Royal Inland Hospital: Creating a leading hospital design build in Kamloops, BC

British Columbia’s Interior Health Authority sought to expand the Royal Inland Hospital site by adding a new clinical service building on a prominent location against a steep hill on the hospital campus. The new facility would allow for enhanced outpatient services, medical teaching space for the University of British Columbia, and creation of a newfound physical connection between the hospital and the community. Following a three-month pursuit phase in competition with three other firms, the Kasian-Bird Design Build team was selected for proposing the best solution to the client’s condition: that the project serve as a gateway/connection to the existing hospital while enhancing the surrounding urban environment.

As the Royal Inland Hospital sits upon a steep hill with main access roads at street level below, it was physically separated from the community it serves. This hill was thus a barrier to access that needed to be overcome. The aesthetic and functional integration with the existing hospital facility, the desire to amplify the surrounding landscape, and the building’s location on a steeply sloping site therefore all contributed to the complexity of this project. Our Healthcare Team also had to ensure the design met the requirements of a complex group of stakeholders and 11 user groups – including doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff.

The successful delivery of this project resulted from a highly collaborative process between the project team, stakeholders, users, municipal authorities, and the community. To ensure all stakeholders understood the design intent – and was met with their approval – we employed the latest in 3-D imaging and virtual reality and engaged each user group in visioning sessions where the proposed new space was projected as a virtual 3-D environment. This approach allowed for real-time feedback from healthcare staff, ensuring the design met all user requirements.

Our design of the CSB creates a much-needed connection between the surrounding community and the Hospital campus. With its striking exterior features and location at a prominent intersection in Kamloops, the new facility provides a link from street level to the main floor of the hospital elevated above. Entryways, parking, and elevator access from the ground level offer visitors an intuitive arrival point into the wider hospital campus for the first time in its history.

Additionally increasing the building’s urban presence is a well landscaped terracing platform that provides visitors and staff alike a place for rest and with distant views to the water beyond. This terracing plaza – coupled with an eye-catching, enclosed pedestrian bridge from the new building to the existing hospital – forms a physical link between the two structures, further strengthening the hospital site.

Inside, the glass curtainwalls are warm, inviting and let in an abundance of natural light. A forestry-themed wayfinding package, with each floor assigned its own native BC wood species, provides a patient-centric way to navigate the facility.

Finally, the LEED Gold Certified CSB includes a state-of-the-art, clinical education space for the University of British Columbia’s medical school programs.

The Clinical Services Building achieves the client’s goal of serving as a gateway to the Royal Inland Hospital. Equally important, it also provides citizens with a modern healthcare facility offering enhanced and expanded outpatient services, as well as a technologically advanced learning space for the next generation of physicians. A green roof beside a staff patio towards the top of the building provides a respite area for our healthcare heroes, offering another example of a unique feature allowing the hospital to retain and attract employees. Taken together, the CSB ensures that Kamloops and the surrounding region can easily access the best outpatient treatment from the best in healthcare.