For over a century the former Royal Victoria Hospital has been a place of healing the body and mind. Now, in a generational project McGill University is embarking on a plan to reinvent the historic site as a place for healing the planet.

The principal historic grounds and heritage buildings of the former Royal Victoria Hospital are being transformed into one of the world’s leading centres for teaching, research, and innovation focused explicitly on sustainability, driven by the two academic pillars which shape the program: Sustainability Systems and Public Policy. The new campus will facilitate interdisciplinary inquiry and the interactions of diverse partners, sharing this singular and common pursuit.

The original site was characterized by a series of architectural pavilions set in a 19th century landscape, shaped and sympathetic to the dominant sloping topography of the site. Circulation through the site was open and light was abundant. Over time this pattern was deeply obscured by both large new buildings and a series of ad hoc additions. The architecture of The New Vic reestablishes this clarity firstly through an act of subtraction, removing these buildings and additions that came to dominate and obscure the site. The historic connections to Mount Royal are returned, and the pavilions reemerge to define the site.

In a second powerful gesture the new architecture creates a series of terraced volumes that follow the sloping topography, while providing an expressive fifth elevation of gardens, roof terraces and lookouts to the city beyond. These cascading roofscapes of the new wings are designed to extend the landscape of Mount Royal as an active space for research and gathering and a belvedere overlooking Montreal.
A new pavilion is also introduced within the historic forecourt, shaped by the three primary heritage buildings. Carefully calibrated to respect the primacy of the old, this entry pavilion, visible at the forefront of the site, clearly signals the renewal and reinvention of the Royal Vic as part of the wider McGill community.

In addition to the openness and permeability of the site, the interiors are dominated by an expansive use of light to both celebrate the heritage buildings and act as a focal point for gathering. The new architecture is held back from the old, creating a series of internal courtyards and atriums typically programmed with gathering spaces at their base. Here new skylights emphasize these voids and bring light deep into the interior, showcasing the richly textured heritage stonework, while a series of bridges connect the two. Two large skylit atriums also define the major crossroads within the new architecture, providing natural light deep within the floorplan, centred around opportunities to collaborate and engage in a multi disciplinary world outside the labs or classrooms.

Design innovation ensures the New Vic spaces embody fluidity, diversity, interconnectedness and an open inclusive architecture. A strong sustainability agenda is targeting LEED gold and WELL gold.