Northern Water Sports Centre

The Northern Water Sports Centre has been conceived of as a centre for aquatic excellence. The building will promote community access to the lake by non-motorized watercraft and enable the project partners to host competitive water sport events up to an international level. The NWSC partnership for the project is between the City of Greater Sudbury, the Sudbury Rowing Club, the Sudbury Canoe Club and the Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival. The facility will house all of the water craft and training equipment as well as facilitate training/classes, workshops, community events and administrative functions for each club.

Bélanger Salach Architecture has been responsible for the feasibility study, the master planning and the architectural design of the facility. The development on the shore of Ramsey Lake is comprised of two buildings; the main building and the storage building. The main building houses the multipurpose rooms, viewing gallery, kitchen, offices, change rooms and the Sudbury Rowing Club storage at the lower level. The large storage building adjacent to the main building houses the Sudbury Canoe Club and Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival watercraft.

The Northern Water Sports Centre has been designed as a direct response to Sudbury’s environment, climate and ever changing seasons. The siting of the building, its orientation, the overall form, glazing and construction assemblies are intended to create an architecture that has minimal reliance on typical HVAC systems to maintain comfortable interior conditions. Due to the location and proximity of the site very close to Ramsey Lake, careful coordination of the siting of the building and precautions to protect the lake during construction were of utmost importance.

Project Team
Amber Salach – Principal, Project Architect
William Boudreau – Lead Technical Staff
Ted Matheson – Design and Visualization
Tony Niro – Costing & Construction Administrator