Award

D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 | 75 Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Tower – Royal Inland Hospital P H OTO G R A P H Y BY J ER A L D WA L L I S ER /CO U RT E S Y PA R K I N A RC H I T EC T S PHIL & JENNIE GAGLARDI TOWER – ROYAL INLAND HOSPITAL by NATALIE BRUCKNER T he Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Tower at Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) in Kamloops, B.C., showcases collaboration at its finest. Everyone from health-care workers and the local Indigenous communities to the partners, trades, and subtrades all had substantial input into creating a building that is incredibly vital to the local community. Back in 2018, EllisDon Infrastructure was selected under a P3 delivery model by Interior Health (IH) to design, build, partially finance, and also maintain (DBFM) the tower for the next 30 years. In the fall of that same year, construction began. "We had a team of really great trades and so, early on during the pandemic, we met with IH and decided collectively that we were going to turn it over on time, by any means necessary," explains Jordan Highton, senior superintendent at EllisDon. To meet the timeline, the team turned to some rather unusual strat- egies for a project of this size. One of those strategies was to arrange offsite storage, which, in hindsight, saved a project that would soon face a number of external challenges including the pandemic, severe flooding, and wild- fires in the region. "EllisDon has a huge central purchasing component, so during our weekly meetings, the team in Ontario would ask what we would need and procure it before we ran out," explains Highton. Another innovative strategy was creating a full-scale mock-up in a nearby warehouse. "We built a patient room, washrooms, medication rooms, and delivery room in the warehouse. We would bring in user groups to give us feedback, even down to the swing direction of the door. From that feed- back we were able to refine the design. This meant at the turnover stage the user groups knew exactly what they were getting," Highton says. For the design of the nine-storey tower, Parkin Architects and Kasian Architecture worked closely together to create a building (on a rather tricky sloped site) that perfectly comple- ments its surroundings. The form of the building, comprised of compos- ite metal panels, pays homage to the hoodoos in the area – a theme that is carried inside. Relocating the hospital's main entrance from its original position, the architects were able to design "a large overhang under which you can drive and be completely protected from the elements," explains Cameron Shantz, director at Parkin Architects. On entering the building, patients, visitors, and staff are welcomed by a two-storey, light-filled atrium fea- turing benches crafted out of curved wood panels – reflecting some of the First Nations construction approaches and techniques. It is here that you notice one of the many striking ele- ments of the building. "The RFP documents had asked that we pro- vide an outdoor garden area between the new and existing facilities, how- ever, we saw the location at the bottom of a nine-storey hospital as a bit of a lost opportunity," explains Shantz. "Instead, we suggested an interior space designed in a three-storey-high atrium space that would be lit up by skylights – a space that can be used year round." Heading up through the build- ing, each floor features a spirit animal motif as selected by Secwépemc Elders and supported by Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc chief and council. There is even the abil- ity to smudge in select rooms where the fire alarm system can be switched off at a moment's notice. Housed inside the tower is a surgi- cal services suite, more beds, medical surgical inpatient units, respiratory therapy services, as well as a mental- health and substance-use inpatient unit, child and adolescent mental- health services, obstetrical services, labour, delivery and a neo-natal inten- sive-care unit. For many of these areas, strategi- cally placed windows on the building LOCATION 311 Columbia Street, Kamloops, B.C. OWNER /DEVELOPER Interior Health Authority ARCHITECTS Parkin Architects / Kasian Architecture DESIGN BUILD CONTR ACTOR EllisDon Infrastructure STRUCTUR AL CONSULTANT Glotman Simpson MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT H.H. Angus & Associates Ltd. CIVIL CONSULTANT Urban Systems Ltd. L ANDSCAPE ARCHITECT M2 Landscape Architecture & Arboriculture Ltd. TOTAL SIZE 28,000 square metres TOTAL COST $417 million

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