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AUGUST 2017 | 75 Casey House PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOUBLESPACE PHOTOGRAPHY [1+3] COURTESY HARIRI PONTARINI ARCHITECTS; VIK PAHWA [2] COURTESY ERA ARCHITECTS INC. Casey House by NATALIE BRUCKNER-MENCHELLI "W e make our clients' humanity more visible than their disease." This is a philosophy that Casey House demonstrates in everything it does. Case in point: the expansion of the renovated heritage house and new four-storey, purpose-built facility – Canada's first and only stand-alone hospital for people with HIV/AIDS. "A day health program was a dream of June Callwood's, one of Casey House's founders," explains Casey House CEO Joanne Simons. "Casey House recognized the need for expanded services to address the needs of people living with HIV/ AIDS. We were finding our original home, a former Victorian mansion, too small and ill suited to the inter- professional and tailored health care we were providing and knew a larger space would enable the launch of a day health program." Indeed, Callwood's dream was to become a reality. Today, on the corner of Jarvis and Isabella Streets in Toronto stand two very different, yet highly complementary buildings that will serve the one in 120 adult Torontonians who are HIV positive. Designing a new building that would not only offer state-of-the-art services but one that would respect the existing 1870s building, known colloquially as the "Grey Lady," was a task that renowned architect Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects was proud to take on. Hariri describes the design as one that arose from the desire to create a comfortable, home-like user experience. "The 'embrace' emerged as a unifying theme – one of warmth, intimacy, comfort, privacy, connectivity and solidity. And also, the expression of the 'quilt', so LOCATION 9 Huntley St, Toronto, Ontario OWNER/DEVELOPER Infrastructure Ontario / Casey House ARCHITECT Hariri Pontarini Architects HERITAGE ARCHITECT ERA Architects Inc. GENERAL CONTRACTOR Bird Construction Company STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Entuitive MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT WSP Canada LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Mark Hartley Landscape Architect AV/DIGITAL SIGN CONSULTANT Engineering Harmonics Inc. TOTAL SIZE 58,000 square feet TOTAL COST $32 million challenges of a downtown site, as Lee Kelly at Bird Construction explains: "Being downtown and building from lot line to lot line meant we had to very carefully manage the logistics. Thankfully, as the restoration was self contained, we were able to work on both buildings simultaneously." Sameer Dhargalkar at Entuitive adds that there were certain considerations to be made dealing with both a heritage home and a new build. "During the excavation for the new build we had to be sure we didn't impact the footings of the existing building. There are connections at the ground and second floor, but the two buildings don't physically touch," he says. "The footings were also found to be too high, so there was some underpinning to lower them before we could excavate down for the southwest stair of the new build, which sits close to the existing foundation." Restoration and renovation of the existing house required thoughtful planning, and, as with any restoration, there were a few surprises along the way. "It was an extensive restoration. The House had fallen into disrepair and the facade had been painted over with a grey/blue cementitious paint that had trapped moisture in and crumbled a lot of the stone," explains Mikael Sydor at ERA Architects Inc., the heritage architect on the project. Piccinato adds that several features of the building were required to be preserved including the exterior facades, and several interior rooms with their ornate plaster mouldings, unique fireplaces and intricate hardwood parquet floors. "We are dealing with a heritage structure that has inherent challenges that come up with a building of that age," says Chris Fitzpatrick at Entuitive. "There were a lot of variations in the cladding support systems that required different support conditions and needed to be carefully co-ordinated. Clifford Restoration had guys on site from the very beginning working on the brick. They did a fantastic job." Head on inside and the extensive renovation continues. Of course weighing the presentation of heritage elements with ductwork and electrical to bring it up to date was a challenge, plus it was a clinical space so resilient materials had to be chosen that were appropriate for a clinical environment. "As a heritage renovation, we were very limited in the systems that could be used. Innovative installation techniques, such as working down through the floor instead of up through the ceiling enabled areas to be renovated without impacting these key heritage spaces and without compromising life safety and fire protection systems," says Craig Watson at WSP. While this project entails two separate buildings, there are connections that bring them together. The staircase in the heritage house had to be moved slightly from its original position on the first floor to create a view all the way from the front door of the heritage home to the back of the Hariri Pontarini Architects building. This, plus moving an entire room in the heritage home, was done to accommodate Hariri's "big idea" of a long, unobstructed corridor that allows clients to quickly orient themselves within the building. To complement the heritage element the brand new four-storey concrete structure and rebar building features reclaimed brick, tinted mirrored glass and crust-faced limestone that line the exterior. Inside the new building an inner courtyard forms the heart from which all other spaces emanate. The mechanical and electrical systems incorporated a number of energy efficiency measures including heat recovery, condensing boilers, low flow fixtures, stormwater management and reuse, and LED lighting. "In addition, this project was potentially the first time WSP used PEX piping in a healthcare environment," says Watson. Casey House is demonstrative of how a community came together to support Casey House's dream to rebuild the heart of HIV/AIDS care. "Alongside the Ministry of Health, like-minded individuals, foundations and corporations recognized the importance of this initiative and contributed generously to expand the continuum of services Casey House provides. We will remember fondly that our donors recognize our clients are more than just their disease, and see the humanity in everyone," says Simons. A important – a symbolic expression of the battle against HIV and AIDS, the fight for the cure," explains Hariri. Taking an inside-out approach, Hariri alongside Jeff Strauss, project manager, Edward Joseph, project co-ordinator, the Casey House executive team and board members sought ways to create a functional facility that was infused with the atmosphere of caring to honour the incredible legacy Callwood built. "The project is a physical manifestation of this 'embrace' in both the vertical and horizontal planes; the new 58,000-square-foot extension reaching over and around the existing heritage designated Victorian mansion, while the new addition – a robust, textured exterior – surrounds the courtyard at the centre of the building, which is visible from every corridor and in-patient room," explains Hariri. Ennio Piccinato, director, AFP Delivery at IO, explains that the existing building was a fine example of the grand homes that lined Jarvis Street in that era and an early decision was made to incorporate the heritage building into the redevelopment plans. The site itself had the usual 1 2 3 8:28 AM

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