Toronto hospitals win awards, start new construction, in planning
February 24, 2015
By CCE
Markham Stouffville Hospital, York Region, north of Toronto.
Infrastructure Ontario continues to steamroll ahead building new hospitals. It has 19 health care projects under construction or in the planning stages, and 27 projects that have been substantially completed in the past few years.
Among those completed is an expansion and renovations to the Markham Stouffville Hospital northeast of Toronto, which was selected as Project of the Year by Professional Engineers of Ontario’s York Region chapter in early February. The project involved 385,000 square feet of new building, and renovations to 331,000 square feet of existing building, amounting to $400-million. Demolitions to the structure and mechanical-systems were done while the hospital kept operating, and new features include floating floors to accommodate vibrations from a helipad on the roof. It is the first hospital in Ontario to have a central utility plant that supplies thermal energy, electricity and emergency power through Markham District Energy. The team included: PCL Constructors, B+H Architects, The Mitchell Partnership (mechanical, LEED), Mulvey + Banani (electrical, IT), MMM Group (civil), Quinn Dressel (structural) and Aercoustics (acoustics).
Artist’s rendering of Peter Gilgan Tower at St. Michael’s Hospital, downtown Toronto.
A project that is starting construction is a new patient care tower atop one of downtown Toronto’s hospitals — St. Michael’s Hospital at Queen and Victoria Streets. The addition of the 17-storey Peter Gilgan Tower for critically ill patients, as well as renovations of approximately 150,000 square feet at the existing hospital space, will take three years to complete. The project includes adding five new operating rooms large enough to include medical imaging equipment, such as MRIs. As well, The hospital’s 100-year-old Shuter Wing is being replaced with a new three-storey structure and the Slaight Family Emergency Department will be renovated. It was originally designed to accommodate 45,000 patient visits a year, but now sees more than 75,000 a year, a number expected to grow with the burgeoning downtown population.
Bondfield Construction is to design, build and finance the entire redevelopment project for $301 million. Partner firms include architects NORR with Farrow Partnership, and MMM Group as structural, mechanical and electrical engineer.
CannonDesign has been selected to lead the planning, design and compliance aspects of a new patient tower at Toronto East General Hospital along Coxwell Avenue in Toronto’s East York neighbourhood. The new tower will add approximately 380,000 square feet of space and a courtyard along the street. CannonDesign will establish the guidelines and performance requirements for the teams that eventually will bid to design, construct and finance the project using the alternative financing model.
