Plans for a new Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre have been in the works since 2017, and now we have an idea of what the eagerly-awaited project will look like.
The existing community centre opened in 1949 and is located in Oak Park at Oak Street and West 59th Avenue. The rapidly-growing neighbourhood has outgrown the space and in 2018, a motion was passed for a “new, full-sized outdoor pool in South Vancouver co-located at Marpole Community Centre in Oak Park.”
The design, by Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc. in collaboration with Sky Spirit Studio Inc., a Coast Salish intergenerational design practice, aims to honour the area’s Indigenous history, and the xÊ·məθkÊ·É™yÌ“ É™m (Musqueam) Nation who have inhabited the area since time immemorial. Landscape architecture will be by PFS Studio.
The new Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre will be two storeys with a floor area of 186,300 square feet, and include a seniors centre on the first floor, and childcare facility on the second floor. There will be one level of underground parking accessed from Park Drive.
Renderings: New Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre
A new outdoor swimming pool will be located on the southeast corner of the site, as well as a splash pad, children’s playground, sports court and performance circle.
The new community centre will be built to Passive House standards, with the architects stating: “A highly disciplined structural system made of mass timber defines the space, and is configured to play to the inherent strengths of the material, deployed in a purposefully economical way – with important reductions in GHG emissions as a result.”
