Bridgepoint Active Healthcare

Bridgepoint Active Healthcare

Bridgepoint Active Healthcare

A First in Canada: A Facility for Chronic Disease and Disability Management

Bridgepoint Active Healthcare is Canada’s leader in complex care and rehabilitation. The 10-story, 472-bed hospital is the largest healthcare facility of its kind in Canada and the only organization dedicated to people living with complex chronic disease and disability. Using space already available, the adjacent 148-year-old Don Jail was readapted into the hospital’s administrative and education center. The restoration is emblematic of Bridgepoint’s commitment to transformative rehabilitation—giving new life to an important Toronto landmark.

Being that complex-continuing care patients typically spend up to three months in a hospital, special attention was given to providing a new kind of healthcare in a new kind of hospital—one that acts as a civic building, an urban place and a place for healthcare and community to come together.

Key features of Bridgepoint include:

  • Visitor-friendly features, such as glass walls, food concessions, retail outlets, learning centers, an auditorium, and an outdoor terrace with steps to parkland draw the community to the building.
  • From the patient rooms, patients can peer into the outside world through narrow floor-to-ceiling “pop-out” windows—a key exterior design element—interspersed with horizontal windows.
  • Communal patient dining rooms, an internet café, a spiritual room, a rooftop garden, therapy and rehabilitation rooms, outside terraces and a labyrinth are all designed to get patients out of their rooms and motived to manage their illnesses.
  • In keeping with salutogenic principles that seek to address individuals’ psychosocial well-being, architectural details, textures, and finishes were chosen to signify comfort and community, counteracting the feeling of being in an institution.

Bridgepoint is the first hospital in Toronto to receive a LEED Silver rating, but its sustainability extends beyond LEED to create an architecture of wellness that celebrates a sustainable healthcare system.

Due to the complexity of the project, two teams of architects worked on its design and delivery. Stantec Architecture/KPMB Architects were the Planning, Design and Compliance Architects; and HDR Architecture/Diamond Schmitt Architects were the Design, Build, Finance and Maintain Architects.

Bridgepoint Active Healthcare
Client
Bridgepoint
Location

Toronto, ON
Canada

Size
680,000 sf (63,170 m²)
Certifications
LEED Certified Silver

Awards

Toronto Urban Design Awards, Award of Excellence (2017)
Public Buildings in Context Category
City of Toronto
Governor General Medal for Architecture (2016)
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada & Canada Council for the Arts
Civic Trust Awards, Commendation (2016)
International Project Category
Civic Trust Awards Community Interest Company
Good Design is Good Business Award (2016)
Architectural Record
Architectural Design Awards, Citation (2014)
Modern Healthcare Magazine
Paul Oberman Adaptive Reuse Heritage Restoration Award (2014)
The Architecture Conservancy of Ontario
Design & Health International Academy Awards, Highly Commended (2014)
Health Project Over 40,000 sqm Category
International Academy for Design & Health
Best Commercial + Institutional Building (2014)
Pug Awards
Best of Canada Awards (2014)
Institutional Category
Canadian Interiors Magazine
World Architecture News Awards, Finalist (2014)
Adaptive Reuse Category
World Architecture News
Design Excellence Award (2014)
Ontario Association of Architects