Ten years in the making, the renovation and extension of Casey House, a specialized healthcare facility for individuals with HIV/AIDS, develops a new prototype for hospitals. The facility meets the needs of patients and healthcare providers in a setting designed to evoke the experience and comforts of home. With 14 new inpatient rooms and new Day Health Program servicing a roster of 200 registered clients, the 5,481-square-metre addition brings much-needed space and modernized amenities to augment and renovate the heritage-designated Victorian mansion. The new structure embraces the existing building, preserving its qualities and organizing the day-to-day user experience around a landscaped courtyard.
As one of the original mansions built along Jarvis Street, the retention of the existing 1875 building (known colloquially as the ?Grey Lady?) maintains the original character of the street, while the addition introduces a dignified juxtaposition of the old and new. The façade, consisting of a palette of various brick, heavily tinted mirrored glass, and crust-faced limestone, is highly particularized and rich and becomes the architectural manifestation of the quilt. A garden in front, for delight and contemplation, is surrounded by a beech hedge for intimacy and privacy.
Once inside, the experience is about the engagement of the old and new and the organization, or the embrace, around the courtyard, which is the ever-present symbol of life-affirming green, water, and light (t...