Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/218643
Photos: Derek Lepper St. John Hospice by Peter Caulfield t. John Hospice opened recently on the campus of The University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. Housed in a one-storey, wood-frame building that looks like an oversized house, the 14-room hospice is secure, comfortable and peaceful. It combines communal living, dining space and a garden courtyard. The hospice was conceived and built by the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller, an ecumenical Christian organization. It welcomes people at the end of their lives from all backgrounds, faiths and income levels. The hospice is located in a quiet part of the large and busy UBC campus. "The hospice is on Stadium Road, one block from Marine Drive, in a nonteaching part of the southwest quadrant of the campus," says Peter Hebb, spokesman for the Order of St. John Palliative Care Foundation. "Across the street is the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, and slightly uphill is the UBC football stadium." Hebb says the site was chosen as the best from a list of six possible locations offered by the UBC administration. It is separated from a row of houses and a high-rise condominium tower by a bamboo hedge and some forest. Howie Charters, project manager, says the hospice is on a landscaped, elevated site that looks to the southwest. "The building is West Coast contemporary in style and looks just like one of the large mansions in the nearby Southlands neighbourhood," says Charters. The site, which is just under one acre, has water fountains in front of the main S St. John Hospice p92-93St.John Hospice.indd 93 entrance, a large garden courtyard, pathways, a covered walkway and parking for nine vehicles. Bryce Rositch, a partner with Rositch Hemphill Architects (RHA), says the hospice provides a home-like environment for people at the end of their lives. "St. John Hospice is full of comfort and warmth," he says. "It's designed to feel like home." Rositch adds that the architects needed to take into account three different sets of requirements in the design of the hospice. "For the residents, the hospice needed to be warm, cheerful and secure," he says. "The staff wanted a design that was efficient and made it easy to have good interaction with residents and visitors. And the families of the residents needed to be reassured that their loved ones were being well cared for." The hospice, which overlooks one of the main entrances to the UBC campus, is a low-key building that blends into the surroundings but is also very impressive. "It was designed to look like a grand house on a hill," Rositch says. "It's stately in appearance and has gravitas, but it isn't forbidding or institutional. Although the hospice is home to people at the end of their lives, the design doesn't suggest sadness, but honour and pride." The exterior of the hospice is made of granite and Hardie material, a cementitious, fire-resistant board. Rositch says the architects faced two main challenges when they were designing the hospice. "We needed to balance the need to make the hospice easy for visitors to find with the requirement that it make the residents feel secure and comfortable," he says. "And there were many technical regulations required for a hospice that had to be fulfilled." Rositch says the hospice, which contains many energy-saving and sustainability features, is built to UBC 's green building rating system, which is mandatory for all residential construction on campus. The standard, called Residential Environmental Assessment Program (REAP), is the equivalent of LEED Gold. St. John Hospice is different from most other hospices. Whereas the majority of free-standing hospices are in retrofitted buildings, it is located in a carefully designed purpose-built structure that is over 13,000 square feet in area. "Inside you feel like you're in a private residence," says Charters. "You enter through the front door and you see floors that are covered with rugs. You look around and notice a fireplace and works of art on the walls. The hallways are wide and there is soft decorative lighting. French doors open onto a covered patio." Amenities for residents include a living room with a piano, a family room and a children's play area. "It feels like being in someone's house," says Charters. "It's a nice place to sit and chat. There are no announcements coming over a loud speaker, no loud noises, no flashing lights. It's all very calm and peaceful." Each of the 14 wheelchair-accessible rooms has a garden view, a private bathroom with toilet, sink and shower. Residents are encouraged to personalize their rooms with photographs and other mementos. Each room has television with cable, Wi-Fi, a hospital bed, a sofa bed for visitors and a bathroom. The total cost of the project was $5.4 million, of which $4.4 million came from members and friends of the Order of St. John Palliative Care Foundation. St. John Hospice also has a research component that will help strengthen palliative care knowledge and practices in B.C. In conjunction with the UBC Faculty of Medicine, hospice staff will unobtrusively collect data that will be used to develop innovative, multidisciplinary palliative care practices. With better understanding and training of caregivers, more British Columbians will be able to experience loving, quality care in their final days. n Address 6389 Stadium Road, Vancouver, B.C. Owner/Developer Order of St. John Palliative Care Foundation Architect Rositch Hemphill Architects General Contractor VanMar Constructors 1054 Inc. Structural Consultant Thomas Leung Structural Engineering Inc. Mechanical Consultant Yoneda & Associates Electrical Consultant Nemetz (S/A) & Associates Ltd. Landscape Architect Jonathan Losee Ltd. CiVIL Consultant exp Services Inc. Total Area 13,378 square feet Cost $5.4 million december 2013 /93 13-11-15 4:14 PM