As promised, I went to the presentation regarding the
Moncton North Community Centre.
Unfortunately, I had to leave early (prior engagement) and didn't have a chance to take any pictures of the renders.
Hopefully the city will post them on their website.
The presentation was very professional, complete with computer animations and flyby views. A lot of work and consultation has already gone into this proposal.
In a nutshell, this is what we have:
- A major community recreation centre designed to appeal to all ages.
- It will be built on 22 acres of city land immediately adjacent to Evergreen Park School.
- I'm not sure of the cost, but from what I saw it would have to be at least in the $15-20M range. The city already has $2M set aside and is looking for federal and provincial support.
- The footprint will be very large, at least 4/5th's the size of Evergreen Park School.
- Access to the facility will be by a new driveway off Clermont Street. There will be parking here, and also in the existing parking lot for Evergreen Park School.
- The building will be two floors. There will be a reception desk on the main foyer at the entrance. A large climbing wall will be visible as you enter the facility.
- The second floor will be a lounge and cafe overlooking all of the other facilities in the building. Parents could have a coffee and relax in the lounge while watching their kids via large viewing areas. There will also be a 200m walking track on the second floor.
- On the first floor, there will be reservable community meeting rooms. On the north end of the facility there will be an indoor skateboard/BMX track, including ramps and foam pits for perfecting stunts. On the south end, there will be an active indoor play area, including trampolines and more foam pits amongst other play equipment.
- Adjacent to the indoor play area, would be an outdoor water splash park.
- On the other side of the building would be an outdoor (but covered) skating facility, convertible at other times of the year to basketball courts etc.
- There might be an indoor six court tennis facility.
- There would be an adjacent soccer pitch.
Overall, this is a very impressive proposal and looking at it, I was somewhat reminded of the Mainland North recreational centre in Halifax. They are of course not comparable, but the idea is the same - to have a truly unique recreational facility in the north end of the city, unlike anything else in Atlantic Canada.