Award

Joseph & Rosalie Segal & Family Health Centre – Vancouver General Hospital PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBERT STEFANOWICZ/COURTESY ELLISDON CORPORATION + PARKIN ARCHITECTS WESTERN LTD. Joseph & Rosalie Segal & Family Health Centre – Vancouver General Hospital by ROBIN BRUNET A ccording to Christie Paxton, clini- cal project manager for Vancouver Coastal Health, the idea of a men- tal health and substance use facility located on the grounds of Vancouver Coastal Health's (VCH's) Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) had been on everyone's radar for the past two decades. "Consolidating inpatient, out- patient, and outreach mental health and substance use services in one building was a dream, considering these ser- vices weren't centralized," she says. But in 2010 the dream took a giant step towards becoming reality when the Segal family donated $12 million towards a new purpose-built facility. "This enabled us to engage the design build team of EllisDon and Parkin Architects Western to design the building and triggered a fundraising campaign by the VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation that, together with the Segal donation, and $57 million from the provincial government gave us $82 million to make the Joseph & Rosalie Segal & Family Health Centre [JRSFHC] a true state-of-the-art healing environ- ment for patients," says Paxton. Opened in August of 2017, the JRSFHC is a LEED Gold, nine-storey facility con- taining 100 inpatient beds that was designed with extensive input from men- tal health consumers, families, health care providers, and support personnel. A sense of expanse and brightness is inherent throughout the facility. Each patient room has its own ensuite wash- room; and there are dedicated family and visitor spaces; access to outdoor space with secure rooftop gardens for patient gardening; a new public park; exercise areas; and quiet places on each floor for reading and meditation. Parkin Architects designed JRSFHC with meticulous attention to detail, and as Paxton points out, this required a certain leap of faith on behalf of the owners. "Early indications were that this would be a public private part- nership project, but in the end the Project Board recommended a design build delivery model, and this meant relinquishing a lot of control to the architects," says Paxton. Although Parkin had to abide by a huge document of design requirements, Paxton was impressed by the degree to which the architects worked with a large stakeholder group to create an environment that is both beautiful and functional. "Bringing natural light into the building was a huge consideration, and the final design makes it almost impossible to stand anywhere within JRSFHC and not see outside." Natural light was also brought in via an outdoor courtyard, which was designed to contain a fountain and offer gardening opportunities. Not one but two balconies were allotted to each patient unit, and to foster an intimate, homey ambiance providing clients with autonomy and choice; Parkin cre- ated a series of smaller different-use rooms within the facility instead of a few large spaces. Capping the JRSFHC is an expansive rooftop garden for patient use, sur- rounded by 14-foot safety glass and poured-in-place rubber flooring for yoga. Vancouver Coastal Health reviewed the qualifications of eight proponents before inviting three to submit pro- posals and then awarding EllisDon Corporation the construction contract. Ian Kerr, the company's director of busi- ness development for B.C., says, "It's a new construction in the middle of a con- gested hospital campus, which made the project challenging for the team; but it's a great addition to the area." Space – or lack of – proved to be a major challenge of the building phase, and major co-ordination efforts were involved in ordering materials to arrive on-site at precisely the correct time – and to avoid interfering with the normal functions of the hospital (deliv- ery information and truck sizes were requested ahead of time in order to create specific delivery plans). Paxton notes, "The tight site meant the trailers had to be stacked instead of laid out. In fact, the site was so confined that one face of the spinal cord building was just five or so feet away and whose corner of glazing required protective barriers." The JRSFHC is linked to the VGH's fire protection and security systems, which required careful co-ordination and testing to ensure that hospital operations were not affected. Multiple power sources were installed in every patient's room; in case of an outage of one source, the second source would provide redundancy. And in the event of a complete power outage, a generator LOCATION 803 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. OWNER/DEVELOPER Vancouver Coastal Health ARCHITECT Parkin Architects Western Ltd. DESIGN/BUILD CONTRACTOR EllisDon Corporation STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT WSP Canada MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT MCW Consultants Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Durante Kreuk Ltd. TOTAL SIZE 130,000 square feet TOTAL COST $82 million backup would bring one source of light- ing back online within 10 seconds. Total electrical requirements designed by MCW Consultants Ltd. and assisted by Houle Electric consisted of electrical distribution and emergency power systems, fire alarm, lighting and lighting control, clock systems, commu- nication and data, a distributed antenna system, audio visual, access control, video surveillance, and a real-time locating system. Because the JRSFHC was designed with high ceilings, this meant reduced ceiling space available for services – so constant co-ordination between EllisDon, MCW, and other trades was maintained to contain all the services in the limited space (it was determined that LED light fixtures would signifi- cantly reduce space requirements). Reducing noise transfer between rooms was a mandatory specification, so this meant something as routine as roughing in electrical devices had to be approached with special care. The JRSFHC was completed in August of 2017, and a parking lot and road in front of the building was trans- formed into a grassy area that is now a preferred leisure destination for many hospital staff. Christie concludes, "Thanks to a great working relationship with Parkin, EllisDon, and the other trades, we were able to realize a decades- long dream and provide the largest purpose-built facility for people with mental health and substance use disor- ders in B.C. This is a beautiful building and a vital addition to VCH's purpose- built facilities where we can offer best practice care for patients in need." A A PR IL 2018 | 59

• Cover