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GESUNDHEIT UND WELLNESS • HEALTH AND SPA INNERE WERTE • INNER VALUES

Die neue Klinik gehört nicht nur zu den größten, sondern auch zu den modernsten Einrichtungen ihrer Art.

In den zwei Bettenhäusern sowie dem Behandlungstrakt dienen kräftige Farbakzente der Orientierung. Insgesamt beherbergt die Klinik 772 Bettenzimmer. Alles in allem umfasst das Raumprogramm 12.000 Räume.

T he new building of the university clinic in the centre of Montreal, designed by the vacant until its demolition for the new clinic building in 2009. The architects gave the
steeple back its original shape by having the destroyed spire faithfully reproduced. As a
CannonDesign architectural office in Chicago in cooperation with the local NEUF
architect(e)s, is the currently largest project in the health sector on the North-American monument, today the steeple has an important corner position in the hospital grounds
continent. A total of almost 300,000 square metres will be available. Last year, the first and is a landmark visible from afar. It assists orientation, emphasizes the verticality of
stage was completed after almost ten years of planning and construction. It includes an the whole complex and, at the same time, reminds of the history of the location. For
ensemble of three 22-storey and interconnected high-rise slabs as well as shared base more stability, the architects replaced the inside structural shell of quarry stone with a
constructions. Two of the towers serve as ward buildings; the third contains all the ope- massive concrete construction. The steeple now serves as a place of meditation. The two
rating theatres, treatment rooms and therapy areas as well as the ancillary rooms. The façades of the Maison Garth were dismantled, cleaned and stored to be later put back
hospital is thus fully operational. The second stage is expected to be completed in 2021. in their former original place. Here as well, the architects added a new substructure of
Until then, an additional high-rise building that in future will contain the administration concrete. The main façade is protected by a high, two-level glass façade. The architects
as well as a freestanding conference and auditorium centre in the base will be construc- call the fragments of the Maison Garth a “twin artwork” – as an architectural artefact on
ted. The latter is to be used for teaching as well as for public events. the outside and a contemporary architectural exhibit on the inside where bright wooden
surfaces produce a warm accent in the predominantly pure white hospital interior.
Hospital and city join
Past and future merge
A particular concern of the architects was to harmoniously integrate the massive clinic
volume into its urban environment. The conservation of two historic architectural arte- Together with the currently being constructed conference- and auditorium centre as well
facts on the periphery of the construction site served not last this purpose. These are the as a small public library in the base of the planned administration high-rise building, the
steeple of the Saint-Sauveur Church of the Redeemer built in 1865 and two façades of steeple fragment and the façades of the Maison Garth contribute to loosening up the
the Maison Garth, a simple, two-storey residential building from 1871 on a site next to the overly long sequence of hospital buildings and to integrate the new building into the
church. Both fragments – the steeple and the home – are today part of the public areas urban context. In view of the enormous transformation which the whole district experi-
of the hospital. Saint-Sauveur was originally one of the oldest Anglican churches of ences due to the new building, the conservation and integration of select fragments of
Montreal. In 1923, however, the building was badly damaged in an intense fire. The same earlier development may be seen as clever strategies. Because, in the end, the inventive
year, reconstruction work started but reconstructing the steeple in its full height of almost interaction of the historic elements with the steel-glass constructions of the new clinic
61 meters was foregone and the decision was made to add a considerably shorter spire. buildings produces a new quality which succeeds in giving the place an identity of its
The church was used in this form by the congregation until 1990. Then the building was own where the past and the future harmoniously merge.

138 • AIT 11.2018