Mark Hentze has joined Dialog as sport and recreation design practice leader. He will collaborate with teams on community and high performance recreation projects ranging from community centres, aquatics, ice arenas, spectator venues.

Prior to joining Dialog, he was a leader with high-profile firms in North America, including Interplan, PBK (now Arch 49), and most recently as a partner with CEI Architecture (now HDR Architecture).

Recognized for his breadth of knowledge in sport and recreation design, Hentze will further bolster Dialog’s expertise in this area, working closely with partner Marion LaRue, pursuing community and high performance recreation projects.

“If I have a specific fire that burns,” says Hentze. “it’s the idea of developing the best sport and recreation practice in the country, which is the primary reason I wanted to join Dialog.”

Having developed more than 90 sport and community projects across Canada and internationally, his notable projects include the Steppe Arena in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia; the Aldergrove Credit Union Community Centre and Delbrook Recreation Centre in British Columbia; the Nexsource Centre in Sylvan Lake, Alberta; and the Paul Reynold Centre in Newfoundland, which was awarded the Lt. Governors Award in Architecture.

Hentze sits as chair of the IAKS Ice Facilities Design Experts Circle, and was a contributing author to the recently published Understanding the Active Economy and Emerging Research on the Value of Sports, Recreation and Wellness.

Prior to joining Dialog, he was a partner at CEI Architecture from 2004 to 2015, and led the development of CEI’s sport sector into being one of the prominent sport architecture practices in Canada.

Highlight projects at CEI included Poirier Sport Centre, Coquiltam, Winsport Canada , Calgary (in collaboration with GEC), Nanaimo Ice Centre, SFU Lorne Davies Complex, UBC Sport Hall of Fame, Edmonds Recreation Centre, Cloverdale and Chuck Bailey Recreation Centres in Surrey.