Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/292860
patient living areas that all connect to a treatment mall, where patients with the proper level of clearance are allowed to access services like a hair salon, music room, library, activity room, fitness cen- tre, spiritual centre, a patient-run tuck shop and even banking services. Elec t ronic card readers allow patients to access different areas depending on their conditions of treat- ment. The facility also houses a pool, gymnasium and auditorium/confer- ence centre that can be shared with the community. Sophisticated electronics allow the securit y perimeter to be redefined based on who is using these common areas. T he pat ient liv ing spaces are organized around courtyards that all open up to a view of the water to the north. The west side of the building is administration and the patient treat- ment mall, to the south, runs like a spine along the building's east-west axis. Along this spine are a series of ramps – rather than stairs – that serve to connect the three levels. "The hospital felt that ramps are safer than stairs for both patients and staff," says Provenzano, explaining that stairs could provide self-injuri- ous patients with the means to harm themselves. As well, when staff must respond quickly to an emergency, it was deemed safer to run the ramps than to run stairs. Of course the safest place for patients is in their rooms, he says. "Where you have patients by themselves, that's where you will have the highest atten- tion paid to safety. We use pick-proof caulking [some tend to peel and eat the substance] and ligature-proof hooks and door knobs, which will give way if there's too much downward force applied," adds Provenzano. Designed to look like dorm rooms, the spaces feature three-by-six-foot protective glass windows offering a panoramic view of the outside while inside, the wood-finished millwork provides some semblance of a home. But it is the use of reinforced drywall and an oak-veneered swing door that make this truly remarkable. "The main door is designed for normalized living," says Provenzano. Next to it, however, is a sliding door painted to match the wall colour, which can be used when the patient is unco- operative because swing doors can present several risks, from ligature to pinching to blocking. The Centre also features top-of-the- line audio visual equipment. Cinema Stage Inc. was involved in complet- ing over 90 rooms at the Centre. The systems are all built on a dedicated Crestron Digital Media fibre backbone to accommodate the current distance and bandwidth requirements, as well as providing a future-proof scalable system that is ready to handle the next generation of HD technology. Waypoint boardrooms feature full A/V integration including Polycom video conferencing , Sharp interac- tive displays and v ideo projection by Panasonic to complement a col- laborative boardroom environment. Staff conference and training rooms also offer full presentation and video conferencing capabilities to meet the needs of the Waypoint staff. The video conference systems in the boardrooms and staff rooms are connected to the Ontario Telehealth Network ( OTN). In addition to the A/V requirements for staff needs, audio and video entertain- ment systems were also provided to the resident's living rooms, activit y rooms, fitness centre and gymnasium. Other features in the building include a video editing suite, which is used for the creation of in-house content and for producing live events in the auditorium that can be streamed via the IPTV sys- tem through the facility. The A/V system is tied to central control and management sof t ware Crestron Fusion that provides central- ized user support, tracks usage sta- tistics and asset management in one software solution. From the patient's personal space to the public spaces shared with the community, Waypoint's environments embody many of the principles that govern the design of contemporary therapeutic facilities. It is, explains Dr. Jones, a significant and welcome devel- opment in the approach to caring for a much-disenfranchised population. n Location 500 Church Street, Penetanguishene, Ontario owner/DeveLoper Infrastructure Ontario Design-BuiLD-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) teaM Integrated Team Solutions pLanning, Design & coMpLiance (pDc) architects Stantec Architecture Ltd. Design-BuiLD-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) architects CannonDesign Design-BuiLD contractor EllisDon Corporation structuraL consuLtant Stephenson Engineering Ltd. MechanicaL consuLtant Hidi Rae Consulting Engineers Inc. eLectricaL/it/security/av consuLtant Mulvey & Banani International Inc. LanDscape architect O'Connor Mokrycke Consultants totaL size 350,000 square feet totaL vaLue oF DBFM contract $474.1 million photos courtesy cannon design April 2014 /83 Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care Do you have a project of interest to our readers? If you would like your project to be considered for a future issue of Award, please email: Dan Chapman, Publisher dchapman@canadawide.com AWD Project Filler 1/16 v. gs AWD Project Filler 1-16v. gs 6/3/08 3:22 PM Page 1 p78-83_WaypointCentre.indd 83 14-04-03 9:14 AM