The BioSteel Centre – Toronto Raptors Practice Facility

Guernsey teamed with Toronto based engineering consultants to design the new Toronto Raptors Practice Facility in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 69,000-square-foot facility is one of the premier practice facilities in the NBA and was completed on a fast-track design and construction schedule.

The facility is a multipurpose, City owned, facility that has professional basketball practice areas, therapy areas, dining areas, classrooms, and offices. There is also a full service kitchen, strength training, and media accommodations. Specifically, the facility has two full size practice courts with two additional practice side goals on a state-of-the-art wood flooring system for a total of six courts. Locker rooms feature custom designed lockers, steam rooms, a dry sauna, a high tech sound system, television monitors, a massage area and a nutrition bar. As a City owned facility there were requirements of MLSE to provide space that could be utilized by the public with proper approvals. This requirement led the design team to provide a state of the art, retractable wall system housed in the ceiling of the courts to provide both a court for public use while allowing the team to maintain their practice schedule and operations.

Hydrotherapy areas include both hot and cold dip therapy pools and a custom designed water therapy treadmill capable of varying the water depth and speed of the treadmill surface. All of the activity in the water therapy treadmill can be viewed from below or recorded on cameras to be uploaded to the network for later viewing.

A unique feature is the war room, which is a highly-specialized space with custom millwork to house large touch screen monitors for coaches to evaluate players and opponents. This is a one-of-a-kind room and system that Guernsey designed along with IBM to help improve the Raptors’ advantages in draft scenario planning and acquisitions.