Growing evidence and understanding of the social, physical, psychological and economic role that recreation and competitive athletics play in our personal lives, communities, and public institutions continues to fuel investment in capital facilities development. Success in these projects is an increasingly complex equation — balancing standards for human performance, program requirements, environmental sensitivity, adaptability and funding with the athlete and spectator experience. Achieving this requires experience, leadership and talent.

Cannon Design has earned international recognition and trust for insight and invention in planning and design of facilities for sports and recreation in both the public and private sectors, working with communities and colleges, universities and sports authorities. From international games to student recreation, competitive venues to training centers, academic programs to community recreation, our senior sports professionals have the knowledge and experience to calculate this challenging equation for success.

Master planning and programming of sports and recreation facilities requires vision, expertise, and an in-depth knowledge of all sports and recreation typologies. With an endless range of requirements and understanding for each physical activity, clients seek architects who can share their knowledge of sport and bring focus to the overall planning process in an streamlined and efficient manner.

Cannon Design has lead the master planning and programming process across North America and abroad for communities and private and public institutions of varying size, as well as organizing committees involved in the hosting of the Olympic Games and other international sporting events.

The John R. Wooden Student Center at UCLA designed in the early 80’s was a seminal building of the genre. Cannon Design has built on this heritage for over 20 years and remains in the vanguard of recreation center design, bringing a blend of experience and creativity to a continuum of projects on small and large campuses alike.

Cannon Design’s in-depth understanding of this building type, as well as its users and administrators, has proven invaluable to recent explorations of the innovative ‘fusion building’ concept that combines student recreation with traditional union functions, performing arts, wellness and intercollegiate athletics.

The increasingly competitive world of intercollegiate athletics demands both excellence in performance and supporting facilities. Well designed arenas, stadia, training centers, practice facilities, academic centers, tracks and aquatic centers are essential to both fundraising and the recruitment of athletes on college campuses throughout North America.

The increase in demand for these functionally specific facilities is fertile ground for the creative talents of Cannon Design’s team of sports designers who have a thorough understanding and respect for the unique demands of each sport and its supporting facilities.

With in-house graphic and exhibit capabilities, we can ensure that your facility is not only functional but embodies the visual excitement that appeals to both athletes and alumni alike.

As recreation opportunities become more synonymous with wellness/quality of life issues and as the demand for community focused socialization opportunities continue to grow, recreation centers have evolved to become one of the most significant components of the community landscape. While municipalities are beginning to embrace the positive economic influences that result from successful recreation programs, citizens have long been aware of the personal value these centers provide.

As studies demonstrate, our psychological well-being is directly affected by our physical environment, Cannon Design’s team of sports and recreation planners and designers believe these buildings should be emotionally uplifting and psychologically stimulating, reinforcing the demand for human sustainability. Through years of experience and research, Cannon Design continues to be at the forefront of community recreation and private recreation facility design.

Arenas are increasingly required to accommodate a multiplicity of functions for varying numbers of spectators. The flexibility demanded in the design of arenas and spectator support services is a hallmark of Cannon Design’s project experience.

Our arena portfolio includes ice arenas, convocation centers, spectator facilities of varying size as well as a major project on the world stage, the Richmond Olympic Oval, signature venue for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and an embodiment of the Olympic ideals of sustainability and legacy.

The firm’s stadium portfolio is focused on smaller colleges and universities and on unique public opportunities including stadiums for football, track, and field, field hockey, baseball and aquatics. Many of these involve creative solutions for tight urban sites.

Cannon Design both attends and is frequently invited to speak at international conferences focused on stadium design and our sports professionals are fully conversant on issues related to accessibility, crowd control, spectator support, sustainability and other topics relevant to the success of any institutional or public stadium.

Cannon Design provides consulting services to numerous international Games bid and organizing committees worldwide. Our services include the analysis and determination of venue locations, design and planning of temporary facilities to host Games events and the design/delivery of permanent sports buildings, initially designed to support Games requirements. Our sports specialists understand and can successfully address the dual objectives unique to Games facilities: one, a venue planning process must respond to the Games temporary venue and sport operations requirements; two, the necessity that permanent buildings be designed with legacy requirements as its highest priority, even above its Games requirements.

In designing and building sports and recreation facilities, no other decision has a greater impact on the user than the selection of the sports surface. As a result, the design and selection of a sports surfacing system must be established and maintained as one of the highest priority by the design team and the owners.

Our sports surfacing specialists understand that biomechanical properties related to athlete safety and performance must be carefully investigated, and only those surfaces that are superior in their biomechanical performance considered for installation. Over the past 20 years, Cannon Design has been an active supporter and passionate participant in sport surfacing research and testing programs to improve the quality of sports surfaces for athletes of all ages and abilities. We are the only architectural practice in North America to hold elected membership into the International Association for Sports Surface Sciences (ISSS), an organization that partners with high performance laboratories to develop and determine safety properties for a wide range of sports surfaces.

Aquatics facilities, whether stand alone or components of larger athletic, recreation, community, health club or healthcare facilities, are specialized facilities with unique programmatic, technical and environmental requirements of not only the pool and related mechanical and chemical systems, but also the surrounding natatorium enclosure materials and finishes, air handling systems, humidity and condensation control, glazing and glare control, and acoustics.

Cannon Design’s extensive portfolio of built aquatics facilities demonstrates a keen understanding of the full spectrum of aquatic activities, including competitive swimming, diving, waterpolo and synchronized swimming, instruction and lifeguard training, lap swimming and water aerobics, hydrotherapy, and recreational/leisure activities, all designed for participants, spectators, instructors, coaches, administrators, officials, and maintenance staff alike. Our comprehensive expertise with aquatic trends and technologies assure our clients of the most advanced systems incorporating innovative sustainable features for manageable facility lifecycle costs.

Improving physical and sport specific performance and increasing athletic safety is a mission relentlessly pursued by sports medicine and sport scientists. Cannon Design has worked with leading practitioners in developing cutting-edge sports science and research facilities in both the university and public sectors. These facilities include biomechanics and exercise physiology laboratories and biochemistry and histology laboratories, as well as microbiology and animal testing facilities.

By combining the skills and passions of the sports medicine and sport science practitioners together with our experienced designers and planners, Cannon Design has developed facilities that provide far ranging benefits to all athletes, from high performance and elite performers, to children learning new skills and seniors recovering from acute medical conditions. Our design professionals continue to pioneer this ever-changing and developing genre benefiting those from all walks of life.

As athletes move towards more frequent and more intensive training sessions, the demand for unique solutions to combat the lack of indoor practice space has increased significantly. This trend is even more apparent in outdoor sports such as track and field, whose primary competitive season can be hindered by an early snowfall or an abundant rainy season.

Designing field houses requires a tremendous understanding of overall program requirements of all indoor sports, the creative insight to blend a diversity of needs in one facility, and precise understanding of the vast and intricate details from the sports flooring system and materials to the spectator sight lines.