Architecture and design
The ‘B1’exterior’ from Queen and Shaw, with the ‘urban park’ created on the corner.
LOOKING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE Jonathan Wilson said: “While some of these key strategy elements are unsurprising, I think CAMH’s commitment to education and knowledge, and to driving social change, are really impressive, and they have incorporated in recent projects some quite specific facilities that are deliberately designed in to enable the organisation to fulfil these goals.” Jonathan Wilson moved on to talk about the site history and masterplan. He explained that Stantec’s Toronto offices are in the downtown area of the city, only a mile or so from the CAMH site. He said: “The site itself is in the West Queen West area, west of the city centre – quite a gritty, but trendy area, perhaps a bit like Hoxton or Spitalfields in London – in which CAMH has a 10.5 hectare (27 acre) site encompassing several blocks within the city grid. The local population is very mixed, comprising some wealthy people served by upmarket shops, but also quite a number of homeless people and elderly residents.”
THE SITE’S HISTORY Jonathan Wilson told delegates at this point that he wanted to ‘go back to the mid-19th century and show you how it all started’. He said: “As with many contemporary mental health projects, the site formerly housed a lunatic asylum. Towards the end of the 19th century and into the 20th there were some phases of redevelopment, but even in 2001 the site was still completely walled. Moreover the site had been completely surrounded by urban development; it is right in the centre of downtown Toronto.” From 2001 the masterplan had gone through various stages, all of which Stantec had been involved with in various capacities. “The process,” Jonathan Wilson explained, “started with the complete removal of the wall, and then the extension of the adjacent grid of streets into the site. There followed new development of both mental and non-mental healthcare facilities in a completely open urban environment. There are no gates, and no walls, indeed there is no security; the facilities are completely integrated into the city centre.” The architect added: “We can see here the next phase of development, two buildings – which I will talk about – and then the final vision of the masterplan is where the grid extends right down two streets deep from West Queen Street, with a mix of mental health facilities, a new urban park – which the client has given over to the city – and other non-mental health developments.” Alluding to Jane Jacobs’ celebrated work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jonathan Wilson cited the following extract:
10 THE NETWORK OCTOBER 2018
The ‘cloister’ area within B1.
A teaching kitchen within B1.
The Outpatients’ Reception area in Building B1, a Complex Care & Recovery Centre.
‘Frequent streets and short blocks are valuable because of the fabric of intricate cross-use that they permit among the users of a city neighbourhood.’ He added: “I think that this is what the masterplan on this project has really homed in on – genuinely creating a normal integrated community environment within which mental health services take place naturally.”
REDEVELOPMENT STARTS After almost a decade of masterplanning, concept design development, and enabling works, the first phase of a major redevelopment commenced – Phase 1B. Jonathan Wilson explained: “The next few pictures are from the previous Phase 1B, for which Stantec completed the design in 2009/2010, and on which construction was completed in 2012. What you can see here is buildings that ‘front’ onto the street, with a sense of active use, visible from street level, and entrances that don’t conceal anything, but rather invite you in. Whether you’re a patient, a member of the public, or a visitor, you can see right into the courtyards. The buildings house facilities for use by both service-users and the local community.”
COMMITMENT TO ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT Among the services provided in the Phase 1B buildings, which occupy some 54,000 m2 of space fully integrated into the local community, are multi-generational Mental Health Services, including adolescent addictions and geriatric mental health. Key highlights include the ‘Out of this World Café’, located on a street corner, catering to service-users and the local community, and providing employment advice
and retraining, and a gym, visible from street level, and open to both service-users and the local community. “There is thus a real commitment to active engagement and working with the community,” Jonathan Wilson observed. “Equally, from the buildings you are not looking out into a mental health precinct, but rather onto normal urban spaces. It is a completely integrated concept; it’s embedded into the urban fabric, and it creates a normal residential environment.”
THE CURRENT PHASE
The Stantec speaker next described the buildings that will be in place by the end of the current phase of redevelopment – 1C, ‘Buildings B1 and D1 in prosaic project parlance’. These buildings are currently on site, and are due to be completed in 2019/2020. “Phase 1C totals around 60,000 m2 across two multi-storey buildings,” Jonathan Wilson noted, “so these are quite big chunks of building. Building B1, a Complex Care and Recovery Centre, is on West Queen Street, and engages with the existing building to complete a courtyard. The eight- storey building accommodates 110 beds, a 300-seat auditorium, and an education and resource centre. The D1 building, meanwhile, the Crisis and Critical Care Centre, is a new seven-storey structure on a separate site. It accommodates 125 inpatient beds, a large emergency department, and urgent care clinics.
‘ENHANCING GATEWAYS’ “When we began looking at these projects,” Jonathan Wilson continued, “it was not just about delivering buildings, but also about
©Stantec
©Stantec
©Stantec
©Stantec
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