Award

A PR IL 2017 | 63 Selkirk Regional Health Centre RENDERINGS COURTESY LM ARCHITECTURAL GROUP Selkirk Regional Health Centre by LAURIE JONES L ike any city that is reaching a new level of livability, Selkirk, Manitoba has grown to need significant medical services for local residents and those living in outlying regions. The state-of-the-art Selkirk Regional Health Centre (SRHC) will be a central hub, offering everything from birthing rooms and dialysis to surgery and more. "From an architectural, energy and welcoming point of view, this is going to be one of the nicest facilities in the province for some time to come," says Ron Van Denakker, CEO, Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority. "There is a lot of natural light, giving it a feeling of healing." Van Denakker says the facility is the only regional hospital in the area. "The enhanced services we have here gives us the flexibility of providing more of the services within our own region because so often we default to Winnipeg. One particular area is in diagnostics. We will have our first MRI and expansions in our bed map, which are a huge benefit." The process for building the LEED Silver targeted project took over 10 years from inception to substantial completion. "During the architectural design and planning stages we developed multiple conceptual planning options," says James Orlikow from LM Architectural Group. "The final selection was a pinwheel design with a central courtyard that responded to the site and operational requirements of the region." Orlikow adds that the facility has incorporated a new concept in the emergency department planning where there is virtually no waiting room. "Patients arrive, are triaged and brought directly into the ED so the staff can take immediate care and control." The two-storey building features an inner courtyard that is open to the sky and is intended to aid wayfinding. "When people walk in, there is natural light and the courtyard gives people a centre of the building to find various departments," says Orlikow. "The main floor handles primarily outpatient facilities, emergency, diagnostic imaging and support services." One of the requirements in the plan was a feature staircase on the main entrance. "That was another way of orienting people to the second level." He notes LM designed the drop-off location at the front of the building to include a canopy and extensive use of Tyndall stone. Another design aspect that takes advantage of increased glazing is the angle of the 65 inpatient beds. "The beds are at a 45-degree angle to the exterior wall so patients lying in bed could have ease of view to the exterior, with an operational window for fresh air," says Orlikow. "This layout also allows better casual supervision from the corridor." For some areas of the build, the architecture duties were co-ordinated by Stantec. "It's a large footprint and the building was subdivided into different departments," says David Essex, principal, architecture. "The team at Stantec worked on the main floor meeting rooms and training areas, the administration and rehab area, patient records and outpatient rooms. We also did the surgical suites, the lab, materials management, oncology and dialysis." Darrell Sawatzky, associate, interior designer at LM Architectural Group, says the conceptual intent for the interior was to reflect the geography and history of the interlake-eastern area. "The area is rich with aspen forests, inland lakes, grasslands and wetlands. We wanted to capture that spirit so we used stone and wood to create a sense of warmth. The colour palette reflects the region with aqua and warm terracotta, complementing the deep terrazzo flooring, wood panelling and neutral Tyndall stone walls." With a focus on having as much natural light as possible in the building, curtain walls are in all public areas, starting at the front entrance and completely surrounding the interior courtyard. "The café has a nice curved section of curtain wall, as does the emergency entrance," says Andrew Szalai, project manager, EllisDon Corporation. "The scale of millwork and finished wall panels is quite extensive for a healthcare facility. All the patient rooms have headwalls for the medical equipment and electrical, but it's built into a wood wall panel enhanced with millwork. The café will have the same panelling against the inner wall and a panelling system that divides the café from the corridor area." Provisions were required for connections between the curtain wall and steel beams to allow for deflection of the structure to reduce stress on the curtain wall. "A transfer beam was also installed to accommodate the spaciousness of the inner courtyard," says Tante Ruiz, senior structural designer, Crosier Kilgour & Partners Ltd. "This was to keep the design open from the second floor down to the first level." The SRHC site is one of the largest greenfield healthcare campuses in Manitoba. "This park-like and sustainable site includes extensive native grassland plantings, more than 200 native trees and a network of bioswales that mitigate Manitoba's extreme seasons and stormwater conditions," says Monica Giesbrecht, landscape architect with HTFC Planning & Design. "More than three kilometres of accessible pathways connect the hospital to surrounding neighbourhoods while the hospital's main entrance courts serve as community gathering spaces with welcoming decks and native plantings." In keeping with the land component, the SRHC has the largest horizontal loop geothermal system in any hospital in the province. "It is 550,000 square feet of double row of piping below the surface," says Gary Dandeneau, director of capital planning, Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority. "The loop supplies 16 heat pumps that provide 100 percent cooling and an estimated 60 to 70 percent heating for the facility." The electrical components for the SRHC are extensive and run over an IT network. "We designed it to have emergency power that could run the whole facility through an extended power failure," says Elliott Garfinkel, managing partner, MCW/AGE Consulting Professional Engineers. "A lot of effort was also put into the lighting to ensure it did not feel institutional." A LOCATION 120 Easton Drive, Selkirk, Manitoba OWNER/DEVELOPER Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority ARCHITECT/LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT LM Architectural Group ASSOCIATE ARCHITECT Stantec GENERAL CONTRACTOR EllisDon Corporation STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Crosier Kilgour & Partners Ltd. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT SMS Engineering Ltd. ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT MCW/AGE Consulting Professional Engineers LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT HTFC Planning & Design TOTAL SIZE 184,750 square feet CONSTRUCTION COST $118 million 11:53 AM 3:54 PM

• Cover