St. Michael’s Hospital

Walter and Maria Schroeder Brain and Heart Centre

“The catheterization lab's capacity is unparalleled and will enable us to make use of state-of-the-art equipment to care for our patients.”

Kim Boswell, Clinical Leader Manager Cardiac Catheterization Labs and Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, SMH

With the Walter and Maria Schroeder Brain & Heart Centre, St. Michael’s Hospital is creating a hub to bring together the world’s best brain and heart specialists, a group of multi-disciplinary experts in engineering and the clinical neurosciences, to develop new therapies for brain-related disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig disease (ALS) and Parkinson’s. The new centre will enable patients to be diagnosed, tested and treated in a seamless approach in a single location.

The new catheterization lab, where diagnostic imaging procedures take place to diagnose and treat cardiac issues, is now the largest of its kind inside St. Michael’s, expanding by almost a third of its previous size. The new robotic C-arm will set new benchmarks for precision during various diagnostic imaging procedures.

HH Angus was engaged to provide mechanical and engineering services; lighting design; IT, security, audio visual and communications consulting; and commissioning. Our project scope covered the renovation of an existing Cath Lab, along with associated equipment and control rooms, in order to accommodate a larger footprint and new state-of-the-art medical and imaging equipment.

The project design was future proofed with the expanded Cath lab providing increased capacity for cardiac procedures, thanks to a requirement to design the procedure area to be flexible enough for use as an Operating Room in future. It also includes state-of-the-art audio visual capabilities, with live data streams displayed on electronic screens throughout the room. Future capabilities include extensive video and audio feeds from within the room, as well as the ability to videoconference and live-stream procedures to locations both within and outside St. Michael’s. This will facilitate education, research and external consults.

Upgrades included: medical gas system and alarm replacement, including the installation of an articulated service boom; eventual conversion from passive to active scavenging system; ventilation system; and two new neuro interventional bi-plane suites, enabling image-guided and minimally-invasive procedures.

Challenges met by our project team include:

Designing the space to meet a Hybrid OR environment, including supplying 20 air changes per hour above the patient care area with limited ceiling space
Creating flexible ventilation design to allow future connection to a new air handling system, without causing major shutdowns to or rework of the existing space
As a partial solution to #1, installing a combined lighting and air supply product (EH Price Ultrasuite), which had not yet been implemented anywhere in Canada, and ensuring all local code requirements were met.
Coordinating the complex video requirements of multiple specialized medical systems in order to route diagnostic-quality video and audio feeds appropriately.

Read about other projects at St. Michael’s Hospital

Barlo MS Centre
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute

Photo courtesy of Unity Health

PROJECT FEATURES
Status: Completion 2020 | Future-proofed design with flexibility to permit re-purposing of procedure area

LOCATION
Toronto, Ontario

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Cardiac catheterization lab | Hybrid OR environment

Town of Havelock

Long Term Care Residence

The greenfield Havelock long term care facility features power redundancy for heating and cooling, allowing the residential facility to remain fully operational in the event that both power and natural gas are unavailable under emergency conditions.

This 91,000 ft2 greenfield residential facility is a mass timber project, consisting of 128 beds, a 5000 ft2 medical clinic and support spaces, including a kitchen, four dining areas, and communal spaces such as lounges and meeting/activity rooms.

HH Angus is providing mechanical and electrical consulting engineering, as well as lighting design. The mechanical design includes a new hot water heating plant and distribution systems. Rooftop units have been designed with energy recovery ventilators to recover heat from washroom exhaust. A chiller system will provide cooling for the units and boilers will provide the heat. The project is designed to meet CSA Z317.1 standards.

Our design team was challenged to provide suitable fire protection to this mass timber project, equipping the entire attic with fire protection service. In order to avoid excessive heat tracing, a nitrogen dry sprinkler system was used.

The lighting control system has been designed to provide the residence with optimal comfort through the use of daylight harvesting. A mixture of automatic, manual and scheduled controls were specifically designed to allow residents individual control while providing the owner the flexibility to identify areas where energy consumption can be reduced.

SERVICES
Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | Lighting

LOCATION
Havelock, Ontario

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Dual source boiler | Perimeter heating | daylight harvesting | Rooftop energy recovery ventilators | Designed to met CSA Z317.1

St. Michael’s Hospital

Barlo MS Centre

Canada has the highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world; in fact, the disease is known internationally as ‘Canada’s Disease’. St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto is one of North America's busiest MS centres. It has been caring for people with MS since 1981, and now treats 7,000 patients.

The new Barlo MS Centre offers one-stop care, bringing together neurologists, nurses, social workers, neuropsychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists in a world-leading treatment and research centre for multiple sclerosis. The 25,000 ft2 clinic has been constructed on the top two floors of the new Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower.

HH Angus’ mechanical scope for the fitout of the shelled space included ventilation, plumbing, medical gas, heating & fire protection, and controls. Our electrical scope covered power, lighting, communications and security.

Unique aspects of the project's design included: presentation to the client of a number of ventilation strategies to address the shortage of air supply available to the design, and a reworked ventilation strategy under a very aggressive schedule to redistribute and extend air to the clinic from an existing air handling unit that was previously feeding another floor.

Some of the project challenges included:

The addition of a compounding pharmacy late in the design, for which additional requirements had to be vetted to meet NAPRA. The team took advantage of early works to investigate available shaft space for running new biological exhaust to the roof.
Design activities had to be scheduled concurrently with testing and commissioning still underway at the time for the main Patient Care Tower.
Ceiling construction and new structural constraints limited accessibility. The team used 3D imaging and Revit to coordinate all ceiling elements requiring accessibility, in order to integrate services into areas with wooden slatted ceilings.
The team took advantage of early works to coordinate structural openings for future ventilation in order to limit ceiling interference for the fitout design.

PROJECT FEATURES
Size: 25,000 ft2 | Status: Completion 2021

LOCATION
Toronto, Ontario

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Two floor clinic fitout | Variety of room types and functions | Custom smoke venting and fire alarm zoning to accommodate feature staircase

Achieving the design vision

We worked closely with the architect to modify the existing fire alarm zoning and smoke venting strategy in order to accommodate a new mezzanine on Level 17. This allowed the architect to achieve the design vision for the feature staircase without the use of smoke baffles.

Variety of functions

The space includes a variety of room types, including exam rooms, gym, medical infusion centre, group physiotherapy studio, auditorium, cognitive lab and a pharmacy.

Click here for the St. Michael’s Hospital video feature on the Barlo MS Clinic.

Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences

Heritage Lounge

This mental health facility is located within the waterfront district in Whitby, Ontario. The building underwent renovations to create a lounge that would provide a relaxing space, while displaying an interactive experience representing the 100-year heritage of the site.

The new heritage lounge provides a welcoming and inviting space where patients and families can visit, relax and participate in events at the Centre. It incorporates private and communal seating areas, state-of-the-art video wall and audio systems, as well as an interactive kiosk and display cases to celebrate the history of the hospital.

HH Angus provided AV design and electrical engineering to support the renovation, including lighting, power and an integrated 3x3 video wall with the ability to show prerecorded video, cable TV, movies and content developed by the hospital.

The design for the displays called for them to be recessed so that they appear to be part of the wall, rather than a standalone display. This meant very tight construction tolerances needed to be maintained in order to achieve the desired effect. The power supply and system connections for the display cases and wall were arranged to minimize the overall impact on the area's aesthetic.

SERVICES

AV Design Consulting | Electrical Engineering

PROJECT FEATURES

Status: Completed 2019 | Integrated Video Wall & Audio | Seamless Recessed Construction | Interactive Kiosks

LOCATION
Whitby, Ontario

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS

State of the art integrated 3x3 video wall and audio capability throughout | Seamless recessed construction, integrated with other interior components

Close

Coordination

Careful coordination with the architect was required to ensure that the video wall and heritage kiosks integrated seamlessly with the interior space rather than acting as a standalone display.

Lighting Design

The lighting for the Heritage Lounge was designed to suit the purpose and ambiance of the space, as well as to highlight the display cases, ensuring there would be no interference with the operation of the video wall feature.

Fraser Health Authority

Royal Columbian Hospital Redevelopment

The Royal Columbian Hospital is the oldest hospital in the province of B.C. and one of the busiest in the Fraser Health Authority. Royal Columbian provides expert care to the province's most seriously ill or injured. It is the only hospital in B.C. that caters to trauma, cardiac care, neurosurgery, high-risk, obstetrics, neonatal intensive care, and acute mental health care all on one site.

HH Angus and Associates is serving as the Planning, Implementation and Closeout Consultant for the Fraser Health Authority’s large, multi-phase redevelopment for Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) in New Westminster, BC.

RCH is British Columbia’s oldest hospital, and one of only two adult trauma centres in the Lower Mainland. The plan, rolling out in three proposed phases over a decade, will see a major expansion of the acute care campus, with upgrades to critical infrastructure.

Phase 1 included a number of projects to help prepare the hospital’s infrastructure for future expansion. These were a new energy centre; a five-storey, 75-bed mental health and substance abuse facility; underground parking for 450 cars; and a regional data centre which will serve all Fraser Health sites, including 12 hospitals and a large group of community healthcare centres serving a population of 1.6 million.

Phase 1 design challenges included the site itself, which is a steeply sloped, truncated triangle constrained on four sides by roadways. Working closely with CannonDesign, we developed an Indicative Design to ensure the site would work for a mental health building while accommodating the energy centre.

Other challenges included complex scheduling issues to maintain reliable services to the site as the new Energy Centre replaced the old one, and the design of a new, large heating, cooling and electrical plant to serve the current and future RCH campus. HH Angus engineers drew on their deep experience in delivering large healthcare projects to project the future heating, cooling and electrical demands on the Energy Centre that would support the long-term needs of RCH for buildings not yet designed.

Phase 2’s new Acute Care Tower will house a number of services, including emergency, surgery, intensive care and inpatient rooms. Expansion and renovations to the existing buildings will follow in Phase 3. New buildings will be designed to LEED Gold green building standards, and incorporate BC wood, as part of Fraser Health's and the Province's commitment to sustainability.

Image courtesy of Fraser Health.

SERVICES
PDC - Mechanical Compliance Engineering | Electrical Compliance Engineering | Vertical Transportation Compliance

PROJECT FEATURES
Status: Phase 1 – work is finished, Phase 2 – ongoing | Buildings being designed to LEED Gold

LOCATION
New Westminster, BC

KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Planning, Implementation and Closeout Consultant | Phase 1 includes a number of projects to help prepare hospital infrastructure for future expansion | Phase 2 Acute Care Tower