sky surrounding the building. The centre also features an Eco-Chill ice surfacing plant, in which heat recovered from the ice rink plant refrigeration system is pumped into a glycol loop set into the concrete floor of the spectator seating area. “This takes waste heat and captures it to provide comfortable radiant heat for the arena spectators at their seats,” says Chadha. “This waste heat is stored in a heat sink and can be used for heating elsewhere in the building as required.”

The building has been designed to allow for future expansion and integration of other public use space into the existing architecture and landscape.

Construction manager PCL Constructors Canada Inc. began the $44-million Cassie Campbell project in September 2006, one of four projects for the city that have included renovations to the Earnscliffe and Century Gardens Recreation Centres and the construction of the new Brampton Soccer Centre which opened last year.