The Wascana Pool has reopened, replacing outdated 72-year-old facilities with a destination that aims to provide a social experience promoting fitness, fun, wellness, and safety for everyone.
Located in Wascana Park in Regina, Saskatchewan, the new pool aims to be Canada’s most accessible and inclusive. It was a design collaboration between P3Architecture Partnership (P3A) and interdisciplinary design firm hcma.
Community consultation was an important part of the design process and included extensive public and stakeholder group engagement to develop consensus around key programmatic decisions that guided the design of the pool facility.
Wascana Park is one of the largest urban parks in North America and close to the hearts of many Regina residents. Originally designed in 1912 to a restrained, English park layout, the park is flanked by large, formal buildings, including the University of Regina, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, and the Provincial legislature.
The new pool’s site-cast concrete pavilions are inspired by the natural placement, texture, and shape of Wascana Park’s Elm trees and builds off a modernist history of concrete pavilions dotted around the park and lake. The indoor spaces are distributed across several pavilions, which reduces the sense of bulk and unnatural intervention in the landscape.
The pools act as counterpoints to the pavilion structures. The pavilions and pools fit into the natural clearing on the site, providing ample grass and deck areas within the fence to allow for individuals and groups to set up for longer periods. The main change room pavilion is located just off a new plaza, near the drop off from the main roads. All of these intersect with an existing pedestrian and cycling path structure.
In homage to the park’s central location in Regina, a 9 m (29 ft) slide tower rises above the tree canopy. It is lined up with the city grid, creating a unique experience for visitors.
More features of the Wascana Pool include:
- A 700 m2 (7,534 sf) leisure pool with zero depth entry, a lazy river, and lap lanes.
- A 10-lane 25 x 25 m (82 x 82 ft) lap pool with an accessible switchback ramp, a climbing wall, and diving boards/platforms.
- Universal (non-gendered) change room and washroom facilities with fully accessible rooms, as well as tactile wayfinding and signage.
- A 75 m2 (807 sf) hot pool, designed to encourage socializing and with an accessible ramp and wellness elements.
- An accessible dual flume water slide with a ramp and transfer ledge.
- A two-slide tower with run-out that is being retrofit with elevator access.
- Broad lawn areas with tree shade for lounging and picnicking.
- Hardscape pool deck with outdoor showers and drainage.
- Toddler slide and play elements.
- Spray pad and playground (outboard of the pool control fence).
- All season concession and multi-purpose rooms that serve pool users and also visitors to the wider park, extending the facility’s presence in Wascana Park year-round.
“We talk about a Saskatchewan that works for everyone, I think this pool really shows that when it comes to accessibility, having swim lanes, having paddling pools, having spray parks. This is really something that people in the Regina area are really going to enjoy,” says Derek Meyers, local MLA, City of Regina.
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