Brownfield transformation

NRU
May 23, 2018
Rob Jowett

After more than 40 years in the making, Orillia’s new recreation centre is nearing completion.

Transforming a 14.5-ha brownfield site in the middle of the city into a three-storey, 12,000 m2 recreation facility was no easy task. But the $53.69-million building at 255 West Street is expected to open its doors at the beginning of 2019. The remainder of the site will be contain hiking trails and natural areas.

“It’s our largest capital project in the city’s history,” Orillia mayor Steve Clarke told NRU. He says that the centre will bring a number of benefits to the city.

The project gave them a use for their unused downtown lands.

“That [land has] sat there as an ugly blight on the city for the last 25, 30 years and… the [14.5 ha] are going to be a great place with trails and interpretive signs and bridges over wetlands, and so it’s going to really transform that part of the city.”

The city acquired the land from Molson-Coors for a dollar and a $400,000 tax credit. But initial studies indicated that the former lumber mill site was far more contaminated than city staff had previously believed.

Orillia facilities and special projects director Kent Guptill told NRU that a complex solution was needed to ensure the contaminated soil did not affect the recreation facility.

“The building itself has a large underground ventilation system throughout the entire footprint of the building,” says Guptill. “The building has been elevated above and designed above the ground.”

Ward 2 councillor Ralph Cipolla began working on getting the facility built when he was first elected in 1977. He says that supporting youth athletics was the driving force behind the project.

“What I wanted to do back then was build a recreation centre with a pool, because... the City of Orillia didn’t have a pool,” he says. “The only pool that existed was at the YMCA and it was membership only.”

Finally in 2006, council approved the project and next year it will be completed.
“It’s going to look gorgeous. It’ll be state-of-the-art, it’ll have solar panels… It’ll be a tourist attraction,” Cipolla told NRU. “[It] will consist of a 25-metre pool, a double gym, an area for training, [and] there’s going to be a track... around the gym.”

There are many attributes which enhance the facility, says Cipolla. “The pool will have a floor that can be raised and lowered,” to enhance accessibility.

He adds that it is vital that the recreational facility is accessible by all residents, including making sure people could get to the facility.

“We wanted it to be centrally located,” says Cipolla, “So people could take the bus... and walk to it.”

The building was designed by MacLellan Jaunkalns Miller Architects partner Robert Allen.