Diamond Schmitt Architects has been selected by Infrastructure Ontario to lead the planning, design and compliance of a major expansion to St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. The project includes the construction of a new 17-storey patient-care tower and the renovation of approximately 150,000 square feet of existing space. The expansion will add five new operating rooms, enlarge the emergency department and relocate patient beds from an 85-year-old wing.
Diamond Schmitt Architects will work in association with DIALOG Ontario Inc. on the redevelopment. Program features will include:
• hybrid operating rooms each large enough to include state-of-the-art medical imaging equipment that will allow surgeons to perform minimally invasive, image-guided or catheter-based procedures, as well as undertake open surgery in the same operating room.
• Enlarged, state-of-the-art facilities for orthopedic surgery, oncology, coronary care and respirology, including North America’s largest adult cystic fibrosis clinic, as well as critical care space for the coronary and medical-surgical units.
• Expansion of the current Emergency Department, which was originally designed to accommodate 45,000 patient visits, but now accommodates 70,000 patient visits a year—a number that continues to grow with the population.
“We are thrilled to be able to continue working with St Michael’s Hospital,” says Jack Diamond, Principal, Diamond Schmitt Architects. “It is wonderful to work with an institution of such noble purpose, compassion and above all one that delivers such exceptional care. Our task will be to ensure an architecture commensurate with St Michael’s great attributes. This will not only be from a functional perspective, but, given the prominent location of the new patient care tower at the corner of Victoria and Queen Streets, will be the new face of St Michael’s”.
“The new patient care tower and renovation projects will ensure that St. Michael’s staff and physicians are able to provide the excellent quality of care that is our hallmark, within a state-of-the-art facility that includes the latest advances in technology and lifesaving equipment,” says Dr. Robert Howard, Chief Executive Officer, St. Michael’s Hospital.
Diamond Schmitt Architects previously designed St. Michael’s Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, a unique research and education facility; the Cardinal Carter wing and the St. Michael’s Women’s Health Clinic.
Diamond Schmitt Architects (www.dsai.ca) is a leading Canadian full-service architectural practice and is the recipient of more than 200 awards, including six Governor General’s Awards for Architecture. The firm is recognized for sustainable design expertise in healthcare facilities, academic and research buildings, the performing arts, residential and commercial properties. Current projects include The Hospital for Sick Children’s Research Tower and Bridgepoint Hospital in Toronto and the New Mariinsky Theatre, an opera house in St. Petersburg, Russia.