William Greer Architectural Conservation and Craftsmanship, Award of Excellence (2016)
Consulting Engineers of Ontario, Award of Merit (2014)
IES Illumination, Award of Merit Toronto Section (2014)
IES Illumination, International Award of Merit (2014)
Toronto Construction Association, “Best of the Best” Award (2013)
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An office that doesn't feel like an office (and also doesn't feel like a prison).
The 150-year old historical Don Jail was redeveloped into a modern-day hospital administration and education space. This project was part of the larger DBFM development of Bridgepoint Active Healthcare in downtown Toronto, and is located on the same site. Stantec Architecture and KPMB Architects were the Planning, Design, and Compliance Architects for Bridgepoint Active Healthcare, responsible for the project specific outline specifications (PSOS) and the Design Exemplar. HDR Architecture and Diamond Schmitt Architects are the architects to the Design, Build, Finance, and Maintain consortium responsible for the design as constructed, and are the Architects of Record.
The exterior of the building remained intact, with the interior completely renovated while preserving its historical significance. There are several focal features, including the main rotunda, two levels of catwalks, a glass floor, and skylight at the entrance. The jail cells now serve as private offices.
Smith + Andersen was engaged to provide lighting design for this project, which received numerous awards. The project also engaged our mechanical and electrical engineers, as well as communications, security and building automation systems designers.
An office that doesn't feel like an office (and also doesn't feel like a prison).
The 150-year old historical Don Jail was redeveloped into a modern-day hospital administration and education space. This project was part of the larger DBFM development of Bridgepoint Active Healthcare in downtown Toronto, and is located on the same site. Stantec Architecture and KPMB Architects were the Planning, Design, and Compliance Architects for Bridgepoint Active Healthcare, responsible for the project specific outline specifications (PSOS) and the Design Exemplar. HDR Architecture and Diamond Schmitt Architects are the architects to the Design, Build, Finance, and Maintain consortium responsible for the design as constructed, and are the Architects of Record.
The exterior of the building remained intact, with the interior completely renovated while preserving its historical significance. There are several focal features, including the main rotunda, two levels of catwalks, a glass floor, and skylight at the entrance. The jail cells now serve as private offices.
Smith + Andersen was engaged to provide lighting design for this project, which received numerous awards. The project also engaged our mechanical and electrical engineers, as well as communications, security and building automation systems designers.
The magic of lighting design.
The challenge for the lighting design of the project was clear from the beginning: how do you brighten an old jail to create a place where people would actually want to go to work every day? Our lighting team took this challenge head on, without straying from the other clear goal, which was to enhance the historical features of the architecture and to minimize cost. Providing proper illumination levels in the context of the architectural and structural elements was key. Tiny halogen lamps float on wires beneath the preserved catwalks, while not touching the ornamental “dragons”, providing ambient lighting and highlighting the catwalk supports and structure. Wallpaper from the heritage building was integrated into custom, wall-mounted luminaires, backlit by linear light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The skylight is back-lit with ceramic metal halide lamps and the skylight glass received a blue film to simulate the daylight effect after hours. The exterior lighting uses a combination of LED luminaires with flood and spot distributions, and are mounted in concrete pedestals away from the building façade.
Turning physical connections into digital connections.
With 12” thick walls and a large central atrium, creating pathways and spaces for communications cabling infrastructure was a challenge. The horizontal cabling infrastructure within the jail consists of Category 6 cabling that supports the voice and data networks, as well as BAS design. The jail is connected to a Network Operating Centre (NOC) within the main hospital with a redundant high bandwidth, highly available fibre-optic backbone. The NOC is complete with redundant cooling and redundant power services, and was designed to house all system servers and critical equipment. The design of the data networks was completed with significant consideration given to flexibility, adaptability, and the impact of future emerging technologies and services.
Integrated systems critical to providing safety and security to the staff and visitors (as well as facilitating the protection of assets) were designed as part of this project. The services included the complete design of leading-edge turnkey systems, including real-time locating systems (RTLS), access control, closed-circuit television (CCTV), intrusion detection, intercom, sound-masking, and paging throughout the facility. Extension and careful planning was employed to support the security systems infrastructure, which was routed and installed to minimize the aesthetic impact, and maintained the heritage look of all spaces. Locating security devices was done strategically to minimize quantity of devices and aesthetic impact, while achieving the required coverage.
In case of emergency.
Utility (normal), and emergency (vital, delayed vital, and conditional) and UPS power were extended from the main hospital to the Don Jail through an underground concrete encased duct bank inserted below the existing building footings. New brand distribution panels were installed in strategic locations to make use of existing and new vertical pathways (existing stairs and a new elevator shaft). Significant attention was paid to support electrical infrastructure routed and installed in a manner that minimized or eliminated the aesthetic impact and maintained the heritage look of all spaces. The use of optical-based open area fire detection systems allowed for accurate fire and smoke detection in the open atrium.
A fresher approach.
The main hospital central heating and cooling plant distribution systems were extended through the bridge and into the heritage building to satisfy its demands. Upper level mechanical rooms housing central air handling units were created to provide systems in compliance with current heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning healthcare standards. A significant challenge presented itself in fitting the mechanical distribution within the existing building’s 150-year old floor-to-floor heights (appropriate at a time when perimeter heating was the only mechanical system employed). A solution to minimize the depth of the ductwork distribution was developed, where terminal devices were provided at the zone level to produce heightened air change rates while only the cooling air required was delivered through the central air handling units.