The Hillcrest Centre is a community centre with

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

and

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

rinks, and an aquatics facility, located at

Hillcrest Park Hillcrest Park is located in the Riley Park-Little Mountain neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. It is located immediately north of Queen Elizabeth Park and west of Riley Park. Next to Hillcrest Park is the site containing Nat Baile ...

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, Canada. Construction started in March 2007; it hosted the

2009 World Junior Curling Championships The 2009 World Junior Curling Championships were held from 5 March 2009 to 15 March 2009 in the newly completed Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre, which was the site for curling during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , ...

prior to the Olympics. During the 2010 Olympics, it was named the Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre and had a capacity of 6,000 people to host

curling at the 2010 Winter Olympics The curling competition of the 2010 Olympics was held at Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre in Vancouver. It is the fifth time that curling was on the Olympic program, after having been staged in 1924, 1998, 2002 and 2006. For the 2010 Winte ...

; for the 2010 Paralympics, it hosted the Wheelchair Curling event. Vancouver2010.com profile.
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Design

Sustainability features

The centre was built to qualify for the

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...

Scale (LEED) Gold certification; for example, the centre's refrigeration plant is designed to heat other areas of the building and the adjacent aquatic centre through the utilization of what is otherwise waste heat from cooling the ice surface. Surrounding ground water will also be collected for use in the facility's toilets. Smart site selection is key to maintaining the centre's green footprint; the new facility replaces a much older community complex, with the new curling complex being built on what was a gravel parking lot. Federal (CEAA) environmental assessment review process was also applied to the selection of the site. Trees that were affected during the construction of the venue were moved to other areas of the park, and any land created from the demolition of the old community centre will be turned into community green space during post-Games conversion.

Aboriginal participation

Aboriginal artwork was installed at the venue as part of the Vancouver 2010 Venues Aboriginal Arts Program. Featured art includes traditional, and contemporary artwork by First Nations, Inuit and Metis artists from across Canada.

Post Olympics

After the 2010 Olympic games, the centre was converted into a multi-purpose recreation centre that includes a hockey rink, gymnasium, library, eight sheets of curling ice and a lounge for the curlers. Connected to the facility via an indoor concourse will is the Percy Norman Aquatic Centre, which features a leisure tank, a 50m lap pool and an outdoor aquatic area.

References

{{Olympic venues curling Venues of the 2010 Winter Olympics Olympic curling venues Indoor arenas in British Columbia Sports venues in Vancouver Curling venues in Canada Curling in British Columbia 2009 establishments in British Columbia Sports venues completed in 2009