Toronto, Ontario
Healthcare
Holland Bloorview
2006
Stantec Architecture
Montgomery Sisam Architects
This facility is the largest children’s rehabilitation centre in Ontario, serving children and youth with disabilities and special needs. Incorporating 24-hour care and outpatient clinics, it is a hospital, a school, a community resource, and a research facility.
The outdoor environment at the centre is viewed as a valuable asset for staff, children and their families as well as volunteers. It is seen as a normalizing space where soccer, baseball, bike riding, and other sports can occur, where children can be tested without walls, where the outdoors represents play to its users and not therapy.
Overlooking the picturesque Sunnybrook ravine and incorporating an abundance of mature trees, a variety of linked landscapes provides therapists with additional opportunities for encouraging gross motor activities, mobility training, skills development, and a range of sensory experiences.
Vertechs Design is currently working with Holland Bloorview to implement landscape upgrades to the therapeutic outdoor spaces.