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Bridgepoint wins two PUGs

by ERA Architects

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Bridgepoint Active Healthcare has won two PUG awards this year: Best Commercial + Institutional Building in Toronto, and the Paul Oberman Adaptive Reuse and Heritage Restoration Award.

As part of the redevelopment of the site, the Old Don Jail was rehabilitated to function as the administrative building for Bridgepoint Hospital. Completed in 1864, the Don Jail was Toronto’s largest building project to date and the largest jail of its kind in North America. Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by one of Canada’s most respected early architects, William Thomas, it was notable for its grand scale, heavily rusticated stone masonry, and dramatic use of light and shadow.

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The Bridgepoint site redevelopment included a new landscape design, a new 10-story, 472-bed hospital dedicated to people living with complex chronic disease and disability, and the rehabilitation of the Old Don Jail. ERA contributed at several stages of the project, working together with a large team including Stantec Architecture, KPMB Architects, HDR Architecture, Diamond Schmidt, Ventin Group, and others.

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The primary goal of the conservation and adaptive reuse project was to reveal and make accessible the character-defining heritage value of the Jail, while adapting the Jail’s historically-charged function and structural constraints into a functional and positive space for a completely new purpose. The project had to repair and protect significant heritage fabric, provide opportunities for public access and engagement, and serve appropriately as the administrative wing of Bridgepoint’s exemplary active healthcare campus.

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ERA thanks the PUG Awards and congratulates all winners and nominees.

Related Projects

Bridgepoint Health: The Old Don Jail Bridgeport Healthcare
Toronto
The Distillery District Cityscape Development Corporation & Dundee Realty
Toronto
The McGill New Vic Project McGill University
Montreal