Located on the edge of Vancouver, this is British Columbia’s major referral/teaching hospital. The Jim Pattison Pavilion infills 12 floors of an existing tower shell with Acute Inpatient Units providing 476 new beds. The units are flexible to accommodate a range of patient populations, including Medical, Surgical, Rehabilitation, Neurological Intensive Care, Bone Marrow Transplant, and Palliative Care. Designers were challenged to create a design solution within the restrictions of the existing floor space that would inspire users to shift their model for healthcare delivery from a 50-year-old facility to a modern one.

The major goals included creating a patient-focused care concept of providing services (clinical, social, spiritual, and environmental) at the bedside rather than needlessly transferring the patient all over the hospital. Furthermore, care by family members is encouraged whenever appropriate. Allowing for multiuse spaces rather than designing for specific disciplines or clinical subspecialties encourages sharing of support facilities between Nursing Units and between floors.

Features include modular, decentralized team-base workstations; bedside charting and monitoring; dedicated rooms for education, treatment, or rehabilitation; staff facilities; and support services and family space within each 22-bed unit. Special attention was paid to infection control and isolation; access to daylight and lighting control; washroom (most with showers) layouts; and bed head design and ergonomics (including provision of patient lifts in all bedrooms).

The Palliative Care Unit includes rooftop family dining and garden spaces, and a living space with a fireplace and a 360-degree panoramic view of Vancouver in the 16th-floor yurt.

Project category: New construction & Remodel/Renovation (completed May 2003)

Chief administrator: Brent Alley, Regional Director, Vancouver Hospital & Health Sciences Centre, (604) 875-4870

Firm: Stantec Architecture, Ltd., (604) 662-8000

Design team: Bruce Raber, Principal-in-Charge; Wilf Lach, Architect; Ray Pradinuk, Design Architect; Robert Major, Technical Drawings; Mike Alivojvodic, Project Architect

Photography: James Dow; Derek Lepper

Total building area (sq. ft.): 250,000

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $120

Total cost (excluding land): $30,000,000