George Brown College – Waterfront Health Sciences Campus

The new Waterfront Campus was conceived to mobilize the transformation of healthcare education from silo thinking to integrated care. Making this transition is critical to meet the complex and interconnected healthcare needs of an aging population. The objective was to create a purpose-built environment for Interprofessional Education (IPE), while also contributing to the economic and sustainable growth of Toronto. This project places architecture in the service of leading positive change. Universally accessible public healthcare is at the foundation of Canadian culture. Its costs to taxpayers however, are significant and increasing annually. IPE is set to transform the way health professionals are taught to practice and deliver services with the goal of improving patient outcomes, quality of care and to achieve systemic economic efficiency. The architecture of the Waterfront Campus embodies this concept with flexible, collaborative learning environments while creating inspirational social and public environments that capitalize visual and physical connections to Lake Ontario and the City. The philosophical basis for the ‘shaping’ of this seven-storey integrated vertical campus was inspired by the 2002 Romanow Commission Report, which recommended a team- based, patient-centered approach to healthcare services. The vertical campus typology is reimagined as a unique expression of the program and IPE through a series of integrated stacked spaces of socialization, nourishment, and amenity to classrooms, learning landscapes and clinics. The campus is one of the major developments under the Waterfront Toronto urban renewal project, the largest infrastructure project in North America. The design fulfills Waterfront Toronto’s goals for increasing community services, economic and sustainable green development, access to public transit, and public animation. The scale and massing celebrates the man-made and natural history of the lakefront site, inspired by industrial slips, ships and shipping containers. The beauty is in the constant, expansive views of Lake Ontario and the Park.