ROYAL OTTAWA HOSPITAL

Set within a large, greenfield site with a natural park-like atmosphere and replacing a campus of dilapidated buildings, is the competition-winning Royal Ottawa Hospital. The master plan for this psychiatric facility addresses its site in two very different ways:

(1) By locating the research, education, administration and 200-seat auditorium in a seven-storey glass tower and placing it as close to Carling Avenue as possible, a transparent building engages the city with the utmost of confidence, projecting a “high tech” building to its arrival street, while simultaneously demarcating the hospital’s main entrance.

(2) Nine three-storey, “house-like” inpatient/outpatient buildings, with very specialized programs, have been placed in the adjacent park, weaving their staggered, parallel bar-like buildings into the surrounding natural environment. Constructed of warm, earth-toned buff brick, these long, linear buildings incorporate numerous courtyards, allowing patients safe year-round access to the outdoors, while enjoying beautiful views across the park from inside.

As a completed project, the Royal Ottawa Hospital shows both sides of its face, from a city-focused glass research education tower, signifying the project’s main entrance, to the garden-entrenched patient housing, expressing the dichotomy of the building’s programs and its relationship with its diverse site conditions.

Note: For Royal Ottawa Hospital building write-up, statistics, materials and general program, see Institutional Portfolio – Royal Ottawa Hospital.

LOCATION: Ottawa, Ontario

ARCHITECT: Parkin Architects Ltd.
+ Adamson Associates Architects + Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects

DESIGN LEADERSHIP: Michael Poitras,
Partner-in-Charge of Design (Adamson)

COMPETITION: Private/Public Partnership (P3) – First Place

CLIENT: Healthcare Infrastructure Company of Canada