Park-like setting for new Norwood
A new seven-storey tower of specialized beds, a clinic facility with a rooftop garden, and plenty of green space are among the highlights of a $364-million overhaul of Capital Care Norwood set to start construction next year.
Alberta Health Services has unveiled its designs for the giant project touted to transform the facility into a “centre of excellence” for complex continuing care residents.
An open house will be held Tuesday for area residents to get a preview of what’s in store for the site at 111 Avenue and 105 Street, just north of the Royal Alexandra Hospital and west of the Glenrose Hospital.
“This is going to be a noted facility when it’s all done. It’s going to be world-class continuing care for sure,” said Dean Olmstead, senior program officer with strategic planning with the health authority.
Capital Care Norwood is already considered an important cog in the continuing care system due to its mix of services, including a chronic ventilation unit for residents who cannot breathe on their own, a brain injury unit and spaces for patients needing restorative or sub-acute care.
The redevelopment project will both modernize the aging facility and expand the bed count to 350 from 205.
The centrepiece will be the new seven-storey building in the northwest corner of the property that will serve as the primary hub for Norwood residents.
Designs call for the structure to be constructed in a Y-shape, which will allow daylight into all 234 private resident rooms.
“The (Y-format) design uses the property efficiently and tries to keep the height down. We are sitting right beside a community so we want to respect that and not have a skyscraper,” Olmstead said.
Connected to this main building will be a smaller, two-storey structure for outpatient clinics including a new dialysis unit and the Centre for Lung Health. The roof of the clinic building will feature a garden for the use of residents.
Olmstead said AHS has made a concerted effort to create a “parklike” setting throughout the whole complex.
The province had to purchase 10 homes on 105 Street, including two owned by the city, to acquire enough land for the project.
While the homes will be demolished, Olmstead said he was pleased that designers plan to keep most of the existing elm trees, which will line the new main entrance to the facility.
After construction of the two new buildings, the second phase of the project will see refurbishments made to the 45-year-old Angus McGugan Pavilion that currently serves as Norwood’s main facility.
That will be followed by demolition of the much maligned, 53-year-old North Pavilion.
Plans also call for a new parkade to be erected on the southeast side of the property, just off 111 Avenue.
The redevelopment is expected to begin early next year and wrap up sometime in 2023.
The cost of the project has been questioned by some opposition MLAs, who noted that $364 million seems a high price to add 145 new beds. The issue was recently raised at the legislature’s public accounts committee.
Olmstead said it’s important to remember than many of Norwood’s beds are in specialized units providing a more “intense” level of care than other long-term care centres.
As well, the construction tab includes the development of clinic facilities that don’t factor into the bed count, he said.
Community leaders have been “encouraged” so far with AHS’s approach to the project, said Kate Boorman, president of the Spruce Avenue Community League.
“I think the board was impressed by their willingness to design their green spaces and walkways as a way to … integrate our community into their space, provide access to the LRT and to the pathway system.”
The redevelopment of Norwood is not the only construction planned in the years ahead for AHS lands on the south edge of the community. The province has also approved nearly $200 million for a new child and youth mental health building on lands near the Glenrose.
Olmstead said AHS is currently working on plans for that project but hasn’t yet finalized a site or a design.