Stephenson Engineering provided structural engineering services for the inpatient building and parking garage, as well as a peer review for the Diagnostic and Treatment Building. This award-winning project was the first pure DBFM project in Ontario.

This 1.27 million square foot health care facility consists of a six-storey inpatient building, a three-storey Diagnostic and Treatment Facility and a seven-storey parking structure.

Instead of using a conventional costly and unsightly expansion joint, the 600 foot long inpatient building was built in two pieces, and then “zipped” together after cladding was complete and the building was brought up to a stable operating temperature. This allowed for a design without permanent expansion joints, giving more architectural freedom while satisfying the requirements of a post-disaster facility. A traditional design would have required a structural expansion joint of up to eight inch thickness in all walls, floors and ceilings, as well as in pipes, ducts, conduits and gas lines. This innovative design, which we refer to as the “zipper”, brought construction cost savings of several millions of dollars.

The seven-storey parking structure for 2000 cars has an adjacent three-storey central plant. The structure was designed to resist stresses induced due to thermal effects. Instead of using traditional shear walls to resist the lateral forces, the inherent strength was utilized in the sloped ramp slabs in order to stabilize the structure, resulting in reduced construction costs, more natural light and improved visibility and safety with no hiding spots.

In addition to the inpatient building and parking garage, Stephenson completed peer review for the Diagnostic and Treatment Building, designed by another firm.