Project
Bridgepoint Active Healthcare
Location
Toronto, ON
Award Winner
Stantec Architecture / KPMB Architects / HDR Architecture / Diamond Schmitt Architects / PFS Studio / MBTW Group Landscape Architects
Project Team
Planning, Design, & Compliance: Stuart Elgie, Stantec Architects
Planning, Design, & Compliance: Mitch Hall, KPMB Architects
Design, Build, Finance, & Maintain: Rodel Misa, HDR Architecture
Design, Build, Finance, & Maintain: Greg Colucci, Diamond Schmitt Architects
Landscape Consultant: Brad Keeler, MBTW Group
Structural Engineer/LEED Consultant: Kathryn Edwards, Halsall Associates/WSP Canada
Contractor: Darius Zaccak, PCL Constructors Canada
Mechanical Consultant: Brad Bull, Smith + Anderson
Electrical Consultant: Brandon Hayes, Smith + Anderson
Building Envelope Consulant: Mark Brook, Brook Van Dalen & Associates
Developer & Equity Investor: Brian Budden, Plenary Group
Client: Marian Walsh, Bridgepoint Health Foundation
“The design intent for Bridgepoint Active Healthcare was to connect with nature and community and to inspire patients and staff. This commitment extends right to the rooftop. The garden terrace there provides a sanctuary for healing, where people can enjoy the natural setting and extraordinary views of the city skyline and feel they are part of the world around them.”
The Restorative Power of Good Design
Bridgepoint’s goal is to teach, coach and inspire chronic care patients to “live well” and to be active participants in shaping their own treatment and health outcomes. With an average patient stay of three months, there was strong impetus to design a built environment that facilitates recovery and wellness. Bridgepoint Active Health Care is the manifestation of the belief in the restorative power of good design.
From animated public spaces to intimate private ones, the building connects community and landscape with patients and staff. Panoramic views of the Don River Valley within every patient room, open terraces at the roof level, mid-tower and at grade levels provide broad visual engagement with the surrounding community, parklands and landscape.
Spaces for rest and therapy include the large ground floor terrace adjacent to food services, a therapy pool with picture-windows overlooking the park and a wheelchair-accessible meditative labyrinth patterned on the one at Chartres Cathedral. An accessible, therapeutic green roof terrace on the 10th floor extends the therapeutic benefits of nature vertically and offers active horticultural therapy. Patients can participate in a gardening program of engage in self-directed rehabilitation. People practice walking on the gentle slope, build strength in wheelchairs by moving up the gently sloped ramp or by climbing stairs.
A 4-year post occupancy evaluation was specifically developed to evaluate the impact of the design on patient health and well being. By blurring the distinction between private and public property and providing public circulation continuously around a fully glazed exterior, the facility is highly permeable. Staff and patients feel connected to nature, to the city and consider the hospital to be a place of wellness. Patients feel safer, are more cheerful, are comforted and are more satisfied with their stay. They feel they have more opportunities to visit with others, perceive improvements in their mental health and are more confident in their mobility. The judges praised this project’s use of green roofing for patient recovery and human health treatment and accessibility as well as the use of deeper root profile plants in the meadow roof and integration of small trees.
