The City of New Westminster is in the mood to celebrate.
The city is inviting community members to attend an upcoming celebration in honour of təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre winning an international architectural award. At a Dec. 2 ceremony at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the City of New Westminster was awarded a Prix Versailles 2024 World Title Special Prize for an Interior in the Sports category.
“This is an incredible and unexpected honour for New Westminster. təməsew̓txʷ is only the third Canadian project to ever be recognized by the Prix Versailles and the first-ever community recreation centre in the world to receive a Prix Versailles award,” said Mayor Patrick Johnstone. “Opened just six months ago, təməsew̓txʷ is the biggest single capital investment the City of New Westminster has ever made and is now welcoming more than 3,000 people a day to use this facility.”
Other projects shortlisted in the Prix Versailles Sports category included the Olympic Aquatic Centre in Paris, the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing, and the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
In October, the city learned the facility had been shortlisted by the Prix Versailles selection committee as one of the World's Most Beautiful Sports Venues for 2024. It was also eligible to compete for one of the three 2024 World Titles – Prix Versailles, Interior and Exterior.
The news that the facility had been named as one of the World’s Most Beautiful Sports Venues came as a shock to the City of New Westminster and hcma (the architect). Unlike other architectural awards, the Prix Versailles is not a self-nominated competition in which architects submit a package of material to be selected by a jury.
“The Prix Versailles is an awards program that is run by UNESCO. They comb the architectural media for projects that are getting attention, and then they select their own shortlist of projects,” explained Paul Fast, a principal and lead architect with hcma. “Winners are then notified.”
The project has been featured in various publications including Architectural Record, a global architectural publication, and Azure, an architectural magazine that focuses on contemporary architecture and design.
Fast said the mayor and hcma received letters informing them New Westminster had received a laurate, which meant it was on a shortlist. At the ceremony in Paris, the New Westminster project received the Title Special Prize for an Interior in the Sports category.
“We were ecstatic,” he said. “This is a significant achievement for our firm, and for the city as well.”
In addition to representatives from hcma, Lisa Spitale, the city’s chief administrative officer, attended the Prix Versailles ceremony in Paris (at no cost to the city as she paid her own way). They were among several hundred people from countries around the world attending the black-tie event at the UNESCO headquarters, in a space with a view of the Eiffel Tower.
The City of New Westminster is hoping to bring a little bit of a French flair to an upcoming community celebration of the Prix Versailles achievement.
“This building is for the community, and we'd like to be able to celebrate the recognition of the award,” said Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks and recreation. “We'll be opening up the pool and the small gymnasium – free admission for people to come. And if they haven't checked us out, come and check us out the first time; if they're a regular follower, bring a friend along and enjoy it for free.”
In addition to free drop-in swimming, fitness and sports offerings, visitors will be able to enjoy some refreshments (with a nod to the French aspects of the award) and activities in the lobby. It’s all happening on Sunday, Dec 15 from 12:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 65 East Sixth Ave.
Fast said the project would not have been possible without the city’s leadership, which included setting “extremely high and ambitious goals” for the project and what it needed to do for the community. He said the award honours the most beautiful buildings in the world.
“How we define beautiful for this project was a building, really, that would welcome everybody through its doors, where everybody could find the place. That was what our version of beauty was for this project,” he said. “And I think when we look at the history of the Canada Games Pool and the legacy that that building had in this community, and we look at the building that we have here today, I think it's really fulfilled that mandate; we know that there's so many more people in this community now that have a place that they can call home.”
