Toronto Bridgepoint Hospital | 61.87m | 10s | Bridgepoint Health | Diamond Schmitt

I'm looking forward to seeing KPMB's design, but since it's a P3 development there's no guarantee that it will be built as designed anyway.

I'll miss the half-round. Still, the building can be enjoyed for a few more years. I've visited patients there, and the unique curved form makes it a memorable place. I gave the hospital my late partners aquarium, which was set up in one of the lounges - didn't check back to see if they put any little fishies in it though.
 
Plans to be revealed July 7/8

Bridgepoint is hosting an open house July 7 and 8 at St. John's Presbyterian (across from the jail on Broadview). 6-9pm. Plan is to reveal the new design. All of this 'insider info' comes from a postcard dropped in my mailbox today... ;)

The drawings on the postcard show a 11ish story modernist structure with punched out narrow, tall windows attached to the west side of the old jail. Not bad, actually, but very hard to tell what they're actually planning.

No new details on the website:

http://www.bridgepointhealth.ca/Home.aspx?PageID=30&mid=_ctl0_MainMenu__ctl1-menuItem016
 
Hopefully AoD's head won't explode...

... but I'm a full-on lover of the new plan.

Went to the open house and spoke with Bruce Kuwabara(sp?). He was eloquent in describing his plans (although extremely diplomatic in skirting the issue of what would be planted on the four other development sites with nice, small beige boxes on the rendering... ;))

He described the site as essentially a nine box grid (i.e. a tic-tac-toe board). The Don Jail, restored and renovated into a historic site/admin building, sits on Paul Lynde's box. Hospital is West Central and West North, with small terrace melding with Riverdale Park. South Central is Don Jail Park, essentially green space, and South East is the current library. The crux is that leaves four sites to be developed, and lots o' speculation on what'll go there.

But the hospital looks awesome and the care in which they've integrated the hospital and grounds into the 'nabe is great. Kuwabara mentioned that he used to live on Broadview, then Riverdale, and had a relative on Withrow for years, so he understands the pull of the park. I think getting rid of the monolith which is the jail and making sure there's pedestrian/bike routes through the grounds is great. They've thought this through, and I think the design looks beautiful.

Cheers!
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
But the hospital looks awesome and the care in which they've integrated the hospital and grounds into the 'nabe is great. Kuwabara mentioned that he used to live on Broadview, then Riverdale, and had a relative on Withrow for years, so he understands the pull of the park. I think getting rid of the monolith which is the jail and making sure there's pedestrian/bike routes through the grounds is great. They've thought this through, and I think the design looks beautiful.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

...but he still skirted the issue of the half-round, which is neither "the monolith which is the jail" nor an impediment to said ped/bike routes...
 
Not skirted -- obliterated

adma said:
...but he still skirted the issue of the half-round, which is neither "the monolith which is the jail" nor an impediment to said ped/bike routes...
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adma -- get over it. The half-round is going to be demolished.

The plan is to keep it open through the construction of the new hospital by changing the main entrance to the NE corner of the building, behind the temporary family medicine building on Broadview. Once the new hospital is finished, it will be razed to make way for the new main entrance of the new hospital, which would be on the central east portion of the building, behind the Old Don Jail.

No one 'skirted the issue'. They stated flatly it was being put to the wrecker's ball.

If someone has the cash or connections, an offer to purchase the old hospital for enough dollars to fund the new hospital would probably make Ontario Health waver. But it would have to be a big -- and clean -- offer.

What the website doesn't show, however, is the steps planned for the project, which were on storyboards at the open house. If someone with a camera goes tonight, they might want to take some pix and post.

Cheers.
 
Bruce gave me the same sales job. I had a chat to Mitch Hall - who worked with him on the Ballet School - too, and someone from Stantec, and a few planner types. Michael McClelland of heritage architects E.R.A. was there, but I didn't get to discuss the possibilities for the old jail. An interesting hour.

The half-round would always have been in the way, regardless of what they had decided to do with the site - it's a huge, curved building that arches around the north side of the old jail. I'll miss it - many locals have visited friends and relatives in that hospital at one time or another during the past half century. We've an emotional attachment to it. The plans for the jail building look very interesting, and once the current jail is relocated in a few years the whole site will be opened up. The massiveness of the new building has been broken up into smaller elements, with patient lounges at the ends of hallways overlooking the neighbourhood for instance. There's a bridge to the old jail. And, yes, there are those lots along Broadview, and one north of Gerrard, for future development ...

KPMB and Bridgepoint think they've nailed this thing down well enough that it'll be difficult to alter the design significantly, though Bruce is resigned to the fact that some degree of The Cheapening is inevitable. D+S, Montgomery Sisam, and Tye Farrow are apparently in the running to do the work. The Stantec architect told me that an earlier and bolder design, with more "cantilevered" elements, was nixed ( by Smitherman, or his Ministry I understand ) with no reason given.
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
adma -- get over it. The half-round is going to be demolished.
Click to expand...

But the half-round is not the obviously-more-expendable "new" Don Jail, so there's still this spectre lingering over the scheme, Kuwabara or no Kuwabara...
National_Lampoons_Dog.gif


So, still a bit too much goody-goody nicey-nicey touchy-feely shhh-don't-talk-about-the-defenders-of-the-half-round for comfort. (At least Urban Shocker *does* address that issue, sorta.)
 
Well, it'll be a wrench when it goes, not just because it's a hospital building but because it's part of the Riverdale identity and the consciousness we have of our neighbourhood. And the way it nestles at the south end of the park, and faces onto it, is visually memorable.

But the new development embraces the possibilities presented by the forecourt of the old jail by linking it more directly to Gerrard. The old jail is also being joined to the new hospital, and it faces onto the public/hospital space to the north of it that the demolition of the half-round creates, and beyond that to the park to the north.
 
Sorry to disappoint you, RRR, but considering I was the one who posted the link to the website without commentary, you should realize that my skull imploding isn't exactly on the menu, as much as such possiblities might excite you.

My take on the proposal - not bad. Not Grade A architecture, but certainly very competent in the typical KPMB way. Do I still regret losing the half round? Yes. Do I think tearing it down is a waste? Yes. But do I think it is such a tragic, meaningless loss relative to what's been gained? Debatable. That said, the spectre of Cheapening(tm) still exist with regards to this project, not to mention the need for quality developments on the other parcels of the site. It is therefore important to hold Bridgepoint Health and others to what the vision that they have presented such that the demolition of the half-round is at least meaningful from an architectural/urban design perspective.

AoD
 
If you're going to be entirely too reasonable...

AlvinofDiaspar said:
Sorry to disappoint you, RRR, but considering I was the one who posted the link to the website without commentary, you should realize that my skull imploding isn't exactly on the menu, as much as such possiblities might excite you.

My take on the proposal - not bad. Not Grade A architecture, but certainly very competent in the typical KPMB way. Do I still regret losing the half round? Yes. Do I think tearing it down is a waste? Yes. But do I think it is such a tragic, meaningless loss relative to what's been gained? Debatable. That said, the spectre of Cheapening(tm) still exist with regards to this project, not to mention the need for quality developments on the other parcels of the site. It is therefore important to hold Bridgepoint Health and others to what the vision that they have presented such that the demolition of the half-round is at least meaningful from an architectural/urban design perspective.

AoD
Click to expand...

... what's the point of jabbing a stick in the wasp's nest? ;)

I like the building, but I agree that it's a highly competent modern glass box, no more. What I do like is such a large piece of my 'nabe being brought back to community use. The park/pedestrian walkway/closure of Don Jail Roadway/bike trail will make this a much nicer gateway to East Chinatown and Riverdale. Now, if we could just get the furshinlugginer 'Chinese Gate' built...
 
I doubt if we'll ever see Kuwabara's original, bolder design. Revisions mandated by the City bureaucracy, or as a result of the influence of NIMBY pressure groups, are to be expected - but when political grandees with no known design qualifications have their say that early in the process, as the Stantec person I spoke to indicated, it shows that other forces can sometimes be at play too.

P3s aren't particularly good news from a design point of view ( Safdie pulled out of designing McGill's University Health Centre because of The P3 Cheapening ), but the KPMB architects I spoke to think they and Bridgepoint are on surer footing with this one. We'll see ...
 
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