Near the corner of Carling Avenue and Preston Street, two horseshoe-shaped patient-care towers connected by glass walkways curve around a public park and a tree-lined escarpment. Patients, staff and visitors come and go from a direct link to public transit and an underground parking lot topped with a grass roof. Patient rooms full of natural light overlook Dow’s Lake and the Central Experimental Farm.
This is the draft architectural concept of The Ottawa Hospital’s new campus: a vital addition to eastern Ontario’s health system, and a vision of what hospital care in Ottawa could become. It was developed using feedback from the public, patients and staff members, as well as architectural analysis of the site.
Like the century-old Civic before it, the new campus will be Eastern Ontario’s only regional trauma centre, and will provide acute, specialized and complex care to the region’s 1.3 million residents. On March 23, The Ontario Government committed $1.8 billion in funding for its development and construction.
“The hospital of the 21st century will be warm and welcoming,” said Dr. Virginia Roth, The Ottawa Hospital’s Chief of Staff. “It will improve safety, privacy, convenience and comfort. It will reach beyond its walls to provide care where it’s best for the patient and improve the wellness of our community.”
In February, the hospital signed a 99-year lease with the federal government for the land where it will be built.
“This draft architectural concept incorporates the site’s natural features while considering greenspace and preserving mature trees to promote and enhance the patient, staff and community experience,” said Jason-Emery Groën, Design Director with HDR Architecture Associates Inc.
Over the next three years, The Ottawa Hospital will work closely with the community, patients and staff, and government partners to validate and finalize a design for the new campus. Public engagement will take place through three streams – online, at in-person sessions, and through a Campus Engagement Group that will deliberate on a range of questions and issues related to the community.
The hospital of the future is poised to become a reality. Together, we will create a 21st-century health-care facility for generations to come.