UBC raises the bar with newly opened 100,000 sq. ft. recreation centre

The University of British Columbia (UBC) has officially opened its brand-new Recreation Centre North, dramatically expanding the Vancouver campus’ fitness and student wellness facilities while setting a new standard for recreational amenities.

This is the first new substantial purpose-built indoor recreational facility added to the campus in 30 years, ever since the Student Recreation Centre was built next door in 1995.

From the outset, when this project was being planned, the goal was to meaningfully address the Vancouver campus’ extreme deficit of such facilities for its large student population.

Prior to the project’s construction start in 2022, the Vancouver campus had 0.36 sq. ft. of recreational space per student, which was one of the lowest ratios in Canada. In stark contrast, the UBC Okanagan campus, Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus, and University of Toronto’s St. George campus were each at 0.41 sq. ft, while the University of Western Ontario was at 0.67 sq. ft., the University of Alberta was at 0.68 sq. ft., Queen’s University was at 0.9 sq. ft., and the University of Victoria was at 1.1 sq. ft.

Recreation Centre North at UBC Vancouver, as seen on June 25, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Based on previous estimates, the addition of Recreation Centre North has significantly increased UBC Vancouver’s recreation space to approximately 0.82 sq. ft. per student — a major improvement for a campus serving roughly 55,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

“There’s a dramatic change. We were very low in terms of fitness space and gymnasium space per square foot per student, and now we’re much higher,” Kavie Toor, the Managing Director of Athletics and Recreation at UBC, told Daily Hive Urbanized during an interview today.

“You know, because of our campus size, we’re not at the top. Certainly some smaller schools are being at the top, but certainly we feel this will more than meet the needs of our student community. We’re now in line with some of the leaders.”

Situated at the western end of Student Union Boulevard and immediately north of the UBC Life Building (former Student Union Building), replacing previous plaza and roadway areas, Recreation Centre North is a 100,000 sq. ft. building spanning four storeys.

Now one of the largest fitness gyms in Metro Vancouver, the facility features 40,000 sq. ft. of fitness gym space, vertically stacked across four levels — each offering distinct equipment and programming. The levels include a diverse mix of cardiovascular machines, stretching zones, heavy lifting areas, Olympic platforms and benches, squat racks, plate-loaded machines, free weights, crossover units, and more. A dedicated personal training studio is located on the top floor.

This marks a dramatic increase in fitness gym space compared to the Student Recreation Centre’s basement-level fitness gym, the 8,000 sq. ft. BirdCoop, which will now be temporarily closed for its complete conversion into a progression bouldering gym. However, the relatively newer 8,000 sq. ft. ARC fitness gym within the basement of the UBC Life Building will remain in operation and is directly accessible from a new underground entrance inside Recreation Centre North’s atrium.

Recreation Centre North at UBC Vancouver, as seen on June 25, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

There are also large studio and multipurpose rooms for a wide range of fitness classes and other programs.

A significant portion of the building’s floor area is also devoted to three full-sized, multi-purpose gymnasiums — two side-by-side courts that share a large open volume which can be divided by an overhead partition. A third gymnasium is located in its own separate, standalone space and named after former faculty member Nestor Korchinsky, who is best known for creating the university’s now-popular intramurals program over four decades ago.

These gymnasiums are expected to become well-used areas for playing basketball, volleyball, and badminton, and perhaps even dodgeball and pickleball.

Toor says there is an excessive demand for on-campus gymnasium space. For example, he says, they had 100 volleyball teams in the intramural league last year, with 105 on the wait list because of a lack of space. For this reason, the existing three gymnasiums above BirdCoop at the Student Recreation Centre will be retained.

On an upper level, a 200-metre looping indoor running track wraps around the three gymnasiums, with much of the track being a mezzanine level that overlooks the large open space containing the two side-by-side gymnasium courts — serving the dual purpose of offering users elevated views of the activity below. Expansive windows also allow people to see the activities inside the fitness gyms, gymnasiums, and the running track, with yellow walls that are brightly illuminated, providing visual interest especially at nighttime — perhaps not entirely dissimilar to the original design of Dal Grauer Substation in downtown Vancouver.

Recreation Centre North at UBC Vancouver, as seen on June 25, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

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Recreation Centre North at UBC Vancouver, as seen on June 25, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

The new building includes a spacious universal locker area, adjacent to banks of universal private single-occupancy stalls for showering, changing, and washroom use.

All floors and uses are connected by the central atrium’s lightning bolt-shaped and coloured grand staircase, while a covered outdoor pathway cuts through the ground-level mid-building, creating a porous design that enhances pedestrian flow and visual connectivity to the UBC Life Building and the new linear plaza that separates the two structures.

The project’s total construction cost came to $70 million, which represents a relatively slight increase from its stated budget of $66 million before construction began. Nearly a third of the budget is funded by $22.5 million of annual student levies approved in a 2017 student referendum, and the remainder from the university and donors.

Toor says the running track was eyed for elimination to bring the costs down during the value-engineering process, but in the end, they found a way to save this major fitness feature.

The building is hard to miss with its bold, contemporary, angular exterior, and it boasts the certifications of LEED Gold green building and the Rick Hansen Foundation accessible building. The design team includes Shape Architecture and PFS Studio.

Students can access the running track and gymnasiums for free when it is not in use for scheduled programming, and they can also have substantial discounts to access the fitness gym and classes. Faculty and staff will also have discounted access, while the general public can access the facilities at closer to market rates.

Recreation Centre North at UBC Vancouver, as seen on June 25, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Recreation Centre North is one of the largest new facilities outlined in UBC’s “GamePlan” strategy — approved in 2017 by the university’s board of governors — of renewing the Vancouver campus’ sports facilities for elite, amateur, and general recreation uses.

The strategy also calls for a new standalone Integrated Performance Centre for training elite athletes, including varsity team members and Olympians, and major renovations to Tourmaline West Baseball Stadium and Nobel Park Softball Field, which were both completed about five years ago.

Other than Recreation Centre North, the other significant projects listed in the strategy are a new replacement outdoor Thunderbird Stadium — featuring 5,000 seats, expandable to 10,000 seats — in a reconfigured and relocated footprint that also enables significant new residential developments, as well as a new replacement or substantially renovated War Memorial Gymnasium, which is also a spectator venue with 3,000 seats, but was built in 1951 and is now in need of major reinvestment.

Toor told Daily Hive Urbanized the university is now exploring the possibility of combining a new replacement War Memorial Gymnasium with the future new replacement outdoor stadium site at the future Stadium residential neighbourhood, suggesting the potential of both spectator venues to share concourse space, washrooms, meeting rooms, and other facilities. A range of options is being contemplated, but such efficiencies could reduce both construction and operating costs.

“That’s really an ideating stage and concept exploration. The stadium project has certainly gone through the process on as a standalone, and that will happen. But we’re just exploring, is there a more efficient way to look at this long term?” he said.

Recreation Centre North at UBC Vancouver, as seen on June 25, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Recreation Centre North at UBC Vancouver, as seen on June 25, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)Recreation Centre North at UBC Vancouver, as seen on June 25, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

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