For more than four decades, Ontario municipalities and their architects have trusted EMC Group with the sites beneath their community centres, aquatic centres, arenas and sports parks.
Community recreation facilities are among the most demanding sites a municipality builds: large roofs and parking fields that concentrate stormwater, aquatic programs with heavy water and sanitary loads, sports fields that must drain, and public expectations for sustainable, LEED-calibre design — all delivered through municipal approvals on a public timeline and budget.
EMC Group has engineered more than thirty of these facilities, from the Audley Recreation Centre in Ajax to the new South End Community Centre in Guelph and the all-season Community Square that replaced Harbourfront Centre’s pond and rink on Toronto’s waterfront. Much of that work has been in long-standing collaboration with MJMA Architecture & Design — the studio behind many of Canada’s most celebrated recreation buildings — alongside other leading architects, and with municipal clients across the Greater Toronto Area, Simcoe County, Muskoka and southwestern Ontario. The result is a firm that understands what these buildings demand of their sites before the first drawing is issued.
Site engineering scoped to the realities of community facilities — from early feasibility through construction completion.
Four facilities that define the practice — each profiled in Award magazine. Design awards noted below were received by the projects and their architects of record.
Mississauga • Stormwater, servicing and grading for the community centre and Mattamy Sports Park. The project received the 2024 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture (MJMA).
Guelph • A 165,000 sq ft facility on a site with no storm outlet, engineered to protect a groundwater-based water supply.
Bracebridge • Multi-use community centre; the project received the 2025 PRO Award of Excellence for Facility Design.
East Gwillimbury • Community centre and library with EV-ready parking, active-transportation plaza and integrated site drainage.
Community centres, aquatic additions, arenas, stadiums and sports parks across Ontario.
Independent recognition received by facilities EMC helped deliver. Design awards are credited to the project teams and architects of record; EMC’s role on each was civil engineering.
Received the 2024 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture, awarded to architects MJMA — Canada’s highest honour for built architecture.
EMC is credited as civil engineer on five Award magazine project profiles: Audley Recreation Centre (2013), Churchill Meadows (2021), Muskoka Lumber Community Centre (2024), South End Community Centre and the University of Toronto Academic Wood Tower (2026).
Received the 2025 Parks and Recreation Ontario Award of Excellence for Facility Design.
Facilities EMC engineered that were named Facilities of Merit: Audley Recreation Centre, Atlas Tube Centre, Sherwood Community Centre and the University of Guelph athletics facilities.
Bring EMC in at feasibility. Early site engineering shapes the layout, the approvals path and the budget.