Kin Centre Complex Enhancement Project | Civic (Cultural) Wood Design + Construction | naturally:wood
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Exterior cloudy daytime view of low rise Kin Centre Complex Enhancement Project showing hybrid construction with exterior concrete supports penetrating inward to support glue-laminated timber (glulam) roof beams

Kin Centre Complex Enhancement Project

Location: Prince George, B.C.
Architect: PBK Architects Inc.
Completion: 2013
Photo credit: Alex Zander Photography

Size
3,716 square metres

Owner
City of Prince George

Structural Engineer
Fast + Epp

Structural Field Review
Scouten Engineering

Construction Manager
Yellowridge Construction

Wood Supplier
Mercer Mass Timber LLC

Structural systems
Mass timber hybrid
Post-and-beam

Project materials
Glue-laminated timber
Plywood

The Kin Centre Complex—which is Prince George’s hub for ice sports and recreation—stands out because of the massive hybrid steel-and-wood roof structure, which is made out of thousands of board feet of locally sourced solid wood decking.

The City of Prince George needed to upgrade the existing Kin Centre Complex in order to host the 2015 Canada Winter Games. The old Kin 1 arena, built in the 1970s, was demolished and replaced with a new 700-seat arena in a phased construction process. The new Kin 1 arena—which was outfitted with Olympic-size ice—was the city’s showpiece for the 2015 Canada Winter Games. The new arena, along with the existing Kin 2 and 3 arenas and the existing 6,000-seat CN Centre, was the hosting space for men’s and women’s hockey, ringette, short track speed skating and figure skating. The existing Outdoor Ice Oval next to the Kin Centre hosted long-track speed skating.

A locally sourced, spectacular Wood First roof

From the outset, the city expressed a desire to have wood used in a meaningful way and use as much local wood as possible to meet their Wood First Policy. The design team decided to meet that objective, and a spectacular wood roof was in order. They designed a gently arched wood and steel beam roof that contains over 400,000 board feet of solid wood decking.

The roof consists of prefabricated locally-sourced spruce-pine-fir (SPF) glulam panels with a plywood skin. This provides a roof support system and diaphragm, without the need for additional bracing. The two-span continuous panels were placed in a staggered configuration to keep loading and deflection consistent, while providing an interlocking surface for the diaphragm. Plywood was used to tie the wood panels together and to help meet the heavy timber requirements.

“The very first skaters to touch the ice were a group of four and five-year-olds. Seeing them going on the ice and thinking ‘the memories that are going to be created here, the tears and the joy and the sorrow that is going to happen in here’ it’s quite profound.”

ANDY BEASLEY, ARENA MANAGER, KIN CENTRE
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