info suisse Winter 2015
Construction
December 2015
Although long praised for its commitment to patient care, Humber River Hospital embarked on an important transition: one that would take it from a hospital constrained by the limitations of aging technology and building infrastructure to North America’s first fully digital hospital. The new Humber River Hospital, which opened in October 2015, uses the most current technologies possible to enhance all aspects of quality patient care delivery, improving efficiency, accuracy, reliability and safety. One of these newest technologies includes the pharmacy automation equipment and system for the hospital made by Swisslog [http://www. swisslog.com/en/Industries/HCS/Health- Care], which is headquartered in Buchs/ Aarau. Serving more than 850,000 people in northwest Toronto, the new hospital, at 1.8 million square feet of space, is now the largest acute care hospital in the Greater Toronto Area. Designers at HDR Inc. employed proven urban planning strategies to ensure the new facility is fully integrated with the fabric of the local community. In considering the site, the design reacts differently to the speed of the adjacent King’s Highway 401 to the south and the residential character of neighboring Wilson Avenue to the north. Accordingly, the southern side of the development establishes a strong visual relationship with the 401 through a generous park space to buffer the facility from traffic noise. In contrast, the northern side of the site presents a tree-lined promenade and an artfully crafted waterway to better relate to the slower residential character of Wilson Avenue.
The design of the Humber River Hospital is notable for its simple and modern composition. The vertical pattern and texture created by the detailing of the precast is beautiful and well executed. The careful “tuning” of the architectural precast color to complement the adjacent materials is key to the success of the design, which balances massing, proportion and detail. It also demonstrates the functional utility of precast concrete to employ large panel sizes, thus increasing the speed of erection.
Solving Design Challenges
The building is comprised of three simple components reflecting the hospital’s essential functions: ambulatory block; diagnostic and treatment podium; and inpatient tower. The architecture of these forms takes inspiration from the architecture of Toronto, following clean rectilinear lines. As the exterior palette of materials was developed, precast concrete was envisioned from an early stage of the design to provide a solid and durable material to help accentuate the overall goals of the hospital. The final palette of precast concrete, brick, curtainwall and metal panel was used to accentuate the major elements of the building including the inpatient tower and to breakdown the scale of the building’s massive exterior envelope.
The main facility colours—blue and grey— take inspiration from the nearby Humber River and the beautiful colours and textures of the natural materials found along its banks. Contrasting these colours are the brilliant oranges and yellows found on the graphic glass mural located above the main vehicular drop-off; the colours and patterns emulate the diversity and resilience of an aspen grove as a metaphor for the diversity and resilience of the local community.
Because the new building is a tangible symbol of the new Humber River Hospital, it needed to project a contemporary image. To achieve this goal, HDR’s designers composed a façade using precast concrete panels with two finishes to help accentuate the articulation of window openings and featured a strong system of reveals relating to the curtainwall fenestration pattern. This pattern also symbolically mimics the rock out-croppings lining the banks of the Humber River. The reveals within the panels echo the movement of the river moving over the river’s rocks.
John Salisbury is a senior project architect with over 30 years working on a multitude of project types including higher education facilities, healthcare, public /municipal projects and commercial office projects.
