The Creekside Community Centre served as a media and administrative centre for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and was turned over to the Vancouver, BC community to provide a lasting recreation legacy to the city. The 45,000 sq. ft. facility includes a full size gymnasium, fitness centre, childcare centre, restaurant, boating centre and multi-purpose rooms.

Design for the project was provided by Walter Francl Architecture Inc, Vancouver, in conjunction with Nick Milkovich Architects, Vancouver. The design team was challenged to create a building that exemplified the city’s commitment to sustainable design. As Canada’s first LEED Platinum community centre, the facility incorporates various sustainable strategies and state-of-the-art mechanical and electrical systems.

Approximately 20,000 sq. ft. of RHEINZINK® 1.2mm/18 gauge Reveal Panels were used to clad the façade of the structure located on Vancouver’s striking False Creek waterfront.

“It’s a fairly long, narrow site and presents a long façade to the street,” according to Walter Francl, principal of Walter Francl Architects, as reported in Design Quarterly magazine. “We tried to mediate that by breaking the building at its centre point with a large two story atrium lobby.”

The exterior cladding utilizes a unique mix of curtain wall glazing and RHEINZINK. “The zinc is not galvanized material but a zinc sheet metal cladding which we thought was important because it’s going to age and develop a nice patina to it,” Francl said.

The RHEINZINK fabricator was Mercury Metals Ltd., Delta, BC. The installer on the project was Compass Cladding Inc., Aldergrove, BC.