Burnaby council is being asked to approve $10 million to get to the next phase of designs for a massive new community centre in Confederation Park.
The proposed community centre will supplement the existing civic facilities located in Confederation Park and “help meet the current and projected future demand for community services in the City’s Northwest Quadrant,” says a city staff report.
Costing an estimated $127 million, the project will add much-needed community space and link the existing facilities together in an arc-shaped design. The project will see an expanded fitness facility that includes weight and cardio areas. There will also be a café with an outdoor patio seating area. The centre will also feature more multipurpose and meetings rooms, plus a community kitchen. There will also be a gymnasium area for indoor sports activities.
Confederation Park has three large community amenity buildings: the Burnaby Public Library McGill Branch (constructed 2001), Eileen Dailly Leisure Pool and Fitness Centre (constructed 1992), and the Confederation Community Centre for Seniors (constructed 1988).
“The existing facilities were built over different decades on different ground planes and illustrate varying architectural expression,” says the report. “The complex is no longer adequate to serve the growing community of the Northwest Quadrant of Burnaby. The abundance of asphalt surface parking between the facilities is the dominant feature.”
In August 2021, council adopted recommendations to authorize staff to approve the final schematic design and advance the Confederation Park Community Centre project, and authorize the use of Community Benefit Bonus Reserve of $14,750,000 to finance detailed design, City development approvals, tender documents, and preliminary site servicing and offsite costs.
The funding would be for work by Revery Architecture Inc., a Vancouver-based architecture firm, with offices in Vancouver and Hong Kong.
