St. Michael's Hospital's official address is 30 Bond Street, but the 122-year old hospital has been expanding in all directions, wing by wing, from this street over the course of its history, gradually filing the block bordered also by Shuter, Victoria, and Queen. The next instalments of this progression involve the creation of a new patient tower at Queen and Victoria, and a new emergency department facility at Shuter and Bond. Both of these projects, with conceptual designs by Diamond Schmitt Architects, are part of St.Michael's 3.0, a series of projects which aim to improve and update the hospital's form and function.

Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower, image courtesy of St. Michael's Hospital

UrbanToronto has been keeping an eye on the Queen and Victoria corner in its forum thread for the hospital. Construction for what will be St. Mike's new—more pedestrian friendly—entrance and patient tower is slated to begin in 2015. The corner has long been the site of an unsightly parking lot and storage space. When construction is complete, the tower will rise 17 storeys tall and will include a collection of facilities to improve patient care and hospital efficiency. These include five new state-of-the-art operating rooms designed to incorporate medical imaging equipment like MRIs, CT scanners and X-rays. Housing this equipment in the OR will allow surgeons to do more minimally invasive surgeries which will afford patients less trauma and hours in hospital. The tower will also feature two new ICUs, one of them specialized for coronary patients. The patient rooms in this tower will have single-rooms to ensure privacy and improve infection control. Every room will have significant access to natural light as well as dedicated comfortable space for family members to better involve themselves in patient care. 

St. Michael's Hospital Lobby, image courtesy of St. Michael's Hospital

The hospital's President and CEO, Dr. Robert Howard, hopes to "transform patient care at St. Michael's Hospital" and help them achieve the "goal of becoming the premier care hospital in Canada." While significant funding is coming from government sources, the expansion and renovations would not be possible without philanthropy, and a $30-million donation–the largest in the hospital's history–is coming from from Peter Gilgan, founder and CEO of Mattamy Homes, for whom the tower will be named the Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower.

Existing conditions at Queen and Victoria Streets, image from Google Street View

This is not the first major donation the magnate has made to the health care sector, as Gilgan donated $40 million to the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning at SickKids Hospital, as well as $10 million to the New Oakville Hospital Foundation. Gilgan also gave $15 million to Ryerson University's renovation of Maple Leaf Gardens for its Mattamy Athletic Facility. 

Element Financial Atrium, image courtesy of St. Michael's Hospital

St. Michael's Patient Care Tower is also being funded by Element Financial Corp, which has donated $15 million. To honour their contribution, the tower's atrium, which features 11 storeys of natural light, will be named after the corporation. The atrium will feature retail space, a patient information centre, and the admitting department. The atrium and the rest of the tower will mesh with the hospital's existing architecture. To help facilitate this, the main floor of the atrium will help to form a pedestrian highway to improve patient-visitor flow. 

Slaight Family Emergency Department, image courtesy of St. Michael's Hospital

While UrbanToronto has been keeping an eye on the Queen and Victoria corner, news of a rebuild of the hospital's northeast wing at Shuter and Bond—the second major development in the 3.0 project—is a recent discovery. Renderings show that this new wing will initially rise only two storeys, but it will be constructed to allow for the hospital to expand upwards here in the future.

Existing conditions at Bond and Shuter Streets, image from Google Street View

The renovated emergency department will be named for another a generous donor, this time the Slaight Family Foundation which is best known for Standard Broadcasting, more recently renamed as Slaight Communications. The Foundation has gifted the hospital $10 million, part of a $50 million donation it gave five of the city's top health care facilities including CAMH and Sunnybrook. The renovated department will be able to keep up with the hospital's rising number of patients; the current facility was meant to service 45,000 per year, but last year it had to accommodate over 70,000 people, and the number keeps rising. 

Slaight Family Emergency Department, image courtesy of St. Michael's Hospital

While the conceptual design for St. Michael's 3.0 renovations is by Diamond Schmitt, who are also responsible for the design of the associated Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and the pedestrian bridge across Shuter Street to it, final design for the new work will go to another firm. As is common practice in complex public developments these days, the working drawings and construction are separately tendered. St. Michael's currently has a shortlist of three consortiums vying to carry the project forward. The shortlisted teams are: 

• St. Michael’s Partnership
• Bondfield Construction Company Limited
• NORR Limited and Farrow Partnership
• Rocklyn Capital Inc.

• Integrated Team Solutions
• EllisDon Corporation
• Kasian Architecture
• EllisDon Capital Inc. and Fengate Capital Inc.

• PCL Partnerships
• PCL Constructors Canada Inc.
• B+H Architects and Silver Thomas Hanley
• TD Securities Inc.

An announcement from St. Mike's as to who their preferred candidate will be is expected soon. As the construction nears and more information comes forward, we will continue to keep you updated on these two new additions to the hospital. For now, you can find more information in our dataBase file for the project, linked below. If you want to talk about the project, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.