City receives prestigious award for community facility

14 June 2022

The City of Richmond has received the 2022 Bill Woycik Outstanding Facility Award from the Recreation Facilities Association of British Columbia (RFABC) for the Minoru Centre for Active Living.

The prestigious award, presented annually, recognizes a new or relatively new recreation, sport or leisure facility that meets a demonstrated community need through innovations in design, energy management, operations, revenue generation and services.

“Since being fully open to the community in 2020, the Minoru Centre for Active Living has become a recreational, social and cultural hub for the community that showcases the City’s commitment to innovation, design and environmental efficiency,” said Mayor Malcolm Brodie. “The Minoru Centre for Active Living serves as an important place where Richmond’s diverse and intergenerational community can come together to be active and create connections.”

The Minoru Centre for Active Living at 7191 Granville Avenue houses one of the Province’s premier aquatic centres, along with a Seniors Centre, Event Centre and an 8,500 square foot fitness centre. Accessibility was a key focus during the design, resulting in features such as automated doors, transfer edges for easy and comfortable access to the pools, universal change rooms, high contrast signage and lower counter heights.

Extensive engagement with the community, stakeholder groups and other facility operators helped to ensure the facility included best practices in design, access and efficiency. For example, the centre’s design aims to reduce indoor water use by 39 per cent and outdoor water use by100 per cent compared to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) baselines, thanks to water conservation strategies such as low-flow plumbing fixtures, efficient pool filtration systems and the use of greywater for landscape irrigation.

The Minoru Centre for Active Living is equipped with energy saving equipment such as high performance windows, demand control ventilation and LED lights with occupancy sensors that, together, help to reduce the building’s energy consumption by 49 per cent compared to similar but more conventional facilities elsewhere.

“The Minoru Centre for Active Living is not only an aesthetically stunning facility in design, but has incorporated impeccable energy efficiencies and sustainability initiatives in its construction,” said Jenna Stevens, RFABC President-Elect. “The Recreation Facilities Association of BC is a leading industry resource for the recreation sector, supporting municipalities in their provision of quality recreation experiences for their communities. We are pleased to award the City of Richmond with the 2022 Bill Woycik Outstanding Facility Award.”

The Minoru Centre for Active Living is the second City of Richmond facility to receive the prestigious Bill Woycik Outstanding Facility Award in recent years. The City Centre Community Centre at 5900 Minoru Boulevard received the honour in 2017.

The 2022 award was presented to the City of Richmond by RFABC at the Council meeting on Monday, June 13, 2022.