Design for new Civic campus unveiled

By Anita Brown

The Ottawa Hospital’s preliminary plan for the new $2-billion Civic campus features underground parking, maximized green space and preservation of the site’s natural landscape.

The hospital, slated to open in 2026, will be located between Carling Avenue and the Queen Elizabeth Driveway on the eastern edge of the Central Experimental Farm, along the O-Train line that marks Centretown’s western boundary.

The new hospital will bring Civic campus medical care about one kilometre closer to the residents of downtown Ottawa.

Cameron Love, the hospital’s executive vice-president and chief operations officer, said the new campus is an exciting development for the whole city.

“New hospitals only get built every 50 years at best,” said Love. “So as a community, this is a really exciting opportunity to develop a new state-of-the-art hospital.”

The hospital is projected to have 800 to 900 beds and up to four million square feet of floor space, making it almost twice the size of the existing Civic campus. Love said the Ottawa Hospital hopes to recruit some of the “best and the brightest” researchers from across the world for the new Civic.

“It’s an opportunity to build brand new infrastructure that will propel us forward to be one of the best centres in the world,” said Love.

The draft architectural concept reflects feedback from a community meeting held last fall. HDR Inc., the firm that designed the hospital’s conceptual drawings, kept public transit, green space, and tree preservation at the forefront of the planning.

The concept shows two horseshoe-shaped wings connected by raised walkways that will be placed on the northeast section of the 50-acre site to minimize the hospital’s impact on the adjacent Experimental Farm.

The 12-storey southernmost building will house emergency, acute care, in-patient, surgical and rehabilitation services, while the eight-storey building closer to Carling Avenue will include outpatient clinics and educational facilities.

Love said public opinion has been taken into consideration throughout the entire process.

“This isn’t just a healthcare project, this is a very large community development project,” said Love. “It’s really important that we understand what the community wants to see.”

River Coun. Riley Brockington said he has been happy with the hospital’s communication with the public throughout the architectural plans. But he also said there’s still a long way to go before the city sees a functional hospital at the site.

“This is the very, very beginning of a long journey,” Brockington said. “There will be multiple public meetings, sessions, and focus groups between now and construction.”

Brockington said the 94-year-old Civic campus is past its prime, and the city is in need of a more modern, functional facility.

“I call it the ‘Frankenstein building’ because it’s been renovated and added on to so many times,” said Brockington. “It’s time for a modern facility that will meet the needs of the current population.”

Accessibility is one of the key goals for the new site. The planned campus aims to be easily accessible by vehicle and by transit. With the O-Train line currently running beneath the eastern end of the location, there is talk of incorporating a station stop inside the hospital complex, Brockington said.

Michel Gauthier, executive director of the Canadian Tulip Festival, said he’s worried about how the new hospital will impact the city’s two biggest festivals, which are hosted in the area.

Gauthier said he hopes the hospital will acknowledge the effect the new campus could have on Winterlude and the Tulip Festival, events that draw significant tourist traffic to the vicinity of Dows Lake.

“We want the hospital to bloom, but we also want to keep the festivals blooming,” said Gauthier. “So let’s think and talk about that, and see what we can do to avoid any major chaos.”

While Gauthier is concerned about what the construction means for city events, he said the bigger problem lays in the events’ possible effect on the hospital.

“As much as I say we need to talk about the impact on the festival, I would say we need to talk about the festivals’ impact on the hospital,” said Gauthier. “Conversation, communication, and understanding what the issues are is the way to go during construction.”