FIRST LOOK: Waterloo Eye Institute
HOK
The new lobby introduces the Institute to visitors in a generous, daylit and relaxed atmosphere specifically designed to provide multisensory cues for wayfinding for all levels of sightedness. A distinct acoustic signature and features to enhance wayfinding contribute to reducing anxiety both for incoming and outgoing patients and their families.
HOK
The new entrance takes many architectural cues from the original building, both in proportion and massing a bold yet respectful statement. The generous overhanging roof provides a strong visual cue to the street, while providing passive solar control for the glazed retail eyecare center placed near the entrance. Clarity and transparency are key, and with the generous glazing of the lobby, the building clearly displays its public functions to nearby arrival points, allowing visitors to easily understand the building layout. The entrance provides ample room both inside and out for both movement and pause, so that all levels of abilities are accommodated.
HOK
The east façade presents strong vertical solar control elements for the second story and clerestory glazing for the first, limiting difficult east light and controlling it to prevent glare and solar heat gain. The vertical fins are prominent architectural elements that announce sustainability as an important driver of the facility design. The lower walls are used to adapt to grade changes, in keeping with the original uses of mounds and manipulated topography on the site.
HOK
Waterloo Eye Institute will provide care across the spectrum from wellness to surgery and rehabilitation.
HOK
The stair is the main visitor communication stair, situated entirely within the lobby with clear connections to upper areas overseeing the lobby. The lowest steps are incorporated into a base that includes seating areas, and amenity areas under the stairs for light refreshment service for an event or general use. As such, it is a focal point within the lobby that represents connection, socially and physically, between building levels, major wayfinding routes, and the outdoors.
HOK
The south façade emerges from the formal strategies of the original building. It features strip windows, uninterrupted parapet lines, eroded corners for entrances, and restrained material palette. The white panels present a clean, fresh, and professional medical facility, while wood soffits introduce biophilic elements to give a softer and welcoming feel, balancing the building for a less institutional ambience. The panels are further developed with surface patterning that is derived from the medical imaging that the institute undertakes, reflecting the highly advanced work that is performed at the facility. The datascape that this patterning represents also incorporates exterior lighting, so the pattern intrigues the viewer at night as well. The glazing uses light frit patterns to reduce glare and solar heat gain, while reducing sharp contrasts to inside spaces, and signage is visible from a distance and close to the building.
Within the next 25 years, the annual cost of vision loss in Canada is expected to double to CAD $30 billion as the nation’s population grows older. Many of the leading causes of vision loss—including diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration—are age related. These statistics are behind the reason the University of Waterloo’s School of Optometry & Vision Science in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, set out to create the Waterloo Eye Institute. The project enhances and expands two floors of the school’s existing building on the University of Waterloo’s campus.
HOK (Toronto; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; and Washington, D.C.) was selected to design the 67,000-square-foot project that adds clinical patient care spaces and areas for education and innovation. Specialty services include primary care and pediatric clinics, ocular health and contact lens clinics, low-vision rehabilitation and research clinics, teleoptometry centers, an ambulatory ophthalmology surgical center, and research facilities dedicated to ocular imaging research and biomedical science.
HOK will collaborate with Dr. Stanley Woo, director of the School of Optometry & Vision Science, to design the facility to have a positive impact on patient care and wellness, both locally and nationally, by creating spaces where the next generation of clinicians and researchers will train. HOK’s design team also includes consultant Chris Downey, an architect who lost his sight following an operation to remove a benign brain tumor. Downey brings a uniquely important perspective to the project as an expert in developing environments for the blind and visually impaired that are multisensory and don’t privilege or bias one sense over others.
Project details:
Facility name: Waterloo Eye Institute
Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Expected completion date: 2024
Owner: University of Waterloo School of Optometry & Vision Science
Total building area: 67,000 sq. ft.
Total construction cost: N/A
Cost/sq. ft.: N/A
Architect: HOK
Interior designer: HOK
General contractor: N/A
Engineer: MCW (mechanical, electrical, ICAT, energy modeling and sustainability analysis), RJC (structural)
Builder: N/A
Consultant: Architecture for the Blind
