The new YWCA Regina building stands as a symbol of healing, reconciliation and community transformation. The kikaskihtânaw Centre, which translates to “the place we all succeed” in Plains Cree, opened in November 2024 and better enables YWCA Regina to serve vulnerable women and children in Saskatchewan. 

The organization’s previous location, built in the 1960s as a gym and swimming facility, could no longer meet the needs of YWCA Regina’s expanding programs and services. “Our old building was not conducive to the new way of working with vulnerable people in terms of trauma-informed design,” explains Melissa Coomber-Bendtsen, CEO of YWCA Regina. “We needed more space, but more importantly we needed a different kind of space.” 

PCL partnered with the kikaskihtânaw Centre under a Construction Management at Risk (CMAR) delivery model. Under the CMAR model, PCL was involved during preconstruction to provide value engineering (VE) solutions while working closely with the client, the design team led by 1080 Architecture Planning + Interiors, associate architect NumberTEN Architectural Group, and key suppliers. 

Engaging with Indigenous advisors and city officials, PCL translated cultural priorities into buildable solutions, such as integrating smudging-friendly ventilation and applying VE to manage cost and schedule while maintaining the project’s design intent.

Through the collaborative CMAR approach, PCL successfully completed a trauma-informed facility centred on healing and reconciliation. 

Trauma-informed design acknowledges that the feel of a space — the light, materials and sense of comfort — is as vital as the care offered by staff. That’s why YWCA Regina wanted to create a place that felt like a home, rather than a commercial building. The building’s design reflects warmth through wood finishes, large windows that fill the space with natural light, and dropped ceilings. The layout flows naturally from one area to the next, eliminating the need to pass through multiple doorways.

The kikaskihtânaw Centre embodies the belief that no matter what somebody is going through, they deserve a calm inviting space. “The people we serve feel that. They feel differently about themselves when they're in the space, and they treat the space differently,” explains Coomber-Bendtsen, adding that she’s often surprised at how much influence a person’s space has on their self-worth. “Women say, ‘I can’t believe I deserve this kind of space.’ That speaks to the healing nature of design.” 

While the YWCA team knew the space would positively impact clients, they didn’t expect change to happen so soon, says Coomber-Bendtsen. “Within weeks, women we struggled to support or couldn’t stabilize in shelters or treatment programs were able to enter treatment. They volunteer and continue to live with us.”

 A key challenge for PCL was to safely accommodate the Indigenous practice of smudging, which involves burning sacred medicines, while meeting city building codes. Coomber-Bendtsen wanted smudging to be permitted throughout the building, but the practice posed technical challenges related to fire safety and ventilation. 

PCL collaborated with Indigenous advisors and city officials to create designated smudging areas equipped with specialized “smudging fans.” The vents blend seamlessly into the building’s design and allow smudging without triggering fire alarms. “You simply turn on the smudging fan in a designated smudging space or meeting room,” explains Luke Cooney, superintendent. This solution respects the tradition and avoids the institutional feel of a single, designated room. 

Coomber-Bendtsen says she hopes future building codes will offer more flexibility for incorporating traditional practices. “Hopefully, five years from now, it'll be much easier to do what we did. We won’t be the last to ask for this — the world is changing.”

Value engineering during preconstruction played a key role in PCL’s work delivering the kikaskihtânaw Centre. The team worked closely with YWCA Regina and local suppliers to balance cost, schedule and constructability, while maintaining the project’s cultural vision.

For both the cultural centre exterior and the main building’s first-floor exterior, early value engineering conversations focused on procuring cost-effective, durable materials that reflected a strong connection to natural elements. Knowing that traditional brick wasn’t acceptable because of its colder, institutional appearance, PCL collaborated with 1080 Architecture Planning + Interiors, who recommended raw and mixed Tyndall Stone based on their retail project experience using the product, which was readily available through a local supplier.

“We received a favorable price for rough cut Tyndall Stone, and it was a great alternative to brick,” says Cooney, noting that the fossil-rich limestone also reinforced the project’s connection to the land, which resonated with YWCA Regina.

A second VE effort focused on the cultural centre’s interior walls. YWCA Regina originally envisioned rammed earth as a feature finish. Rammed earth is an ancient plastering technique that packs natural soil, such as sand, clay and gravel, in layers between temporary forms. Once the mixture hardens and the forms are removed, the result is a durable wall highlighting natural horizontal layers. While visually stunning, rammed earth is costly and labor intensive. 

PCL proposed curved interior concrete walls finished with wood paneling, an efficient solution that preserved the building’s warm atmosphere. “Rammed earth would have added roughly another month and a half to the schedule,” explains Cooney. “The wood panel solution is impressive in its own way and still hits the mark as an alternative to rammed earth.”

 The kikaskihtânaw Centre brings together essential services for vulnerable community members and offers space for broader community groups. The building houses a domestic violence shelter, a homeless shelter for women and children and more than 70 second-stage rental housing spaces for single women and their children. The pod-style second-stage housing design creates an intimate, home-like atmosphere with smaller, more personal layouts. Residents share kitchen and living areas but also have access to private quiet spaces.

Additional features include a childcare area, a youth hub and office, programming and community spaces. The community support hub welcomes those experiencing homelessness, offering meals, showers and laundry facilities, and the bright atrium space houses a community café where the public can drop in for a coffee. 

The community spaces are intentionally adjacent to the support hub, creating opportunities for people in crisis to engage with the broader community. “The moment that somebody who’s living in crisis can experience a healthy, vibrant community, they have a sense of hope,” says Coomber-Bendtsen.

Recognizing its colonial history, YWCA Regina made healing central to the new space to foster reconciliation, restoration and community well-being.

“I felt strongly that we had an obligation to find space for traditions that were stolen or not allowed in our urban centres, and I wanted to make the building and funding of this space an act of reconciliation,” explains Coomber-Bendtsen, adding that more than 90% of women using YWCA Regina’s services identify as Indigenous. 

The cultural centre, designed in collaboration with Indigenous advisors, is a focal point in the kikaskihtânaw Centre’s courtyard. This space brings together tradition, healing and community,  and features a 40-foot-tall circular concrete wall, a green roof and an underground tunnel to the main building. The design honors Indigenous beliefs about medicine storage and connection to the earth. The below-ground medicine room is covered only by earth and landscaping, respecting traditions that prohibit human presence overhead.

YWCA Regina’s commitment to reconciliation is reflected in its strong partnership with the Indigenous community and a group of Indigenous knowledge keepers, elders and leaders. The Indigenous community consulted with PCL and the architect on the cultural centre and its sweat lodge — one of Canada’s first year-round urban sweat lodges. The groups honored their partnership with a pipe ceremony, inviting the architects and PCL’s construction team into this sacred process. Following the ceremony, YWCA Regina granted the community indefinite access, ensuring the long-term stewardship of these spiritual spaces.

Michelle McKenna, a PCL project manager, worked on the kikaskihtânaw Centre early in the build before going on maternity leave. Now she experiences a more personal connection to the project every morning when she drops off her two-year-old daughter, Lilly, at the on-site childcare centre. “It’s cool to walk into a building that I helped build and to see it every day in action,” McKenna says, noting the thoughtfully designed play spaces and the outdoor summer play area. Seeing Lilly enjoy the space reinforces for McKenna an impact that stretches beyond bricks and mortar. “I felt something special about working on the project and then taking my daughter there. Lilly loves it; it’s a great space.”

Coomber-Bendtsen acknowledges that connection and commitment shaped YWCA Regina’s partnership with PCL. “There was an authentic understanding of what was important to us and seeing that in action stood out to me,” she says. The continuity of the PCL project team and tradespeople throughout the build made a significant difference for Coomber-Bendtsen and her team. “That connection was important for us as owners, and I think that made the project more than just a building.”

For Cooney, the project was a career milestone. “It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to build a cultural centre,” he says. “The sense of community and connection we've built with Melissa and her team is rare. In my 20 years in this industry, I've never experienced anything like it.” 

While Coomber-Bendtsen had worked with another contractor on previous renovations, the kikaskihtânaw Centre was her first major construction project. Throughout construction, she frequently visited the job site, offering tours to stakeholders and visitors or organizing lunches and bringing treats for the tradespeople — always reminding them of the importance of their work. “I remember meeting with all the subtrades at the start and saying, ‘I hope you understand the significance of what you're building.’ I wanted them to know their work will have a massive impact for generations.”