OPP Caldeon Detachment

Planned, designed and successfully completed by +VG Architects, the Caledon OPP Detachment is located on Innis Lake Road just south of Old Church Road in the community centre of Caledon East, local schools and the Caledon Town Hall.

As with most smaller municipalities, the Caledon OPP provide local community policing services and the facility houses five police units including Major Crime, Street Crimes, Community Response, School Resource Officers and Traffic.

The building was designed and located to be highly visible and accessible from Innis Lake Road. The building is clad in natural stone and ribbed steel siding offering a sense of permanence and stability. The building program includes a community meeting room adjacent to the main public entrance for various public outreach programs and information sessions for the public.

The lower level provides staff amenity space including a fitness room and locker areas, various secure storage areas as well as the cell block and secure sally port for transporting prisoners.

The building was designed to achieve LEED® Gold certification through a focus on its environment and reduced energy consumption, water usage reduction, storm water controls, local trades and a compact building footprint.

LOCATION

Caledon, Ontario

COMPLETED

2014

SIZE

24,000 ft²

SERVICES

New Construction


Open second storey corridor with glass partition overlooking double height front entrance atrium with workstations at end of corridor

Lennox & Addington Family & Children's Services Administration Building

The Lennox and Addington Family and Children’s Services Administration Building features a 2½ storey atrium at the front entrance with clerestory windows at the high level, and an exterior landscaped courtyard within the footprint of the building.

+VG Architects developed these two features and the design of the exterior window systems to take advantage of the health and well being benefits of natural light.

The courtyard and the atrium bring natural light deep into the floor plate of the building on both floors. The windows are designed with exterior aluminum sun shades on the south and west sides to prevent overheating in summer months, and the windows are equipped with a translucent band of glazing at the ceiling level that disperses light inside. All employee workstations and private offices have access to natural light and views.

The new facility offers a 90 person conference hall, a staff lunch room and lounge with walkout at grade to a patio terrace, indoor and outdoor children’s play areas, a staff fitness room that opens onto the courtyard, and professional office accommodations for 80 staff.

Energy efficient mechanical systems, water conserving plumbing fixtures, and operable windows are additional sustainable design features.

Some of the many security features in the project include sight lines to individuals approaching the front entrance, a clear and simple circulation system, CCTV cameras, alarm and card reader systems. Having the second floor open to the lower public areas also allows staff to be able to see and hear if there is a security problem.

LOCATION

Napanee, Ontario

CLIENT

County of Lennox & Addington

COMPLETED

2010

SIZE

28,500 ft²

SERVICES

New Construction

CATEGORY

Institutional

PHOTOGRAPHY

David Whittaker


Double height space with glass guard rails with waiting area on second storey on left and windows and zig zag fluorescent lighting on right

Royal Oaks Health & Wellness Centre

The Royal Oaks Health and Wellness Centre project involves the renovation of an existing two-storey ‘shell space’ (a former school gymnasium) to create two floors of medical and clinical office space including reception areas, exam rooms, associated physician offices, nursing stations, washroom facilities and the introduction of a new elevator.

The Centre was a collaborative effort by the stakeholders of the Listowel Wingham Health Alliance and the former public school site is immediately adjacent to the existing Wingham Hospital. The new clinic provides an ‘anchor tenant’ in the repurposed school building that is being developed as a health services campus for allied health services including occupational therapy, chiropractic services, and a pharmacy as well as rental space for local community groups.

LOCATION

Wingham, Ontario

COMPLETED

2017

SIZE

15,000 ft²

SERVICES

Renovation

CATEGORY

Healthcare

PHOTOGRAPHY

Mario Madau

AWARDS

2018 Award of Merit for Barrier-Free Design
Huron County Accessibility Advisory Committee


Traditional Sweat Lodge with round table and chairs, circular wood plank ceiling, and clerestory windows

Napanee Area Community Health Centre

+VG Architects were retained by the Kingston Community Health Centre in 2012 to design the new Napanee Area Community Health Centre (NaCHC).

The two-storey building reinforces the urban street edge offering a colonnade and covered walkway for pedestrians and building users. Upon arrival from the west, the building establishes a “gateway” into the downtown pedestrian district.

The new centre will house a variety of programs including Primary Care, Diabetes Education, Community Support, Indigenous Health, Partners’ Space and associated storage and building service spaces. The Indigenous Health program includes a circular Healing Lodge that is used by the Elders for “healing” events, as well as shared by the community as a meeting/gathering space in conjunction with the larger multi-purpose Room.

An intimate entry courtyard on the south side of the building provides a landscaped area for the program’s Sweat Lodge. The Sweat Lodge structure will be constructed by the local Indigenous community upon completion of the building.

LOCATION

Napanee, Ontario

COMPLETED

2016

SIZE

15,000 ft²

SERVICES

New Construction

CATEGORY

Healthcare

PHOTOGRAPHY

David Bell


Hospice Quinte

The pandemic environment created many unique challenges for this project. Under the leadership of +VG staff, exceptional collaboration, among the owner, project manager, stakeholder groups and the contractor, while maintaining safety protocols, was the key to minimizing these disruptions.

By communicating the challenges in a way which was easily understood by all project participants using virtual technologies, +VG staff were able to achieve consensus and introduce flexibility into solving issues like material shortages, and thereby maintain the project schedule.

Connected to the Natural Environment
The building siting is conceived as a simple, elegant rural structure in the landscape. The barn vernacular features two gable roofs clad in standing seam metal and wood clad exterior walls. The main entrance is featured centrally, creating an axis and narrative through the building. Administrative offices overlook arrivals and departures through large windows, and private gardens for each suite feature a patio and planting screens for use in any weather.

Open & Accessible
Familiar interior residential materials in wood and glass are used to convey the message that the building is not a hospital, but a community-centred home. A fireplace feature separates the reception and living space. The large open space allows for mobility devices, wheeled beds and gurneys.

Functionality, Livability & Work Flow
This new hospice features a central route that is efficient for staff and volunteers to provide multiple levels of care. Spaces along the route have been carefully organized to optimize work flow and minimize redundancies. Primary care is consolidated around the suites including the Nurse Station, Medication Room, Counselling Room and Utility Rooms.

Energy Efficient & Sustainable
HVAC is separated into zones to maximize energy efficiency. Increased air handling systems are incorporated to allow smudging within some areas to create a more inclusive environment.

LOCATION

Belleville, Ontario

COMPLETED

2021

SIZE

11,000 ft²

SERVICES

New Construction

CATEGORY

Healthcare


Front entrance to two-storey building with glass facade and wood cantilever roof with trees in background

Innisfree House

Innisfree House is envisioned to be a welcoming home for people in need of end of life care.

Design of a hospice begins with an understanding of residents’ needs as much as the needs of the staff providing the highest level of care. During this project, +VG demonstrated sensitivity to both the intangible and practical elements required to ensure the success of the project.

Innisfree House is a unique facility in Kitchener, created to provide an improved, alternative palliative care environment with a non-clinical, home-like atmosphere for bereaved families.

The key word for understanding the concept of a hospice is Care. Care of the dying, care for grieving families and friends, and care for the community of staff and volunteers who serve in the facility. The design for Innisfree House welcomes residents upon arrival, with a wide embracing glass entrance and overhead canopy offering immediate protection from the elements. This entrance passageway and adjacent foyer are significant to the hospice philosophy: Residents arrive through the front door and leave by the front door. Staff and volunteers gather for both.

LOCATION

Kitchener, Ontario

COMPLETED

2015

SIZE

16,200 ft²

SERVICES

New Construction

CATEGORY

Healthcare


Double height front entrance with open staircase to second floor, exposed structural beams, wood rafter ceiling and white pendant lighting

Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre

Live. Grow. Be. These words express the Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre’s commitment to a continuum of care model that is accessible, equitable, appropriate, holistic and transformative.

They also express the design approach for the new location in downtown Kitchener, part of the larger urban transformation from derelict factory district to a rejuvenated community destination.

A successful community partnership since opening its doors in 2000, the Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre provides care for people in the downtown, and those from different ethno-cultural groups, with particular emphasis on those unable to access health services. Increased demand for services and programs resulted in the need for a larger facility to accommodate the needs of clients, their communities and staff.

Key Objectives include:

  • Downtown location to connect with their client base, community services, cultural resources, amenities and public transit
  • Improved accessibility
  • Healthy visitor and workplace environment
  • Barrier free, secure and confidential client experience

Parallel to the continuum of care model, the approach to planning and design of the new space is a health-centric one. Applied to urban form, architecture and interior design, the new KDCHC facility models the vision of care through building terms of restoration, rehabilitation, renewal, adaptive re-use and transformation.

LOCATION

Kitchener, Ontario

COMPLETED

2010

SIZE

10,000 ft²

SERVICES

New Construction

CATEGORY

Healthcare


Illuminated church with yellow brick façade, cross detail and vertical slit windows at dawn

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church

This 20,000 ft² building focuses on simplified design elements consistent with the philosophy of the Franciscan Order.

The design impetus was to create a bright, open, flexible space with daylight throughout. The building includes a reception area and basement meeting hall.

The cost of an earlier program and schematic design for this new church was estimated at $5.9 Million, vastly exceeding the Parish budget. +VG Architects was successful in making revisions that retained the original
design concept and majority of program elements at an affordable cost. Tender was received well under budget.

LOCATION

Belleville, Ontario

CLIENT

Holy Rosary Parish

COMPLETED

2010

SIZE

19,375 ft²

SERVICES

New Construction

CATEGORY

Institutional

PHOTOGRAPHY

David Whittaker