3. • Bridgepoint, which is part of
Sinai Health System, is an
internationally recognized,
464-bed rehabilitation and
complex care hospital
affiliated with the University
of Toronto.
INTRODUCTIO
N
4. Text description provided by the architects.
• Bridgepoint Active Healthcare in Toronto is the largest facility of its
kind in Canada focused on the treatment of complex chronic disease
and rehabilitation. Bridgepoint’s leaders envisioned a new way of
delivering healthcare in a new kind of hospital: a civic building - an
urban centre - in which healthcare and community come together.
The intent is to blur the traditional distinction of institutional space
and public access and to provide an inspirational setting to assist
patients in their recovery.
5. Location
• The hospital is located next to the Don River in the Riverdale
neighbourhood of the city and includes the historic Don Jail which is
now the administration building for the new hospital.
• The exact address is 14 St. Matthews Road, Toronto, Ontario at the
corner of Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street. The new building
towers over the east side of the Don Valley Parkway.
6.
7. History
• The House of Refuge was built on the site in 1860 as a home for
"vagrants, the dissolute, and for idiots".
• The facility became the Riverdale Isolation Hospital in 1875 during a
smallpox epidemic.
• It became a specialized facility located on the edge of the city to
house patients with communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis.
• As times changed, in 1957, the hospital's name and mandate were
changed; its focus was shifted to helping those with chronic ailments
and/or needing rehabilitation, as the Riverdale Hospital.
• The artchitecturally distinctive brown brick "half-round" Riverdale
Hospital - which become Bridgepoint Health in 2002 - was completed
in 1963; was amalgamated structurally into the new Bridgepoint
Active Healthcare campus.
• In 1997 as part of Mike Harris' cutbacks the government moved to
close the original facility, but a community lobbying effort kept it
open, and saved the historic Riverdale Hospital building.
8. Redevelopment
• In 2003, a $200 million expansion project
was announced, that modernized and
expanded the facility.
• The final result is the purpose-built, 10-
storey, 404-bed Bridgepoint Hospital
building,which is connected by a glass
walkway to the old Don Jail.
• The former Don Jail was demolished in 2014
as part of the Bridgepoint Redevelopment
project.
• Bridgepoint Active Healthcare and
Infrastructure Ontario have partnered with
Plenary Health to design, build, finance and
maintain the new facility for 30 years after
completion.
9. • Construction started in the fall
of 2009,[6] and has been fully
operational since April 2013.
• Patient services moved to the
new hospital building on April
14, 2013.
• The 10-storey hospital
incorporates with the former
Don Jail (c. 1858), which serves
as the administrative wing of the
hospital.The new building
officially opened on June 25,
2013.
17. • The distinctive building envelope contains a
fenestration pattern of 492 projecting ‘pop-
out’ vertical frames – one for every patient
bed – interspersed with the predominant
horizontal fenestration as counterpoint. The
massing rests on a concrete flat slab structure
with cantilever floor plates around the
perimeter.
• Detail of William Lishman Sculptre Garden at
Bridgepoint Hospital, courtesy of
UrbanToronto forum member Salsa
18. • The design response recognizes
the role landscape, nature and
community play in supporting
health. It optimizes the
therapeutic benefits of natural
light, access to nature, and views
of the surrounding park and city
skyline to ensure patients and
staff feel constantly connected
to the world outside. With an
average patient stay of three
months, there was strong
impetus to create an
environment that facilitates
recovery and wellness.
19. • The new hospital building re-casts itself
as an iconic landmark in order to connect
the entire precinct with the community
and the city at large. Socialization is an
important part of therapy, and the
building offers many gathering spaces for
patients, staff and the community,
including a large ground floor terrace
with a cafeteria, a therapy pool with
picture windows onto the park, an
expansive green roof terrace and park
trail extensions through the hospital
campus. A meditative labyrinth with a
pattern of one at Chartres Cathedral in
France is located on the main floor facing
the park.
20.
21. • This LEED Silver certified facility
presents a healing environment
that is communal and
accessible and supports
wellness and recovery.
• The choice and variety of
materials convey this objective.
Architectural details, textures
and finishes de-emphasize the
feeling of being in an institution
and instead offer comfort
and provide an
appropriate human scale
and a feeling of intimacy.
22. • At Bridgepoint, the labyrinth plays host to drum
circles, among other activities for patients, as well
as providing a space for relaxation and meditation.
Various scientific journals have attested to the
healing properties of labyrinths which provide
patients with an opportunity to get exercise in
nature, and which offer a clearly non-medical
space to relax with others while acting generally as
a stress-relieving activity.
• The adjacent Don Jail (1864) has been restored
and repurposed as the hospital administrative
building. A series of jail cells, the gallows and the
soaring rotunda have been preserved and are on
view to the public for the first time with
interpretive exhibits about what was North
America’s largest reform facility. A dynamic
contrast is established between the restored
masonry of the Don Jail and the contemporary
materiality of the new Bridgepoint.
23. Patients need a view of their own
• The findings illustrate that patients
thoroughly enjoy the meaningful views
in the hospital.
• It is of significant importance when we
consider the access to natural sunlight
and meaningful views in a patient’s
room.
• It is recommended that future hospitals
be designed following the Bridgepoint
model, where each patient whether in a
private or semi-private room and
regardless of whether or not the privacy
drapes are drawn be positioned to
ensure a direct siteline to the outdoors.
24. Quality outdoor spaces, not quantity
• Outdoor spaces are very popular
but the results are showing that the
quality of the space is more
important than the quantity of
spaces that are available to patients
and staff.
