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Healthcare
Our approach to healthcare design is totally consistent with our overall design philosophy - architecture that is responsive, responsible and which endures.
The firm's roots extend back to 1960 and to projects that were very small in physical size but large in importance to the community in which they were constructed. While we remain proud of those early accomplishments, which in the light of current activity can only be viewed as modest achievements, we have never abandoned the underlying attitude of care and commitment under which those early projects were executed. Current and recently completed projects include community and health care facilities which are large in scale and complex in nature.
Salter Pilon approaches healthcare architecture with the belief that the outcome must be exceptional. Communities hold both great enthusiasm and large expectations for their healthcare facilities. Architects can make a very significant contribution to both the process and to the outcome of the facility. However, success can only be achieved by the development of a totally integrated working relationship among the complete design team - hospital, programmers, local interest groups and authorities, consultants and MOHLTC. We commit to engage and to coordinate the multiple skills of the complete team.
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
Thunder Bay
In 2004, the new 375 bed acute care Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre accepted its first patients. They came to the new state-of-the-art centre from two 100-year old hospitals, McKellar General and the General Hospital of Port Arthur. The new $206 million amalgamated centre, located centrally to serve both communities, was the first new hospital in Ontario utilizing construction management approach, resulting in the completion of the project in four years from design to turnover of the building.
The 686,000 square foot facility now serves as an acute care referral centre to 13 community hospitals in Northwestern Ontario.
Our award winning innovative design has successfully incorporated a number of “firsts” into the project. It is the first hospital in Canada to use wood extensively through the structure of the main public areas of the entire building which is not permitted by the Ontario Building Code. We were successful in negotiating with the Building Department and the Ontario Fire Marshall as the building code does not allow wood to be used in hospitals by introducing an advanced Fog Fire Suppression System to Canada. It is also one of the first hospitals in the country to bring daylight into the heart of traditionally dark nursing stations for the benefit of the staff, who work long shifts, and the patients.The project was completed by Salter Farrow Pilon Architects Inc.
