Calgary | Rocky Ridge Recreation Facility
Shane Homes YMCA (Rocky Ridge) | ?m | ?s | City of Calgary | GEC
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Momin
Senior Member
Momin
Senior Member
Beazley66
Active Member
Nothing short of stunning. I just hope the functional programming works as well as it looks. Great looking facility though.
Beltline_B
Senior Member
Looks wonderful. I wish that was the Telus science centre.
Always_Biking
Senior Member
I never thought about before, but that would be good. Not only does the building look like a UFO, but the inside is much better than Telus Spark IMO. Imagine cruising down the Deerfoot and seeing that building, it would be hard not to check it out.
Beazley66
Active Member
Seriously, that would be an amazing sight to behold while cruising down the Deerfoot. I really like the
way the building folds up from the ground. It seems like it becomes part of the landscape, less a literal exclamation
of a forced "wow look at me". (which usually ends up with mixed results... ie: Telus Spark)
way the building folds up from the ground. It seems like it becomes part of the landscape, less a literal exclamation
of a forced "wow look at me". (which usually ends up with mixed results... ie: Telus Spark)
Oddball
Senior Member
All of a sudden I'm starting to wonder how much this sucker cost.
BKha
Active Member
The cost was $190 million. Telus Spark was $160 Million, but was built a while back...I have no idea what it would be today.
Always_Biking
Senior Member
Taking into account inflation, each about the same cost.
The Familia
Senior Member
Telus Spark may be the biggest failure and underwhelming building Calgary has ever produced. For what it is supposed to embody and facilitate (science, technology, creativity, wonder and awe, amazement) it is an overwhelming failure in every single aspect. The building itself is unremarkable in every way imaginable and does not have a single redeeming quality. Very sterile and corporate from exterior to interior. Bland gray sheet metal covers the entire exterior with very little glass. I still don't understand what the dark gray scaffolding fins are supposed to do that are mounted on the exterior walls. They serve no purpose other then to somewhat hide the sheet metal. The bold colours that the original rendering displayed (red roof, multicolored façade that apparently could project images and change) were all scrapped for the blandest gray you can find. The interior is worse. Very clinical in appearance and feel. Large swaths of empty unused space that serves no purpose. The actual exhibits were boring, broken, lame, or pointless. The actual school programming offered (Gr. 6 air and aerodynamics) was brutal and nothing that couldn't be done in anyone's kitchen. The theater is the only highlight with an amazing screen and picture quality. I don't think I will ever return either with a school group or on my own. In fact, I hope the building collapses one night (with no one in it) and the city is forced to start from scratch. I would have rather not built a new science center then be stuck with the trash we received. That $150 million is better spent on a fieldhouse. End rant!
Oddball
Senior Member
Ugh, I'm at pains to "like" what you said Familia, but because I certainly don't like any of it. I agree with all of if though. As unremarkable as the building turned out both inside and out, it's the incredibly poor exhibits that did it for me. All that the permanent display consists are a bunch of brown play blocks and a few sponsored things about oil viscosity. Most of it could be generously be termed "art" rather than science and does little to enlighten either way. When I went there was a traveling exhibit on film animatronics and all it amounted to was a couple of interactive sculptures pushed into a small irregular beige atrium beside the lobby. I could hardly believe how poor the experience was. I couldn't agree more about starting over with this one. I'd start with a new board that actually gives a damn about the subject matter and mission of a science center and work from there.
Wow, $190M. That sounds like a huge amount of money for a rec centre. I can't say I'm crazy about what I see in the floorplans:
http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Recreation/Documents/Research-and-development/Rocky_Ridge_design.pdf
As John Hammond would have said, "We spared no expense!" when it comes the to aesthetics at any rate, but the functionality seems a little lacking to me. All that building and it only houses a single hockey rink, a fitness centre, a 200m running track, 3 gyms, a 25 meter pool, a leisure pool and leisure skating rink. That doesn't sound a whole heck of a lot different than the Westside Rec Centre. I couldn't find an original construction cost from 2000, but I was able to found a simplified balance sheet for 2016 that listed the combined value of their capital assets and investments at roughly $50M. I hope to heck they haven't lost 75% of their value in the ~15 years since they opened.
I'm at a bit of a loss on this one. I like the building. I like the brass cladding and the wooden ribs. I think the overhanging viewing galleries are nice too. All the amenities seem pretty standard for a sub-urban rec centre, but the whole isn't equal to the sum of it's parts, not when offsetting that against a $190M cost. This should be more like Lindsay-Talisman-Repsol with it's choice location, unique canopy, vast fitness centre, multiple Olympic swimming pools and diving tower than serviceable old Westside. I'm a little upset that so much money was spent on a rather middle of the road sporting facility stuck somewhere in the wilderness where no one will ever see it and I live all of one community over.
Circling back, if I'm leery about RRRF, a building that I generally like, I think I threw up in my mouth a little thinking about the cost-benefit of Spark.
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AJX
Active Member
I love the building too (Rocky Ridge), but kind of had to sit and think about that price tag. Seems excessive to me, but then again, maybe that's the going rate for this kind of thing? I dunno.
Oddball
Senior Member
Yeah, I'll have to compare it against other recent rec centres to get a better gauge. I'm only guessing that Westside cost around $50M. And there's been a lot of price inflation in construction inputs since 2000. The much more boiler plate Genesis Centre in NE Calgary apparently clocked in around $120M in 2011.
darwink
Senior Member
Well, the lap pool is twice the size, and there is a small library in Rocky Ridge. Total 284,000 square feet.
The Westside Regional Recreation Society raised $5 million out of a total original budget of $30 million, less the cost of land, for 175k square feet. The expansion was $32 million for 65k additional square feet, a second arena, a second twin gym, and some support facilities for those. The original was in 2000, and the expansion in 2009. Look at that construction inflation!
The Westside Regional Recreation Society raised $5 million out of a total original budget of $30 million, less the cost of land, for 175k square feet. The expansion was $32 million for 65k additional square feet, a second arena, a second twin gym, and some support facilities for those. The original was in 2000, and the expansion in 2009. Look at that construction inflation!