Events: Curling (also venue for Paralympic mixed wheelchair curling tournament)

Venue Capacity: 5,600

Cost: $39.05 million for curling venue; an additional $48.8 million for post-Games conversion and Percy Norman Aquatic Centre; VANOC contribution $40.25 million

Status: New

Opened: VANOC will be starting the sport event fit-out on January 5, 2009.
 
Elevation: 74 metres

Distance: 4km from Vancouver Athletes' Village

The brand new Vancouver Olympic Centre (formerly the Hillcrest/Nat Bailey Stadium Park) will host both the men's and women's curling events at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The venue is located at Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver. This venue will be served by the new rapid transit Canada Line that connects the Vancouver International Airport with downtown Vancouver.

Sustainable attributes for this venue include:

• The new facility replacing the aging existing community complex.

• Overall consolidation of the venue footprint, revised from early designs, will reduce land impact.

• Re-vegetation of the demolished sites during the legacy conversion should result in net zero green space loss. Impacted trees have been relocated to other sites in the park.

• Use of waste heat from the refrigeration plant will heat other building spaces and the adjacent Aquatic Centre.

• Aboriginal art will be installed at the venue as part of the Vancouver 2010 Venues Aboriginal Arts Program.

After the Games, the venue will be converted into a multi-purpose recreation centre that will include a hockey rink, gymnasium, library and eight sheets of curling ice. An indoor concourse will connect the venue to the new Percy Norman Aquatic Centre, featuring a leisure tank, a 50m lap pool and an outdoor aquatic area. The Aquatic Centre is measured at 60,000 square feet according to the Vancouver Park Board.

Figures

Venue architect: Hughes Condon Marler Architects