In 1997, Sturgess Architecture won a national competition to design a master plan for the redevelopment of the former Calgary General Hospital site. The competition called for the development of a transit supportive, pedestrian friendly community on the site. Working closely with the local community association, a housing plan was established for 3000 people focusing on an eight acre local park - the new centre of the community. As a function of the master plan, a future community hall was located on a strategic corner of the site.

After designing the Master Plan, Sturgess Architecture was selected to design the community centre in 2003. A major urban design initiative of the park was to cradle the play areas with a major built promontory on the west edge. The Community Centre mirrors the promontory on the east. Secondary to the cradling function, the building mass offers a definitive built edge to the new main pedestrian and vehicular street into the community. This same street links the community to the LRT (Light Rail Transit) Station, the Bow River, and Downtown. Mediating the site's four meter drop from north to south, the building wall gradually reveals itself as the base of a terrace that overlooks the play fields, the lower level of which contains the public meeting rooms that open directly onto the park. Above, a sustainable green roof provides overlook to the park.

The corner of the development is recognized by a 'lantern' that functions as the living room for community meetings. The intention is to present a building of substance and protection for park users, while on the street, the building has a more symbolic presence, emanating warmth on a cold night from the lantern, and functioning as a subtle urban edge to the park.