Summit rises: Help for seniors is on the way

By Melanie Franner

Twenty-four-hour care and support will soon be available in the form of a new state-of-the art residential care and dementia facility in Victoria. The Summit at Quadra Village will offer 320 beds, as well as an adult day program for seniors.

The Capital Region Hospital District (CRHD) has planned The Summit to replace two aging facilities (Oak Bay Lodge and Mt. Tolmie Hospital). Through a financing agreement, Island Health will lease the building over the next 25 years and provide the residential care services.

Project design for The Summit began in September 2015, with completion anticipated near the end of 2019. The budget is $86 million.

Standing tall

The new facility is the work of de Hoog & Kierulf Architects, who describes the project as having used an integrated design process with a construction management approach.

“All bedrooms are private, single-occupant rooms complete with an ensuite bathroom and shower,” states the company. “Floors are organized into four houses of 24 residents with the ability to subdivide into smaller pods of 12.”

The architectural firm adds that the design prioritizes both resident quality of life and operational efficiency, with compact centralized staff areas surrounded by perimeter resident common areas facing onto landscaped gardens.

The Summit consists of four separate wings, each of which is four storeys high.

WSP Canada are the mechanical and electrical consultants for The Summit project. The company designed the entire mechanical and electrical systems to LEED guidelines, although the building itself will not be LEED certified.

The company designed the electrical systems to meet or exceed the ASHRAE 90.1 requirements for watts per square foot, lighting control systems, energy and provisions for electrical vehicle charging. Electrically, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), health-care and security systems are all designed with the latest proven practical technologies capable of seamless integration, simplicity of installation and maintenance, and ease of operation.

The Summit has several security systems, access control and staff duress systems throughout the building to ensure the safety of the residents and staff alike.

The wireless staff duress system will provide real-time locating capabilities during a staff duress situation, and will alert other staff and the code-white team of the duress situation to ensure a fast and immediate response.

A wired nurse-call system, with emergency call buttons located in strategic locations and patient stations, will be located at each resident bed to provide emergency-call capabilities, porter calls and staff communications.

A closed-circuit television (CCTV) system, with IP cameras located throughout the facility for real-time security and historical monitoring, will provide another level of staff and resident safety.

A card-access control system will provide safe and secure access to all building areas, and will provide secure areas within the building and ensure separation between resident wings and commons areas, and will ensure secure visitor access.

“This is a Class B health-care facility, so we must follow certain CSA guidelines, like ventilation rates, individual room-temperature controls, emergency-power systems, life-safety systems, and equipment redundancy,” explains Edis Ozker, mechanical project manager at WSP Canada. “We also followed the CSA Guideline for Infection Control so each of the four wings can operate independently. Each wing can be operated to either negative or positive pressure so contamination, if it occurs, can be contained in an isolated infection-control zone.”

The WSP Canada crew has been on site for about a year, with another year still to go.

“During the design process, we had about four people working on the project between the electrical and mechanical design team,” says Ozker. “During the construction phase, we only have two people conducting field reviews for compliance with the design standards and specifications.”

The northwest quadrant has seen the most progress to date, with the pouring of the concrete structure, the exterior steel stud framing and installation of the roof slab now complete. The exterior walls have been framed and sheathed in drywall. Windows have been installed and work continues on the mechanical, plumbing and electrical.

The Summit consists of four separate wings, each of which is four storeys high.

Next up is the southwest quadrant, where concrete slabs and floor slabs are already completed, as is the roof and steel stud exterior wall framing.

In the trenches

Much of the concrete work on The Summit is being done by Farmer Construction Ltd.

“We started on-site in spring 2017,” explains Dave Haydar, general superintendent and owner of Farmer Construction. “We anticipate finishing the job in the spring of this year.”

According to Haydar, the project was fairly straightforward — even though the total slab area is approximately 30,000 square metres and the company will eventually pour a total of 10,000 cubic metres of concrete.

“We used truss fly forms, pouring one quadrant at a time, levels 1 to 4,” he says, adding that during peak periods, the company had a crew of around 40 on site. “It is a reasonably easy build because each quadrant is relatively the same.”

The low-voltage systems integration project at The Summit at Quadra Village is being managed by Houle Electric Victoria. It comprises the integration of four different systems: nurse call communications, CCTV video surveillance, card access control and staff duress.

“This is a typical project for us,” says Brian Davis, project manager for Houle Electric Victoria. “But in this case, for this size of building, once you start dealing with 300 and 400 beds, the implementation gets a little more complex.”

Davis’ crew has been onsite since late 2018 and anticipates being there until the end of 2019. At peak construction, the crew will range from five to 10 people.

“This is a significant integration job for us,” adds Davis, who adds that the company does a lot of work with Island Health. “We have a good relationship with them.”

At the moment, according to Davis, the crew is installing cable networks and looking toward the systems integration on the west two quadrants. The other two will follow shortly.

“At this point, everything is moving along according to schedule,” concludes Davis.

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