Peter Hemingway (coronation) Pool
This award-winning pool was built as a Centennial project, and is located in Coronation Park.
Details
- Historic designation
- Unknown
- Time period
- The Post War Years: 1946-1970
- People
- Peter Hemingway
- Architectural styles
- Modern
- Character defining elements
- Curtain Wall, Heavy Timber Construction, Metal Structure, Rectangular Footprint, Tensile Cables
Location
About
Designed by Peter Hemingway in 1967, this Olympic-sized pool was unlike anything ever seen in Edmonton. The design was inspired by the Expressive Modernism movement and the National Gymnasium and Pool in Tokyo, Japan. Originally named the Coronation Swimming Pool for the park in which it resides, the facility opened on July 3, 1970 at a total cost of $1.2 million. In 2005, the pool was renamed after Hemingway to commemorate and honour his work in the capital region.
Made of wood, concrete, steel, cables and glass, the structure brings the outside in and connects the building with the surrounding landscape. The design features curtain wall glazing for a high level of transparency while the heavy timer and embedded concrete piers tie the cable structure to the ground. The building shape is reminiscent of the crest of a wave or the rolling landscape of Alberta mountains and prairies. For his unique design, Hemingway won the Massey Medal for Architecture, the highest honour in the country for architecture.