The David Braley Health Sciences Centre has been positioned and composed to reinforce the surrounding civic precinct and enliven the downtown urban street scape. It forms a new western definition to Commonwealth Plaza, a layered edge of paving and stone planter beds along Main Street and a new entry plaza at Bay and Main. This urban landscape extends around the building and includes the retention of numerous existing mature trees particularly on the north side. The building massing steps back from Main Street in a series of roof top terraces that overlook the city hall and the escarpment to the south and features a weathered copper clad multipurpose room that extends out over the side walk echoing the massing of the council chamber across the street.
The building design extends the ground plane and public realm up through the building via a cascading series of public spaces that leads the visitor all the way to the top of the building as well as providing views of the surrounding city. It includes a street level bistro, informal meeting areas, indoor gardens, and amphitheatre and access to the exterior terraces. Common throughout the public system is a material pallet of stone, wood, fountains and planting features that links these elevated spaces back to the original ground plane entry and connects to the idea of Hamilton as a city situated between the lake and the escarpment surrounded by nature. The project is on target to achieve LEED Gold status.
View Original