Phase II was finished in 2022 and includes creative space, an administration building, maintenance building, outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven, an addition to the existing kitchen and dining hall, senior staff cabins, more small staff cabins, and a shower cabin.
The centrepiece is Dave’s Place, a multi-arts centre and tribute to founder Dave McKeage, who sadly passed away before Phase II was realized. Dave’s Place is a grouping of four buildings: a pottery studio, a kiln, a messy arts studio, and a music studio, all connected with a large, accessible deck to function as a focal point of activity. Dave’s Place is a place where children and counsellors hang out, perform plays, make pottery, produce arts and crafts of all kinds, and play music.

Originally conceived of as one large “lodge” structure, it eventually became clear that Dave would be better memorialized with an approach that reflected his gregarious, humorous, and humble character. So, the concept evolved into four structures scattered like children’s toys. The building forms utilize forced perspective to enliven the pieces and create playful surprises with the massing as campers approach and occupy the buildings. Built with environmentally friendly materials and fully winterized to National Energy Code standards, Dave’s Place extends the camp season through the winter. The structures are framed with steel “backbones” and wood framed construction at the roof and walls with metal cladding on the exterior.

In partnership with CBCL, Nycum was engaged to design new ticketing booths for vehicular passenger ticketing and processing. This consisted of 4 booths with a canopy overhead, whose shape references the hull of a ship. The canopy shades employees throughout the day and protects them from rain and snow. It features a design that carefully considers material and aesthetics, components which complement the ferry terminal while offering a clean and timeless appearance.

As part of ongoing enhancements for the ferry service, the new booths improve the terminal’s ability to serve passenger and commercial vehicles efficiently while providing a safe and secure workplace. The efficient square footage of each booth required special consideration in order to create a structure that is well-insulated and comfortable in all seasons. In addition to the space required for this comfort, each booth is equipped with numerous pieces of technology, so careful consideration was made so that the workspace felt light and comfortable. The booth’s design is flexible so it can accommodate a variety of different sized vehicles. To accomplish this flexibility the height of furniture and the size and shape of the service window was specially developed with an ergonomics consultant. As a result, the booths represent the best possible ergonomic work environment.

An auxiliary building was also designed, providing an office for the shift supervisor and a place for employees to meet. It, like the other structures, uses materials and coatings chosen to resist the high winds and salt abrasion of North Sydney. Its façade compliments the service booths and the terminal building through the use of its material palette and grey and navy colour. A sun study was completed in order to place the windows strategically so that the supervisor could have a full view of the booths while avoiding the glare of the sun.

The Taloyoak Health Center is a central fixture and point of pride within the community, combining medical, public health, and social services under one roof. The facility provides a venue for full-time primary care, public health and emergency medical service, as well as visiting and telehealth specialist clinician services.

Medical services include child and adult treatment, maternity, exams, public health clinics, emergency treatment/ stabilization for med-evac patients, imaging/diagnostics, laboratory services, pharmacy, telehealth, and a morgue. Individual and group counselling services are offered by Community Health and Social Services professionals, while physician consultations, dental and eye services, psychological/psychiatric nursing, and physical therapy/rehabilitation are all provided through regularly scheduled specialists visits or remote telehealth connections.

The project faced two major challenges during the design stage. The first being to design and construct a modern, up-to-date health care facility in a small, remote community with no piped services or road connection. The second challenge was to provide a building that could be operated and maintained by community personnel with minimal support from regional centers. The design team (Stantec and Nycum) took these challenges into consideration along with other aspects such as ease of orientation, way finding, privacy, acoustics, comfort, daylight, and views and worked closely with the community to develop a successful healthcare facility program of which the community is proud.

Acting as the community heart of the building, the central two-storey lobby/atrium serves as the major point of orientation for patients, families and staff to access all areas of the facility, creates a canvas upon which to express community and cultural values and allows borrowed daylight to penetrate into adjacent internal spaces of the facility. The atrium space is easily visible upon entry and flanked by public amenities, such as an information desk, gift shop and coffee shop, to contribute to its liveliness. Wayfinding opportunities are optimized, and patients and visitors are easily oriented as they enter into a space that is comfortable, assuring and welcoming, while the public elevator and stair located within the atrium provide highly visible and accessible vertical circulation.

From the atrium hub, the clinical spaces radiate outward providing efficiency of circulation and supervision, while setting up a rational progression from public, to semi-private, to private/secure areas of the facility. On the upper floor, horizontal circulation is designed to simplify wayfinding to areas accessed by the public, including the various inpatient unit functions, day surgery and respiratory therapy. A restricted corridor allows discrete transfer of patients from the emergency department to the surgical suites.

As the only hospital in Nunavut, this project provides expanded and enhanced healthcare facilities to serve the growing population and evolving health needs of the Territory. The design team (FSC, now Stantec, and Nycum) worked closely with the GN and stakeholders to create functional, productive, and interactive spaces while helping to minimize disturbance and confusion often associated with hospital visits and stays. The rational layout provides clear wayfinding, while optimizing supervision and sightlines, and clearly separates public, semi-public and secure areas of the facility.

External Links:
Qikiqtani General Hospital
Indigenous healthcare facility design, a conversation

The detailed work at Hants Community Hospital began with an in-depth assessment of the existing surgical facilities, which included assessment of existing FF&E and coordination with new equipment and systems being upgraded as part of the project. Following Nycum’s assessment report, a design and construction project was undertaken to refresh the surgical facilities at this regional hospital, greatly increasing the volume of outpatient surgeries able to be performed.

More than doubling the surgical throughput at Hants Community Hospital has meant that 1) local residents are less likely to require travel to a larger centre to receive care; 2) many outpatient surgeries previously performed in tiertiary care facilities in Dartmouth or Halifax can now be performed in Windsor; 3) outpatient surgical processing and scheduling could be streamlined, helping to reduce wait times for routine procedures, and; 4) some services were able to be decanted out of the aging and troubled Centennial building on the QEII Health Sciences Centre campus in Halifax.

In order to support the expansion of surgical services, the entire surgical department was refreshed, clinical facilities were expanded and enhanced, finishes and equipment were updated, and existing deficient fire and life safety systems were brought up to current standards.

While the scope of the project did not enable increasing the size of the existing ORs, emphasis was placed on modifications to allow the existing small ORs to work more efficiently, accommodate broader surgical case types and integrate modern surgical equipment and processes. This was achieved through removal of built-in elements in the rooms, tight integration of equipment and services on the walls and ceilings and conveniently locating services and connections to free up valuable floor space. Motorized retractable service columns, laminar flow ventilation, new surgical lights, a 4K video integration system, as well as seamless wall finishes and green lighting options allow the renovated ORs to be used for an expanded range of procedures in a safer and more efficient manner than before.

Refurbished OR Opens
Next Step in Improving Healthcare for Nova Scotians
Important Piece of the Puzzle

Mount Saint Bernard was a former women’s college designed and built facing a courtyard. The lowest two floors of the complex are predominantly academic spaces, with three residence floors above. The renovations introduced outward-facing aspects to the building to create stronger links to the rest of campus, provide an identity to the School of Nursing and encourage interactions between and with residence students. In addition to major changes to circulation within and around the buildings, upgrades to finishes were designed throughout.

The design team worked with stakeholders at the university to develop a conceptual design that enhanced natural circulation patterns and respected the existing structural grid while opening up the claustrophobic interior to exterior views and light as much as possible. Informal learning spaces and lounges were distributed throughout the academic spaces and designed to encourage student engagement with designs that accommodate a wide variety of learning styles.

Accesssibility aspects were of particular importance in the residence renovations with major interventions in the shared bathroom facilities and accessibility upgrades to several of the 229 bedrooms.

Early stakeholder consultation sessions utilized a Pairwise Ranking tool to help the Student, School of Nursing, Residence Representatives and Facilities Management staff representatives identify shared and agreed-upon priorities across the various competing interests.

The concepts developed by Nycum were used to procure the services of a Design-Builder.

The facility accommodates basic medical services, administrative offices, social services and community health and counseling services and support spaces. Flexible spaces are provided for visiting specialists (physician consultations, dental and eye services, psychological and psychiatric nursery and physical therapy and rehabilitation.

A key project mandate was to create a comfortable and welcoming place for the community to come to during wellness, as well as in times of illness and stress – one that successfully addresses ‘human requirements’ and incorporates elements that contribute to patient/visitor/staff stress reduction through the skillful use of positive distractions (art, culture, colour, texture), acoustics (noise reduction), views, nature, daylight, and ease of wayfinding. The requirements of construction in the Arctic required careful incorporation of the logistics of building in the development of design – one shipment of material per year meant detailed planning and explicit requirements in the Contract Documents.

The building’s organization is compact, simple and logical. Its major zones are organized for efficiency of building envelope, circulation, travel distances and wayfinding. Social services spaces are concentrated at one end of the building, and separated from clinical areas by the main entry zone. The combined centrally located emergency and main entrances and reception/public/waiting areas offers operational and cost efficiencies.

Surrounded by mountains on three sides, Arctic Bay’s landscape is breathtaking. The hamlet enjoys perpetual daylight from May through August, and spectacular winter scenery for the winter months. Opportunities to weave these elements of the community’s identity were incorporated into the building’s interior design – abstractly in the floor patterning, and literally in the application of large multi-panel photographic images from a local photographer. Simple ceiling materials installed in an atypical arrangement allude to the early summer breaking ice in the bay, and add visual interest to the space.

The Campus Framework Plan seeks to find ways in which the physical environment can support the type of campus envisioned in the Strategic Plan laid out by St. Francis Xavier University in 2016.

Our unique campus environment, rooted in strong tradition, is centered on social engagement and fosters a sense of purpose, community, and active citizenship.

Excerpt from 2016 St. Francis Xavier University Strategic Plan

The Campus Framework Plan is an opportunity-based plan that institutes and formalizes patterns to maintain the campus’s unique spatial characteristics, while identifying opportunities for consistent and harmonious expansion. The plan is comprehensive in scope and is visionary, yet realistic, identifying short and long term strategies driven by a set of planning principles developed by St. Francis Xavier University’s stakeholders:
– Utilize interior and exterior spaces as a living, learning laboratory supporting academic mission
– Enhance and strengthen Campus image and identity through connected green spaces and improved edges, more welcoming Campus entrances and discreet building service areas
– Pedestrianize Campus: Modify circulation patterns to slow and/or discourage vehicular traffic, convert strategic roads into pedestrian walks, enhance wayfinding by providing clear directional guidance for visitors, provide safe and continuous walk corridors across campus by filling in the missing gaps, transition campus roads into more pedestrian-friendly corridors, increase bicycle use by working with the Town of Antigonish to create well-defined regional/campus routes that lead directly to major Campus destinations with adequate bike parking
– Densify the Campus core: identify areas for future growth, collocate associated uses to help promote accessible pedestrian circulation
– Create a cohesive image and campus landscape: move interior parking to the edge and re-imagine the space as future building and/or green space opportunities; protect spaces that have a special place in the life and history of St. Francis Xavier University; form new spaces that reflect the “park-like” character of the historic core, contribute to the institutional culture, and help mark the distinctiveness of key areas;
– Recognize natural features such as wooded areas as valuable campus resources and recognize the Strategic Plan’s goals in terms of inclusivity, internationalization and indigenization.

St. Francis Xavier University

StFX University Campus Planning

StFX University Strategic Plan

The building in which the Institute is housed is also an incredibly important classroom building, replacing close to 80% of the teaching space on campus and inhabiting the geographic centre of the campus, radically transforming the area to embrace an existing hill, that previously divided upper from lower campus, as a unique feature that plays a part in physically and experientially re-connecting upper and lower campus. The design of Mulroney Hall and surrounding site presented opportunities to enhance the rich spatial experience of campus; it is centrally located and poised to become a hub of student activity and a space for intellectual discourse with global impact.

A series of new student-focused interior and exterior spaces were envisioned as part of the project, providing space for formal and informal gatherings – a modern forum and place of discourse and learning.

Nycum and its design partner, SmithGroupJJR, were engaged by St. Francis Xavier University to help the campus develop a set of forward-thinking guidelines and requirements to be used by Design-Builders competing for the opportunity to design and build a significant new project on the University’s campus. We prepared an “illustrative design” as a companion to the guidelines and requirements to depict how they might shape an appropriate response to the campus, to the program and to the legacy of the project’s namesake and benefactor, the Right Honourable M. Brian Mulroney, St. Francis Xavier alumnus and 18th Prime Minister of Canada.

Our design work was completed and formed the basis of a design competition between Design-Builders in October 2016, after which point we transitioned to an advisory role with the University. We provided advice and insight to the University and its stakeholders throughout the competition and into the construction phases.

St. Francis Xavier University
StFX University Campus Planning
Mulroney Hall Breaks Ground

At the P&WC plant in Halifax, components for its new PurePower PW800 engines are manufactured among other items like engine blades.

As part of ongoing improvements, PW&C retained Nycum to design upgrades to its Lobby. The project addressed a number of functional and aesthetic issues as well as new security processes, upgrades to the exterior envelope and the creation of welcoming spaces for its guests and customers.

To convey the focus on precision, quality and safety – hallmarks of a jet engine maker – we worked closely with PW&C leadership to develop a restrained interior palette that favoured light colours and interesting textures that balanced organic materials and precision manufacturing. Large format tiles were introduced with a subtle pattern, wrapping floors and walls and neutral backgrounds allowed the inherent beauty in walnut to come through in the cabinetry and wood doors. Area rugs and carpet were used to warm up waiting and work spaces with tone on tone texture underfoot.

We re-worked the entry sequence to introduce new security gates and an improved flow for employees and guests. New waiting areas with comfortable furniture were developed and a guest washroom was re-worked and re-oriented to enhance convenience and privacy.

We worked with PW&C’s branding and signage consultant to integrate corporate standards into the interior of the space – important corporate values are expressed and integrated with the palette and layout and a fully glazed wall was added to an existing meeting and interview room providing a blank canvas for a luminous abstract interpretation of a PW&C engine.
The exterior upgrades feature a new glazing system that emphasizes vertical lines to pay homage to the béton brut finish of the existing building while highlighting the precision and dependability that are fundamental to the PW&C brand. The cladding of the entry canopy was replaced with new stainless steel panels that reference the very technical and machined nature of the plant’s work.

• Change Readiness for New Emergency Department, Aberdeen Regional Hospital. Culture change, process redesign, generation of new SOP and other protocols, scenarios based system and team testing and go-live implementation, New Glasgow, NS, 2017.
• NSHA Community Mental Health Recovery and Integration Program “Experiments in Access” (Role Play Pilot Project). This won a Quality Award at the CDHA annual Quality Summit in an online vote. Halifax, NS, 2013.
• “Working Differently – Sackville”, NSHA Community Mental Health Recovery and Integration Program. Sackville, NS, 2014.
• “Working Differently – Dartmouth”, NSHA Community Mental Health Recovery and Integration Program. Dartmouth, NS, 2014.
• “Working Differently – Simpson Landing”, NSHA Community Mental Health Recovery and Integration Program. Simpson Landing, Woodside, NS, 2014.
• “Working Differently – Halifax”, NSHA Community Mental Health Recovery and Integration Program. Halifax, NS, 2014.
• Halifax HUB re-imagining, NSHA Community Mental Health Recovery and Integration Program. Halifax, NS, 2014
• HUB Member Orientation and Access Process Change, NSHA Community Mental Health Recovery and integration Program. Halifax, NS, 2014.
• The Spot (Youth Mental Health Arts Program) Strategic Plan Facilitation. Halifax, NS, 2014.
• Windsor Elms Village Culture Change Facilitation. Windsor, NS, 2014 (in partnership with David Green, S.A.G.E.)
• Shiretown Nursing Home. Pictou, NS, 2011. (in partnership with David Green, S.A.G.E.)
• Ivey’s Terrace Nursing Home. Trenton, NS, 2011. (in partnership with David Green, S.A.G.E.)
• New Dawn Enterprises Strategic Plan (in partnership with Lesley Southwick-Trask)
• Election Campaign Strategic Plan Facilitation and Executive Coaching, for Provincial Member of Legislature. Halifax, NS, 2016
• 10-year Strategic Facility Plan for Guyana’s National Psychiatric Service (integrated with policy and training components)
• Sambandh Health Foundation (Delhi, India) – 10 Year Horizon (Strategic Expansion) Plan

Our Strategic Planning methodology focuses on progressive activities, which are divided into 4 phases and led by our team:

Phase I: Identifying Needs & Considerations
This phase focuses on the defining elements, tasks and triggers that lead to the creation of a Strategic Plan. These include: identifying main objectives and contributing pressures, identifying champions and stakeholders, and determining the processes to achieve desired outcomes.

Phase II: Organizing
This phase organizes resources for the Strategic Planning process, including detailed planning and rallying participants to focus on the objectives of a Strategic Plan.

Phase III: The Plan
This phase is implemented through facilitated, open platform session(s), building from activity to activity in a progressive format. This includes environmental scans, SWOT, themes, focus areas, objectives, tasks and implementation strategies. The result of this phase is a Strategic Plan document.

Phase IV: Implementing The Plan
The final phase includes refining the implementation plan, organizing, introducing task responsibility and accountability, and concludes with reflection, an evaluation of effectiveness and renewal of the Strategic Planning process.

In The Convoy scheme, each of the three main programmatic components, the Shiphouse, the Interpretive Centre and the Memorial Hall, is housed in a distinct volume. These elongated bars then shift apart as they respond to the dynamic influences of city and harbour. This design was based on a heavylift docking system for HMCS Sackville.

The Shipyard scheme is conceived as a two-bar arrangement with a covered central arcade celebrating Halifax’s maritime heritage and functioning as an activity space for the entire city. A glazed enclosure to the south provides full profile views of HMCS Sackville from the approach along the boardwalk from the cruise ship terminal. This design was developed using a shiplift with lateral transfer.

The Gateway (Crossing the Bar) approach recalls the historic gateway arch which used to stand on Sackville Landing and the temporary arches that were traditionally built across streets and at Grand Parade in Halifax to celebrate victories in battle or visiting royalty. The Shiphouse, oriented parallel to the shoreline, is located at the eastern edge of the site, as far out in the harbour as possible. A corresponding structure containing the interpretive and memorial functions rises along the boardwalk. The large opening carved from its mass frames full profile views of HMCS Sackville from the city. This design is based around utilizing a graving dock which allows HMCS Sackville to remain at a natural waterborne elevation.

SmithGroupJJR, memorial, museum and cultural architecture, material preservation specialist, civil engineering, lighting design, landscape architecture and urban design
Ralph Appelbaum Associates, exhibit and interpretive design
Hepburn and Sons LLC, graving dock designer
William Cogar, facilitator and scholarly expert (naval history)
F.C. O’Neill Scriven & Assoc’s Limited, mechanical and electrical Engineering
PINTO Engineering Ltd., structural engineering
Hanscomb Limited, budgeting and cost planning.

The $6m project targeted capital expenditures carefully to introduce new soiled utility rooms and hand hygiene sinks throughout, replace flooring, upgrade patient washrooms, create new distributed Team Control Centres incorporating collaborative workspaces for care teams and provide new centralized Reception and Communication Centres at the entrances to the hospital wings.

Construction work was carefully divided into four major phases to manage patient flow with minimal disruption to the hospital and to control asbestos abatement work, with the first phase completed December 2015.

Team Control Centres utilized the footprints of former patient rooms to provide accessible interface between staff and patients and their families; dedicated space for charting; flexible meeting and collaboration space; suitable area for “bullet rounds,” intense daily meetings involving care teams of 15+; and quiet work space for focused tasks or as temporary “touch down” space for visiting specialists. The team used these Team Control Centres as opportunities to bring natural light deeper into the hospital corridors while managing confidentiality issues with the use of partially frosted interior glass.

The interior colour palette was chosen to provide a full-spectrum environment, with subdued cooler tones in public areas and warmer tones in patient rooms. Staff work spaces and important orientation devices were accented with vibrant colours to bring variety and focus to the spaces. The calm and bright colours in the corridors, coupled with new alcoves that allow equipment to be tucked out of the traffic flow has resulted in a space that feels more open and inviting – staff have actually asked: “how did they manage to move the walls and make the corridor wider?”

Click here to see a CTV News piece published March 24, 2016

The facility supports the needs of a province-wide instructor program where instructors collect materials such as ACTARs (CPR training aids) and manuals in the morning, returning them at the end of the day to be cleaned, processed and stored. Atlantic administrative headquarters for St. John Ambulance (SJA) are also housed in the building.

A clear floor plan for the building carefully arranges the functions to be discrete, yet linked where they support and enhance one another. The straightforward design means that students, administrative staff and instructors are all accommodated and supported. Through careful planning, development of multi-use spaces, careful material selections and a close working relationship with the Contractor, the new SJA headquarters provides highly functional and low-maintenance and cost effective facilities.

The new building, located in Highfield Park in Dartmouth utilizes very efficient heating, ventilation and lighting systems to produce comfortable, low-maintenance environments that are highly energy efficient. Heat pumps allow excess heat from high-occupancy areas to be reused in heating low-occupancy areas. The same equipment allows morning solar heat gain on the more highly glazed eastern side of the building to be transferred to the colder western side of the building.

The new headquarters for SJA needed to serve the programmatic functions of training, education and administration, but also maintain a sense of brand identification with the larger national and global non-profit organization. The building maintains a low, single-storey profile and employs variation in massing, roof lines and material to break the building into smaller, less imposing forms – more in keeping with the character of the surrounding neighbourhood. Site lighting was carefully selected and oriented to minimize light disruption to the adjacent properties, while providing adequate security lighting after hours.

Our services on this project included: Building assessment, functional programming, site assessment and recommendation, architecture and interior design, and contract and construction administration.

The single and double units are designed in variations of thirds so that, through the design process, the layouts of each floor could change to address evolving understanding of the market demand for two bed vs. one bed units without disrupting the column grid. Optimal unit sizes were derived by exploring 25 best precedent layouts of other Assisted Living Facilities to arrive at a desirable balance of marketing potential.

“I am so happy here. We all feel safe and comfortable – the social and gathering spaces make meeting with neighbours and friends easy, and I am proud to have family and friends stay with me. The way my apartment is organized makes living and entertaining in my own space natural.”
-Joan Bonnett, Resident

To be identifiable as community “houses”, the units of the building wanted to be physically separated, but this would require staff to walk outdoors in the harsh weather on the site. The design managed a delicate compromise that relied heavily on a vernacular “house” form and the management of building scale while maintaining physical indoor connections. A variety of private, semi-private, and group-oriented spaces within the households provides the inhabitants with didactic spaces in which to re-socialize and re-integrate. Patient rooms and shared spaces incorporate several “nodes” of peer-to-peer engagement and rehabilitation stages. This allows patients of varying levels and stages of recovery (for example, with severe anxiety) to utilize the spatial environment as a tool in the management of their recovery.

We designed the fit-up of existing space in the airport’s International and Domestic departures lounge and Transborder facility, replacing one existing duty free store with two new locations.

Since 2011, Nycum has designed and run a one-week workshop for Masters of Architecture students focussed on introducing the National Building Code of Canada, applying it to real-world situations, and viewing it as a design tool.

Nycum was responsible for the design of, and Construction Documents for, the building envelope of the Phase 1, LEED™ Silver, Metro Waterfront Campus. In addition to the envelope work, we dealt with portions of the Master Plan and Conceptual Design as part of a design team consisting of three firms: Nycum, Barrie & Langille Architects (Halifax), and Moriyama & Teshima Architects (Toronto).

In 2012-2013, we led the design work to replace curtain wall components, enhance the building envelope performance, upgrade entrances and exits, and provide new student study and socialization spaces at the Lunenburg Campus of NSCC in Bridgewater NS, phasing work in two phases to suit budget requirements and minimize impact to academic operations.

We wanted to create a place that felt like home. Not a place with all the cute residential trimmings, but rather somewhere that conveys a sense of place with ambition and sincerity.

We wanted to show that it is possible to break down ‘the institution’ in spite of a 150,000 square foot floor area. We wanted residents to feel comfortable calling a nursing home their home, and we recognized that it may very well be the last place they will live.

We were inspired by local vernacular, where civic pride and pride of ownership really stand out in people’s homes, assisted by the tradition of using paint leftover from painting the fishing vessels. We found guidance at Cinqe Terra in Italy, where each home stands out individually in a sea of dwellings, and in Hunterwasser’s apartment buildings in Vienna which reflect tenants’ rights and sense of place in the façades.

While conveying a sense of celebration and joy, the building’s exterior design aims to do what no nursing home has done: to allow each resident to identify their “home” or “place” from the outside. To do this, we believe very strongly that one must be able to easily visually, symbolically and formally demonstrate belonging. The point of the façade design is to be able to say, “See that blue one on the corner, that’s where I live.”

Each resident room is expressed as an image of home. It is easy to find where you live from the outside. The result is a welcoming, lively, celebratory village of homes perched on a hillside. This is a radical departure from the typical institutional nursing home and we are very proud of it.

“Rather than counting windows on a vast façade, residents and their visitors can instantly identify their rooms from the outside, creating a sense of belonging and place.”
-Long Term Living Magazine, Environments for Aging, March 2011

“It is just unbelievably beautiful.”
-Honourable Maureen MacDonald, Minister of Health, April 2010

In addition to gathering the best critical minds in healthcare design, the design team engaged directly with the public, caregivers, nurses, doctors and other front line staff, and administrators to combine design and programming work into a compressed, simultaneous process.

Detailed room-by-room templates were designed to support such current practices as acuity adaptable rooms, modular reconfigurability of inpatient spaces, and flexible and adaptable programming. Nycum teamed up with SmithGroupJJR’s Arizona office to lead design, costing, programming, planning, and economic impact study work for over $600m of new and renovated space.

Extra insulation, sensitive siting, and conscientious planning of the interior work together to maximize the ability for the house to be eco-friendly. After developing a parti that incorporated four existing mature trees in the siting of the house, computer modeling refined the initial moves to subtly maximize solar gain in the winter and shade in the summer, helping shape roof trusses and overhangs. The south wall of the house is significantly more glazed than the north, with exposed thermal mass and utilization of the roof truss shape providing passive solar and ventilation opportunities.

On the ground floor, large windows are oriented to an outdoor living space, situated between a row of mature trees and the house. This sheltered south facing space mirrors the more public interior spaces on the south side of the floor plan: dining, living, and kitchen. The relationship is direct and immediate, and the family and its guests are not fully aware of the pond just above view. The welcoming open plan and interconnected levels are counterpoint to its intimate spaces.

On the second floor, selective openings on the north side of the house capture distant views of Cape Blomidon and the Valley. Large windows on the south side capture views of the pond, ringed with weeping willows whose branches bend to touch the water – views which are not available from the main floor, and which are framed as art, developing a different relationship with the surrounding landscape than is available from the more public spaces of the house.

The large hospital, while part of Dalhousie University Medical Campus, is immediately adjacent to an established residential area in Halifax. The building is set back at the upper levels, and the form is modulated at street level to help the hospital relate to the surrounding residential context.

At the time of design and construction (completed Spring 1992), we developed several innovative solutions that paved the way for many strategies that are now becoming best practice for healthcare facilities:

• Daylight and views to promote well-being and faster healing – now one of the tenets of Evidence Based Design. We believed that paitient-centred care meant that a mother should be able to see out a window from her bed. In order to do this, window sills had to be lowered, requiring trips to manufacturers across North America to prototype and patent lower profile wall-mount radiators. A large atrium in the heart of the building provides daylit waiting space for clinics and services – careful design work resolved potential fire spread issues and allows the atrium to provide light to offices and treatment/consulting spaces deep in the floor plan.
• Access to fresh air and sunlight for expectant and new mothers and staff. Balconies on the building, accessible from staff or common areas, provide release from the medical environment, providing positive distractions for patients, care providers, and visitors alike.
• The x-shaped floor plan of the upper floors of this building (the patient wings) provides efficient connections for care providers and staff and promotes wayfinding for patients and families who may be in high-stress emotional states.
• We implemented a steel stub girder system with a 42-foot by 42-foot grid spanning diagonally across the 30-foot by 30-foot reinforced concrete grid of the podium. The mechanical services level is placed directly above the highly serviced intensive care units, operating rooms and labour and delivery rooms and directly below the inpatient tower. This eliminates all avoiding interior columns and duct shafts in the patient wings. This is significant, because it provides maximum functional flexibility, allowing the interior organization to be re-worked, adapting to new care delivery procedures or new services.

From The Chronicle-Herald, Halifax, May 27, 1992: “The cost per square foot came in below average for any hospital built in the province recently, [John Malcom] says. ‘It is a good buy.’ And some innovations in the design … will result in cost savings.”
-John Malcom, Former Administrator of Health Care Institutions, Nova Scotia Department of Health

In the summer of 2012, Nycum’s Noah Epstein partnered with Dalhousie and Brigadoon Village Camp for Children with Chronic Illnesses to lead a FreeLAB group in the design and construction of some sort of response/interpretation/investigation at the camp. Building on a long relationship with Brigadoon, that resulted in the opening of the camp in 2011, Noah – with support from other Nycum staff – guided students through the project starting with an intensive analysis of the site in order to understand its latent qualities and opportunities and to collaborate with the camp’s programming and maintenance staff to understand what the “Client” wanted to achieve.

The amazing and talented student team developed an expandable site intervention that was founded on the campfire as a key element of the camp experience, developing a campfire area with performance/viewing platforms that helped to identify a critical part of the site as a focal/gathering point. The design integrates key aspects of circulation, procession, shelter and camp mythology to create a lasting memories for generations of campers to come.

A day in the life

Our multi-phased renovation of Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law teaching labs and addition of a moot court included challenges like adapting a constrained structural and spatial environment to provide significantly increased ventilation and acoustic control and absorption. The project included extensive asbestos remediation while the facility remained operational, and strategic phasing to be ready for use at the beginning of the school year.

Nycum has also produced the Master Plan for Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine, where we continue to provide renovations and upgrades to the existing facilities.

In 2012, we completed the renovation of a merchant townhouse to create a research laboratory, data collection centre and testing site for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging that will study the health of 50,000 Canadians through a 20-year long-range study.

Five camper cabins (two insulated for winter use) are spread across the site, and complemented with a dining hall, medical treatment centre, administrative offices, staff cabins, arts facilities, and learning activity spaces. Groups rent the camp from Brigadoon and tailor their programs for their target campers. The facility provides the support and flexibility to provide for camps ranging from Crohn’s/Colitis to Cancer.

This project is the fusion of the ultimate fun summer camp experience with a solid backbone of medical infrastructure. The design is a sensitive blend of staffing and medical support strategies with an approachable and exciting architectural backdrop. The campus design accommodates multiple camp “tenants”: each with unique restrictions, management styles and staff complements. The camp had to be designed to be instantly flexible and adaptable to each organization while maintaining core medical, nutritional, programmatic and safety services and spaces.

Fundamental to the camper cabin design is the ability for one staff member to supervise 24 campers. This allows other staff to have a break or conduct vital planning work. A scheme was devised where a great room provides a central observation point with view into each cabin space. At the same time, the beneficial dynamics of camp such as age grouping, friendship forming, and peer interaction supports small groups of six to eight. Within each cabin of 24, mini cabins have autonomous space and identity within the larger cabin building, allowing group identity and solidarity to take hold among these smaller accommodations.

“This camp is so good that it might be worth having Crohn’s to go to!”
-Vince Rochette, Camp Guts and Glory, 2011

This renovation required extreme sensitivity in the management of two competing mandates: 1) the respect for and preservation of an historic architectural archive of significant heritage and beauty, and 2) the intervention of a nationalized commercial design brand accustomed to ground-up construction in suburban retail/business parks unaccustomed to a heritage preservation mandate. While these competing mandates posed a challenge from a client standpoint, they provided opportunity for the design team.

The result is a rich environment that reshaped the brand’s perspective on the commercial value of preservation, sustainability, urbanism and heritage.

“This is our first restaurant where we gave some good latitude to the architect. I think we’re going to go that way from here on.”
– Demetri Tsigos, COO, Bâton Rouge Restaurants, The Chronicle Herald, June 14, 2011

“It’s a beautiful spot… the decor and outfitting is so very classy yet cleverly in keeping with the historic property.”
– Jeremy Webb, columnist, The Chronicle Herald, June 19, 2011

As the geopolitical circumstances of the project site fell deeper into uncertainty for the new 1000-bed facility, Nycum was called upon to create an interim program and renovation concept plan for a Mental Health inpatient facility to be housed in army barracks nearby. This facility would be able to provide services while the new 1000-bed facility was being constructed.

We adapted our approved program and concept plan to fit the existing barrack structures with a minimum amount of renovation, proving the adaptability and flexibility of the original unit design philosophy. This project includes renovations to a former Syrian Army dormitory as part of the design and is currently awaiting regional stability before proceeding to the next phase.

Many strategies were used to minimize the institutional feel of a nursing home while providing a residential atmosphere for residents.

A thematic design strategy reconstructs passenger processing, from front door to aircraft, as a series of staged experiences, each with its own character and references. An emphasis was placed on calming a typically high-anxiety environment through form, clarity, humour, and expression.

The new facility, originally a pilot project, has now been identified by US and Canadian customs and airport authorities as the example to follow for airports around the world wishing to implement their own US Preclearance facilities.

Laboratory spaces include teaching labs, prep rooms, and research labs for graduate students and teaching staff. We encouraged the flexibility of these high-tech spaces by using the modular design of components and layouts. The building’s animal care facility has a specific emphasis on aquatic animals and includes salt and fresh water fish habitats, surgery and observation rooms.

This LEED™ Gold building incorporates innovative water and energy conservation systems – a particular challenge given the demands that traditional laboratory spaces place on such building components.

See Acadia University’s virtual tour of this building.