South End Community Centre

A landmark facility for Guelph’s growing south end

The South End Community Centre is a 165,000-square-foot recreation facility designed by MJMA Architecture & Design and built by Aquicon Construction under a $121-million construction contract — the largest community infrastructure project in the City of Guelph’s history. The centre brings together an eight-lane 25-metre pool, twin ice pads, double gymnasium, indoor walking track, and community program spaces, and opened to the public in September 2026.

Civil engineering for a site with no storm outlet

EMC Group’s stormwater management, site servicing, and grading design responded to an unusual constraint: the site has no positive storm outlet, so the drainage design is fully dependent on infiltrating all rainfall events on site. EMC applied low impact development principles and green infrastructure throughout the 52,782-square-metre property, supporting the facility’s LEED certification objectives while achieving the site’s water balance.

Protecting a groundwater-based drinking water system

Guelph’s municipal drinking water supply is entirely well-based, so surface water reaching the aquifer had to be protected at the source. Parking lot runoff is treated through a treatment-train approach — bio-filters provide initial treatment, followed by filter-based oil/grit separators — before infiltrating directly to the native soils. The design also reduces salt use across the site, and rainwater is captured and reused on site, minimizing both runoff volumes and the potential for stormwater pollution reaching the community’s clean water source.