West Park Healthcare Centre reaches substantial completion

This milestone means the rehabilitation facility is ready for use and has been transferred from the contractor, EllisDon to West Park. Move-in, training and other orientation processes can now begin to prepare for the facility’s official grand opening in Spring 2024.

The 27-acre campus, located in a park-like setting, is designed to respond to an urgent need many current facilities cannot address: a growing demand for complex continuing care and a need for breakthroughs in rehabilitation therapy. More than just meeting these needs, the new West Park Healthcare Centre will create a restorative setting where patients receive world-class care and benefit from therapeutic connections to nature simultaneously. Our CannonDesign team was proud to partner with Montgomery Sisam Architects on this project.

West Park was founded as a tuberculosis sanitarium in 1904 and placed on a sprawling forest campus to emphasize outdoor therapeutic spaces. Over the years it evolved into a comprehensive rehabilitation center, caring for amputation and prosthetics patients, those who require long-term ventilation or complex respiratory needs, patients recovering from strokes or acquired brain injuries as well as senior patients needing rehab therapy.

Recognizing that most patients in West Park’s care require stays spanning weeks, months or even years, the hospital is designed to ensure patients feel connected to the world around them. Key to doing this was restoring the “park” in West Park via outdoor gardens, walking trails, therapeutic spaces and outdoor terraces on every floor offering scenic views of the Humber River.

Key design strategies, incorporated into the building are flexibility, adaptability and accessibility. Many patient rooms can be converted or have support equipment added depending on needs. Pathways are easily accessible whether walking or using a wheelchair or other assistive device, and most spaces exceed current accessibility requirements and are meant to be an exemplar for future healthcare spaces.