Architects design $211.9M health care "village on a hill".To find inspiration in designing North Bay's Regional Health Centre, architect Brian Bertrand harkened back to his medal-winning university thesis. In creating 703,000 square feet of new space from scratch, the project's lead architect drew on his roots to conceptualize con·cep·tu·al·ize v. con·cep·tu·al·ized, con·cep·tu·al·iz·ing, con·cep·tu·al·iz·es v.tr. To form a concept or concepts of, and especially to interpret in a conceptual way: a town core for his hometown of Sturgeon sturgeon, primitive fish of the northern regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. Unlike evolutionarily advanced fishes, it has a fine-grained hide, with very reduced scalation, a mostly cartilaginous skeleton, upturned tail fins, and a mouth set well back on the Falls. He found parallels in the nearby mill town of 5,500 by sketching out bungalow-style buildings and a town square theme. "In essence I was designing with the team, a small community." The $211.9-million complex, tentatively scheduled to open in 2007 on a greenfield site next to Highway 17, will combine two groups, the 275-bed North Bay General Hospital and the 113-bed Northeastern Mental Health Centre, side-by-side on one campus. It will be the largest single construction project ever undertaken in the Nipissing district. A Price Waterhouse-Coopers economic impact study in 2000 concluded the area would realize post-construction benefits of $17.9 million to $23.9 million, and about 1,500 people would be employed full-time. The team created a "little village on a hill" with two large curving main streets bisecting each facility leading to a town centre. Influenced by the topography, they took advantage of the nearby natural escarpment escarpment or scarp, long cliff, bluff, or steep slope, caused usually by geologic faulting (see fault) or by erosion of tilted rock layers. An example of a fault scarp is the north face of the San Jacinto Mts. in California. of the 80-acre property to create a "little village on a hill" with two large curving main streets bisecting each facility leading to a town centre. "This is a made-in-the-North solution," says Bertrand, whose firm, Critchley Delean Trussler Evans Bertrand Architects, designed hospitals in West Nipissing, Kirkland Lake Kirkland Lake, mining town, E Ont., Canada. An important gold-mining center, gold was discovered there in 1911 and again in the 1980s at Harker. The mining of iron ore and tourism are two other important industries. and Kapuskasing. "It creates a whole different colouring on how we look at it and approach it. It becomes very personal." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The hospital will feature leading-edge medical advances including minimal access surgery, also known as laparoscopic surgery laparoscopic surgery: see endoscope. , and will be Canada's first site for telerobotic surgery. The design process has been an exhaustive one. Following a year-long site search, architects spent months huddling with user groups from 28 different departments, as well as planners, consultants, public focus groups and the community in drawing up a functional plan and design process on a room-by-room basis. After several rounds of consultations, the team periodically met for "value engineering" sessions at the end of a major project milestone for a complete cost review to stay on budget. Bertrand says their transparent and open process--"to do exactly what is asked of us"--in following ministry capital planning guidelines, rules and regulations has brought compliments from the province. To deal with infectious disease Infectious disease A pathological condition spread among biological species. Infectious diseases, although varied in their effects, are always associated with viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multicellular parasites and aberrant proteins known as prions. outbreaks like SARS, expanded isolation rooms in the emergency entrance were worked into the plan to address a triage triage Division of patients for priority of care, usually into three categories: those who will not survive even with treatment; those who will survive without treatment; and those whose survival depends on treatment. situation. Flexible space with movable walls will enable a conventional unit to be converted into an isolation ward in a pinch. Space provisions have been made to accommodate Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is the part of the province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay), the French River and Lake Nipissing. Northern Ontario has a land area of 802,000 km² (310,000 mi²) and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it Medical School students with an auditorium, research library and residents lounge if those linkages follow through. The hospital will also incorporate the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. ) rating system, a U.S. Green Building Association process, to analyze energy efficiency by looking at issues of windows, exterior wall construction, heating and cooling systems cooling systems for housed animals include spraying of roofs with water, evaporative pads with fans, foggers and misters; for pastured animals shelter from the sun by trees or artificial shade devices and cooling ponds are used. , and utilizing different building materials for its recyclable content. The complex will utilize such features as piping-in 100 per cent fresh air throughout the buildings. Final working drawings will be submitted to the Ministry of Health by mid-March. "The Ministry requires two months to review the package and providing all of our finances are finalized by that time and in place, we're anticipating getting approvals to go to tender from the Ministry by mid-May," says Paul Landry, the project's executive director, who is counting on a two-month tendering process. "If everything comes in on budget, the Ministry will allow us to award the construction contract in early September." www.northbayregionalhealthcentre.com By IAN ROSS Northern Ontario Business Northern Ontario Business is a Canadian magazine, which publishes monthly in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The magazine covers business news and issues in Northern Ontario. |
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