Award

uilding a family and communityrich environment inspired the design for the new Grande Prairie Care Centre (GPCC), which of icially opened in June 2012. Chantelle Management's newest residential care facility, its fourth in Alberta and sixth in all, is based on the irm's Edith Cavell Care Centre (ECCC) in Lethbridge. The 7.7acre site was designed by Stantec Architecture, whose brief was to similarly house 120 private suites in a residential-style structure, mixing assisted living options with more complex long-term care needs. Offering privacy and encouraging independence were also priorities. General contractor Nahanni Construction oversaw production on the $25-million project – located in the heart of downtown Grande Prairie – in February 2011 and inished 13 months later. Most of the skilled trade and labour personnel were sourced locally. Chantelle owns and operates the facility, working with Alberta Health Services, as per its other three Albertan centres in Edmonton, Innisfail and Lethbridge. "We recognize the essential value of the family and community in the wellbeing of our residents," says Gord Van der Eerden, executive director, Chantelle Management. "Stantec's design re lects our desire to build a warm environment, rich with areas for positive social and personal interaction. "The layout is based on the ECCC's holistic approach, which facilitates the development of self-worth and dignity, while satisfying the social, mental, physical and spiritual needs of every resident. We strive to maintain an excellent standard of care, while respecting each resident as an individual." A comprehensive array of professionals provide 24-hour care services, including nursing, physio, occupational therapy and nutritional advice. Recreational programs are also offered. Principal and lead architect, Don Davidson, says the notion of building a 'warm, family-friendly community' was ingrained into the Stantec team from initial concept right through to the detailing. The company also took care of interior design, structural consulting and landscape. "Individuality and detailing at the resident level was important to create this desired intimacy for small, social interactions along the 'wandering pathways' [connecting the different blocks of housing] – with small resting, sitting or courtyard viewing areas complementing this," says Davidson. "For larger group setting areas, the intimacy was obtained via ceiling and wall/ window design, and attention to natural and arti icial lighting." One of the biggest challenges was designing a building that maintained a comfortable atmosphere but was still Grande Prairie Care Centre p.60-61Grande Prairie.indd 61 PHOTOS COURTESY ALBERTA HEALTH SERVICES B Grande Prairie Care Centre by John Atkinson organized around varying degrees of cognitive impairment, behaviour problems, physical needs and staf ing requirements. "Sixty of the 120 residences have been designed speci ically for supportive living residents, who are more independent," says Davidson. "The design of this area, which was added mid-way through the project, includes individual handicap-assisted showers and washroom accessories in each room, plus a kitchenette with microwave and countertop refrigerator. "For the remaining 60 residents, the facility will house a combination of those requiring long-term care and those with dementia. The rooms and washrooms have been designed with wheelchair access, while all rooms feature an overhead tracklift system. Within the core, we've incorporated therapeutic tub rooms in combination with an open shower area, so care providers can assist in bathing." Davidson says the exterior appearance and interior character embody the residential experience. GPCC's exterior re lects a series of houses which are physically linked but not visually, using different materials and creating the illusion of individual, two-storey homes. "The contextual design allows a facility of this size to relate to the residential street setting, rather than portraying an institutional look and feel," says Davidson. "The residential experience starts from the street and continues through the entrance-covered gazebo into the welcoming entry." The building's exterior features a variety of horizontal cement board siding and colours to distinguish between the different 'homes.' To separate the central suites, there is exterior deck access at ground level, plus a deck on the second level. Cement shingle was used in these areas. Brick and brick detailing was used for home and gazebo entries, while the steep roofs are from a chateau-style shingle. The homes are also visually separated with a lat roof, hence emphasizing the individuality of the homes and residential style. The courtyards also have gazebos, which are heavy-framed cedar timbers to enhance the landscape and the climbing of vines." Davidson says the interior character was achieved by interconnecting passages – the 'wandering' walkways – and creating intimate social spaces. The lounge areas, or living rooms, re lect the scale of a single-family home and are located at the end of each corridor. Every living room has its own exterior veranda, encouraging resident interaction within a secure courtyard and between local residents. Each lounge also features an old-fashioned brick ireplace and wood hearth. Chantelle also collaborated with SMP Engineering (electrical consultant) and Hemisphere Engineering on the project. Hemisphere provided both mechanical and civil engineering services for the GPCC project. Principal Michael Bauer and his team designed and ield-veri ied the heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, ire protection and building management control (BMCS) systems to ful ill the mechanical engineering brief. On the civil engineering front, the irm repeated the feat for the stormwater management systems. Bauer has nothing but praise for the building's ef iciency and eco-friendly features. "The facility is extremely ef icient with excellent indoor air quality and thermal comfort," says Bauer. "All of the building exhaust, which is abundant in such a facility, is collected and utilized to temper the outdoor air entering the four resident wing rooftop units through the use of energy recovery wheels. Considering the high volume of exhaust air and the continuous operation of such a system, the expected return on irst-cost investment for the heat reclaim system is four years." High-ef iciency, fully condensing high-mass boilers supply hot water throughout the facility, while heating and cooling loads were dramatically lightened through the use of high-performance triple-pane glazing assemblies. The latter allow the use of 450-millimetre-wide radiant panels in the resident wings for heating, which frees up loor space for the resident rooms and improves thermal comfort. Variable- low hot water heating pumps were installed to focus low delivery, which satis ies speci ic heating requirements and reduces the overall electrical energy consumption for operating the pumps. Bauer says GPCC can be a template for similar projects. "We feel this building should be a model for other senior health-care facilities, because it emphasizes sustainable design and life-cycle cost considerations way beyond that of LEED. Its simpli ied solutions, fewer pieces of systems hardware, greater longevity of equipment design – and the fact that it's so easy to maintain and operate – really make it stand out." ■ LOCATION 10057 98 Street Grande Prairie, Alberta OWNER/DEVELOPER Alberta Health Services Chantelle Management Ltd. ARCHITECT/LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT/STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT/INTERIOR DESIGN Stantec Architecture GENERAL CONTRACTOR Nahanni Construction Ltd. MECHANICAL/CIVIL CONSULTANT Hemisphere Engineering ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT SMP Engineering TOTAL AREA 80,096 square feet TOTAL CONSTRUCTION COST $25 million JUNE 2012 /61 5/25/12 12:03:38 PM

• Cover