Provision of multi-professional services to design and deliver a new leisure centre within an innovative building

Riverside Leisure Centre

Chelmsford City Council wanted to provide the city with a major new leisure centre adjoining a refurbished ice rink and sports hall on the site. The new state of the art facility needed to provide pools, fitness suite, large multi-purpose studios, crèche and café, in addition to a large community foyer and improved ice rink facilities and sports hall.

The people of Chelmsford have been foremost in our minds as we have planned and delivered this project; a cutting-edge centre to do the city justice and have a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of everyone who lives here.

Nick Eveleigh

Chelmsford City Council’s chief executive

Pick Everard was appointed to provide a complete multi-disciplinary service, supporting our client in realising its vision for a facility with a strong emphasis on functionality, efficiency and sustainability.

Sport England represented a major stakeholder on the project. All design proposals delivered needed to comply with its design guidance and standards to obtain grant funding from them for the scheme.

We held a series of meetings with Chelmsford Access Group and representatives of both the city and county councils with networks of contacts within the wider disabled community to understand the main access concerns for the facility.

One of the main sustainability challenges for this project was achieving a sustainable, energy efficient leisure centre within the client's budget, as well as providing a high-quality design throughout.

We worked closely with Sport England to discuss our concept proposals and agree design calculations for pool areas, gym and studios.By understanding requirements for disabled users of the facility, we developed designs in response and communicate these back to the relevant stakeholders in the form of drawings and layout plans. This resulted in measures adopted throughout the facility to enhance accessibility for disabled users.

Our Sustainability Consultants collaborated with the wider team in developing solutions to sustainability requirements. We provided accurate predictions around daylighting and heating/cooling using thermal modelling, giving us confidence to use a combined heat and power system to reduce carbon emissions as well as providing lifecycle operational cost savings.