1.6K 
As of today, the largest sports event in the city's history is just two years away. On July 10 2015, Toronto and Southern Ontario will welcome 7,000 athletes to the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games. Athletes from across the Americas will compete in 36 Pan Am sports and 15 Parapan Am sports. With events being held across the GTHA and beyond, from Niagara to Durham and north to Minden, the games will truly be a regional event.
To house competitions for the month long games, the many construction projects are under way. While UrbanToronto readers will be very familiar with the village being built to host athletes in the West Don Lands, there are many other sites that we have not reported on yet.
The largest of the facilities being built for the event is the Toronto Pan Am Sport Centre, formerly known as the Pan Am/Parapan Am Aquatics Centre and Field House, in Scarborough. The massive venue will host swimming, diving and synchronized swimming events in two 50-metre 10-lane swimming pools and a 5-metre deep diving tank in its 6,000 seat Aquatics Area. In the Field House will host Fencing, Modern Pentathlon and Sitting Volleyball in a 2,000 seat arena. Seating will be adjustable to meet the needs of the games and beyond.
The Toronto Pan Am Sport Centre is designed by Toronto-based NORR Architects with St. Louis, Missouri-based Counsilman-Hunsaker designing the aquatics facilities. Toronto's Janet Rosenberg + Studio are responsible for landscape architecture, and have kept sustainability in mind, using reflective paving and low maintenance greenery. When completed, the project will seek LEED Silver certification.
The facility is expected to cost $205 million, $44 million less than the $249 million budget. Situated at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, the venue will be co-owned the U of T and the City of Toronto. A student referendum voted 62% in favour of a tuition levy totalling $30 million towards the facility. With the current campus athletics facilities being woefully inadequate, anticipation and excitement are high as students get ready to take advantage of the new world-class facilities.
PCL started construction in July 2012 and crews have been working at breakneck speed to have the facility ready for test events in 2014. Much of the structural support columns and beams are already in place and cladding has already begun in some parts. Excavation on the Olympic-sized pools is underway with total construction efforts expected to create 150 new construction jobs.
When completed, the Toronto Pan Am Sport Centre will also be home to the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario (CSIO). CSIO will provide leading edge sport science, performance labs, coaching and training services creating a world class sport institute. According to CSIO CEO Debbie Low, "the Toronto Pan Am Sport Centre will be a tremendous resource for Ontario’s high-performance athletes and coaches, and will enhance and accelerate our work of taking these athletes along a pathway that leads to podiums."
While the facility will be front and centre for the games, its legacy will be felt throughout the community for years to come. A webcam has been set up for the public to keep track of construction on this massive facility and UrbanToronto will bring you the latest as the 2014 completion date gets closer. Check out our new dataBase entry below to see more renderings and info about the facility or head into our Forum and join the discussion about the games.
Article updated with new name of the facility.
| Related Companies: | entro, Janet Rosenberg & Studio, LiveRoof Ontario Inc, NORR Architects & Engineers Limited, PCL Construction, Trillium Architectural Products |
