Photo credit: Adrien Williams
LAURIER BRANTFORD YMCA
CANNONDESIGN
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.”