Seton Recreation Facility | ?m | ?s | City of Calgary | Gibbs Gage

This building is 3 storeys tall above ground, with a mechanical basement tunnel level as well. Height in meters is unknown.

http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/CNS/Docu...ion Facility DD Presentation_15-04-20_WEB.pdf


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Wonder which one will be larger/nicer, this or the Royal Oak one? I was in the Royal Oak one last weekend and it was impressive. A lot of wasted empty space though. Swimming pool could have been much larger.
 
Do you mean Rocky Ridge? I don't believe there's a rec centre in Royal Oak.

Edit: Oh I see why you thought that though, I didn't realize Royal Oak borders Rocky Ridge right at the Rec Centre.
 
With recent facilities built in Rocky Ridge, Quarry Park, Sandleridge and Seton. Plus upgrades and remodels at many other rec facilities. Where does all the money come for them? That’s gotta be close to a billion dollars in Capitol costs. Does the city cover all the costs or are the other levels of government chipping in? How about private sector or the developers of these communities do they pay for a share?
 
With recent facilities built in Rocky Ridge, Quarry Park, Sandleridge and Seton. Plus upgrades and remodels at many other rec facilities. Where does all the money come for them? That’s gotta be close to a billion dollars in Capitol costs. Does the city cover all the costs or are the other levels of government chipping in? How about private sector or the developers of these communities do they pay for a share?
The total capital cost for all 4 recreation centres in this tranche (Seton, Rocky Ridge, Great Plains, Quarry Park) was $480 million. The city's current recreation operating model for these facilities is for a private-sector partner to operate the facility to cover maintenance, operating, lifecycle and other ongoing costs.

It is interesting to compare Calgary's recreation facilities to other cities in Canada, the service model/level of public investment varies dramatically city by city. There are a bunch of different approaches out there that determine the amount of public and private investment in recreation, as well as whether it is public or private operating. Calgary has built the most extensive system (also expensive) of recreation facilities in Canada, but also has a fairly low operating cost model, generally because the operator must cover the costs (i.e. users are paying with higher fees/program costs). This differs from Toronto and Montreal where they approach recreation as a public good, focusing on reducing fees for users and keeping many facilities publicly run, at a potentially higher operating cost.
 
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In my experience, Calgary doesn't have as extensive a system as Toronto has both private and public run facilities.
 
In my experience, Calgary doesn't have as extensive a system as Toronto has both private and public run facilities.
I used the wrong words. I'm trying to say Calgary's recreation centres are relatively unique in their size and scale in Canada. Few cities build ones as large as us or as multi-function. Toronto does indeed have a great network of recreation facilities, but they aren't nearly as enamoured as we are with the mega-scale multi-function facilities we have become accustom to; tending to have more, smaller facilities than fewer, mega-sized ones. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach.

Personally, I would prefer if we reduced the scale of our facilities so they can fit better into the city fabric. All these mega-centres require so much land that they are really difficult to integrate into communities or place in prime locations due to their outsized land requirements (Rocky Ridge being a prime example of this). It's ironic that centres striving to layer in as many functions as possible to develop into community hubs are in fact so large that they don't integrate easily with the communities they are serving.
 
I misunderstood. Calgary's facilities are younger built in this age of mega schools, recreational centres with large regional catchments opposed to their smaller, neighbourhood predecessors. There are advantages and disadvantage to both approaches. Mega structures provide a full range of options which smaller facilities can't. They are more spread out and less walkable for their catchment to get too.
 
Wonder which one will be larger/nicer, this or the Royal Oak one? I was in the Royal Oak one last weekend and it was impressive. A lot of wasted empty space though. Swimming pool could have been much larger.
This one will be larger I believe. Went to the Rocky Ridge one last weekend and I agree, lots of wasted space. That one is great on the inside, but the metal tiles on the outside are already looking quite dingy, not sure it will age well...
 
This one will be larger I believe. Went to the Rocky Ridge one last weekend and I agree, lots of wasted space. That one is great on the inside, but the metal tiles on the outside are already looking quite dingy, not sure it will age well...

According to the City of Calgary site, Rocky Ridge is 284,000 square feet in size and Seton will be an approximately 330,000 square foot facility.
http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Recreati...-the-new-Rocky-Ridge-recreation-facility.aspx
http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Recreati.../About-the-new-Seton-recreation-facility.aspx
 

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