Approval of conceptual designs for the facility was the first step in the project.
Options for the conceptual design were presented to City Council following feedback from user groups, tours of similar facilities, advice from the Architect firm on best practices for multi-use recreation facilities and consideration of available budget.
These key features, approved in March 2021, formed the core footprint of the facility and finalized key details including the single building type; main features of the indoor water park; seating and dressing room allocations for the twin arenas; and commercial space allocations.
Key Design Elements Approved for Aquatic and Arenas Recreation Centre
These features form the core footprint of the facility. See the detailed design page for specifications and facility layout drawings.
| Building |
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The new facility will be built as a single building. With everything under one roof, once inside, families and groups will be able to move with ease between the arenas, aquatics and commercial spaces. |
| Aquatics – Water Park and Pools |
| The Aquatics area will be 51,500 square feet. It will feature a dedicated space for lane swimming and a leisure area. With dedicated spaces, there will be more hours available for competitive swim groups as well as more public swim times and swimming lessons for families. The expanded indoor capacity also means Prince Albert will be able to host local and regional swim competitions and added spectator seating will give more room for guests to watch. Currently, Frank J. Dunn pool is unable to host these events as the pool is limited to 5 lanes and does not meet Swim Sask requirements. Separate pools also means temperatures can be customized: cooler temperatures for the lane pool and warmer temperatures for the leisure pool.
Key features include:
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| Twin Arenas |
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The twin arenas will be 77,159 square feet with more seating, larger ice surfaces and more dressing rooms compared to our existing capacity at the Kinsmen and Steuart Arenas. The current number and size of player dressing rooms at the Kinsmen and Steuart Arena are: Kinsmen 4 660/455 sq/ft Administration worked with user groups to determine the final size and number of Player Dressing Rooms within the designated 6,720 square feet of space. The current number and size of referee dressing rooms at the Kinsmen and Steaurt Arena are: Kinsmen 1 162 sq/ft Administration worked with the Referee association to determine the location, size and number of referee dressing rooms within the designated 800 sq/ft of space. Key features of the twin arenas include:
Pictured Below: 660Sq/ft Dressing Room at the Great Plains Centre in Calgary (left) and 650Sq/ft Kinsmen Arena Dressing Room #1 (right)
Pictured Below: 162 sq/ft Referee Dressing Room at Kinsmen Arena (left) and 400 sq/ft Meadows Centre Referee Dressing Room (right)
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| Large Arena |
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A new 4500 seat Arena and Event Centre has been incorporated in the conceptual designs for the new Centre. Horseshoe DesignThe main concept design feature for the large arena is the shape of the facility. The Horseshoe 2-level concept has been approved and is preferred because:
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| Parking |
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A minimum of 1214 parking stalls will serve the single facility including the twin arenas, aquatics and large arena. |
| Accessibility |
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Throughout the design, accessibility has been a consideration prioritized by the steering committee and the project architects have extensive experience in designing facilities according to modern accessibility standards. Features included in the new facility:
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| Environmental Design |
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The following items we have been incorporated into the design to make the carbon footprint smaller:
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| Common Area and Commercial Space |
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The common area of the facility will be 14,700 square feet which includes a multipurpose room that can be booked for birthday parties, event hosting and other events. Similar to the Legends Centre in Warman, this will allow for a large common area with seating and 2000 square feet of leasable space to accommodate up to four businesses to offer products and services to users.
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