North Hamilton Community Health Centre was located in a small, leased space. It did not meet the healthcare needs of this community. In its place, we developed a LEED Gold Certified facility, increased its footprint by 50 per cent and carefully involved all its stakeholder groups. The result is a beautiful, distinctive healthcare facility that easily integrates within its urban context.

We worked in association with Parkin Architects on the project. The Health Centre represents an investment in this community, one of the first in a growing number of projects designed to uplift this area of our city.

Distinctive investment in the health of Hamilton’s North End

Its 28,000 sf  serves four functional programs: primary care clinic; rehabilitation and chiropody; health promotion; and immigrant and refugee programs. We coordinated the submission to MOHLTC and developed an infection control policy that met CSA standards for Infection Control CSA Z317, within the Primary Care Facility.

In a thoughtful way, we integrated:

• passive cooling with natural ventilation within the central atrium space
• passive solar management through building form and tectonics
• water conservation strategies
• fittings and finishes to enhance indoor air quality

The two storey structure was designed to meet LEED Silver Certification standards. It surpassed our goal and accomplished LEED Gold Certification in 2012. Ultimately, it achieved approximately 45 per cent savings in energy consumption.