New Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre in North Vancouver Aims for High Level of Accessibility
In North Vancouver, BC, on 23rd St East, between Lonsdale Avenue and St. Georges Avenue, sits the site of the new Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre (HJCRC). The new recreation centre, aiming to be complete in 2025, embraces the City of North Vancouver’s vision of A Healthy City for All, which seeks to ensure that everyone in the community has access to recreation facilities and activities, and focuses on physical and mental wellness, inclusion, accessibility and diversity.
City of North Vancouver Council unanimously directed the City to work with the Rick Hansen Foundation to ensure the new HJCRC meets the Certified Gold level of the Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification (RHFAC). The architecture firm leading this project, hcma, designs buildings and experiences that connect people, including a focus on increasing access and inclusion to all spaces in the building.
RHFAC Professional Designation Helped Enhance Architectural Training
Fiona Jones, Knowledge Manager of Inclusive Design at hcma, is excited about the project because of the shared interest from both hcma and the City of North Vancouver to focus on accessibility. “It all aligned really well,” Jones said. “Public facilities are huge investments for communities that need to last decades, so it's important to consider what meaningful access means for community buildings."
Jones received her RHFAC Professional designation by completing the RHFAC Training and passing the subsequent RHFAC Professional exam. She can now rate buildings with her designation. The knowledge and skills she gained from RHFAC Training enhanced her architectural training, helping hcma teams embed meaningful accessibility into the design of projects.
Canadians Want Accessible Spaces
Accessible spaces are something Canadians want, in fact 92% of Canadians believe that taxpayer funded projects should be held to the highest accessibility standards (according to Canada’s Report Card on Disability and Inclusion), and the new Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre is aiming to do just that.
According to the City of North Vancouver, HJCRC will be a barrier-free, accessible space for everyone. The RHFAC program supports this goal through the diversity of its features and their requirements as well as celebrating design innovation.
Accessibility Features in the Design for HJCRC
hcma is aiming for the new recreation centre to be as universally accessible as possible. This includes having accessible changerooms and washrooms that include adult change tables, an accessible community kitchen and many other features.
One of the features that Jones and Amy Stapleton, architect at hcma and part of the design team working on HJCRC, are most excited about is the variety of spaces carefully crafted in the project, and their diverse activity, spatial, and sensory experiences.
“RHFAC prompts us to consider barriers beyond what many people think of as accessibility. Types of environments, multi-sensory experiences, neurodiversity – thinking about more senses in more ways is an area we’re trying to focus on and improve on,” Jones said.
The design team discussed how to create as many spaces that as many people with different lived experience could use functionally. An example of this is a sensory friendly washroom. The washroom is being designed to provide adjustable lighting levels, and a manual flush toilet and paper towel dispenser instead of hand dryer to reduce loud and unexpected noises.
Approach to Accessibility Went Beyond Technical Elements
Stapleton added that their approach to accessibility applies to more technical elements as well. For example, when looking at the pool in the recreation centre, “having a variety of entrances to the pool, with the widest range of accessible features was important.”
She remarked that initially, they had considered transfer ledges as an effective feature that supports many individuals who use a mobility device to transfer smoothly from the pool deck into some pools. However, after speaking with people with lived experience, they have learned why this wouldn’t be a realistic option for some. This prompted Stapleton and the design team to revisit the accessibility strategies for the pool tank where the transfer ledge is included.
Feedback Sessions Helped Inform Design
They explained further that the team had design feedback sessions with The North Shore Advisory Committee on Disability Issues to help inform their designs, including pool entry strategies.
“The sessions have been really helpful and we’re thankful for honest feedback. They increase our understanding of why specific features or strategies are important, how they are used and experienced, and how we can design better,” Jones said.
“An element can serve certain people's needs well, but when we broaden the diversity of experience we’re considering, we need to approach features thinking about the various ways different people will interact with them,” Stapleton said. “We learn how individuals would navigate their way through an area or use a feature and this helps us approach it differently going forward.”
“It leads to interesting discussions of what we can do with design and the decisions we’re making regarding accessibility – including aspects such as materials and wayfinding,” Jones added.
Staff Areas Were Also a Focus of Accessible Design
Another accessibility focus they discussed was staff areas of the new HJCRC, such as kitchenettes. Jones mentioned that these ‘back of house’ areas aren’t always given as much consideration from an accessibility standpoint and from her experience are often areas that are lacking. She remarked that consideration of staff is another way RHFAC is pushing their discussions.
“We needed to learn about ways to provide clearance under sinks and get creative with storage, rather than having the storage under the sink, for example,” Stapleton said. “The standard design is what we accept as normal, but it didn’t work for everyone in the first place.” The kitchenettes provide knee clearance under the sinks and work surfaces, as well as trying to maximize usability and safety through the careful placement of appliances.
Jones added that unless we build these areas in an accessible and welcoming way we are contributing to barriers to employment for many people.
Keeping Accessibility Top of Mind
With their focus on accessibility, hcma is constantly working to improve how they approach accessibility and integrate it in their design process.
hcma is taking the RHFAC Professional Handbook, which provides guidance to RHFAC Professionals on how to rate different features of the built environment, and adapting it from an assessment tool to a design process tool. "Juggling a project of this size, ensuring each relevant aspect is considered at the right time by the right people is difficult, so being able to flag critical information and share it effectively is beneficial,” Jones explained.
“Community centres in particular are some of the most widely used spaces we get to work on as designers,” Jones said. “Many facilities are aging, and what drives the design of new ones is questioning what a community centre can be and for whom, and progressing our notions of accessibility.”
