Project Category – New Construction (completed December 2000)

Facility Contact – Dave Beazley, Senior Redevelopment Consultant, (905) 848-7100

Firm – Parkin Architects Limited, (416) 467-8000

Design Team – Cameron Shantz, Vice-President; Francy Kralik, Associate; Robert Wu, Associate; Mary Chow, Senior Design Consultant

Patient/Bed Capacity – 457 beds

Total Building Area (sq. ft.) – 593,982 (including 62,000-sq.-ft. addition)

Total Land Area (acres) – 22.4

Total Cost (excluding land) – $23,000,000


Parkin Architects Limited designed the redeveloped Mississauga site of the amalgamated Mississauga and Queensway Hospitals in 1998. The project includes an Emergency Department, Critical Care Area, Cardiac ORs and Family Care Centre.

The 22,000-sq.-ft. ER is designed for 80,000 to 100,000 visits per year, making it the busiest in Canada. Forty-three stretcher spots are divided into trauma and resuscitation, acute care, minor treatment and pediatrics areas. The challenge presented to Parkin was to break down the scale of the ER, while maintaining the ability of the medical staff to supervise the entire department and maintain eye contact with their patients.

A continuous-care desk monitors the separate areas. Each distinct patient track has unique design characteristics to reduce patient stress and confusion. Detailing of the patient cubicles is standardized throughout the department. Both patient privacy and nursing visibility are preserved through the use of glazed ICU doors on most of the cubicles. Skylights bring natural light into the department.

The Family Care Centre provides Pre- and Postnatal care, a Pediatric Fast Track clinic, and Pediatric Asthma and Diabetic clinics. A welcoming and interactive presence is maintained throughout the department with the use of color and child-focused interactive graphics. The Education and Resource Centre provides community access to health information.

The Critical Care Area has 43 beds for ICU, CCU and CVICU. The ICUs are divided into pods, with linked care desks and support areas. The single-bed patient rooms provide privacy, but sliding glass doors permit visibility and staffing efficiency. Each patient room has a window to the exterior-some to garden courtyards. Trillium’s designation as a provincial Cardiac Care site necessitated the addition of cardiac operating rooms. The Cardiac ORs are located directly adjacent to the CVICU and are incorporated into the existing OR corridor.

The exterior design responds to the existing building by using the same palette of brick and precast materials. The building massing reduces the apparent size, and entranceways are highlighted with inviting glass canopies.

The existing hospital has 10′ floor-to-floor heights that are inadequate for the air-handling systems and technologic requirements of a contemporary hospital. The addition has much higher floor heights, connected by ramps and elevators located at the interface between the old and the new building. Standardized technologic infrastructure, medical services, layouts and modular furniture provide easy staff orientation and allow reconfiguration of spaces to respond to technologic advancements.

Parkin designed the project with consideration for the efficiencies of staff and the atmosphere for patients. Care is taken to reduce the large program areas into spaces that are more intimate and less intimidating. Each area is given a unique character to help with patient and family orientation and to reduce the visual scale. Color and texture are used extensively to diminish the institutional character of spaces. Special design features include landscaped courtyards for the ICU, to provide exterior views from all patient rooms, skylights that provide natural light in the ER and large, child-friendly interactive graphics in the Pediatric clinic.