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Tribute to Willis Ritchie, architect
By : Jean-Maxime Labrecque, architecte
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 17th edition
Discipline : Interior Design
Categories : Office / Office 5,400 - 54,000 sq.ft. (500 - 5 000 sq. m.) : Gold Certification
Categories : Special Awards / Interior Design + Lighting : Gold Certification
Categories : Special Awards / Renovation (Before & After) : Gold Certification
Categories : Special Awards / Signage & Branding : Gold Certification
Tribute to Willis Ritchie, architect
1. Tribute + triangles
2. Hall symmetry
3. Circulations
4. Lighting design
5. Minimalism and history
6. Complex structural geometry between floors
7. Each room as a project in itself
8. Surgical electromechanical integration
1. Tribute + triangles
This former Westmount post office, built in 1910 by the American architect Willis Ritchie, was hiding its full potential when it was purchased by two plastic surgeons looking for the ideal building for their first private clinic. Outside, the neo-classical building conveyed elegance and pride but the interior, with its standard finishes, had the atmosphere of a generic office tower.
The project not only revealed the built quality of the building but also reclaimed its original refinement. The old corridors have mutated into an architectural promenade between basement, ground floor and the new mezzanine levels, creating a fluid circulation through a rich volumetry.
The minimalist aesthetic approach of the project demanded constant accuracy from the general contractor. Also, the building being at the corner of the two most crowded streets in downtown Westmount, several aspects of the construction work (dust, digging, waste disposal, noise, and more) inevitably constituted a challenge. The level of difficulty was at often a maximum level during construction.
The project can be described in simple terms as follows : stripping the existing walls; sandblasting the ceiling and original columns; building a minimal number of new walls; and finally, precisely positioning the electrical and mechanical components of the building.
2. Hall symmetry
Welcoming visitors in a majestic hall was a priority for the new owners. The new vocation, a plastic surgery clinic, called for a complete makeover of the hall. The concept of symmetry acted as a starting point and an anchoring for the entire project. The neoclassical building’s vocabulary, as well as the main activity of delicately re-shaped human figures, inspired and imposed the reintroduction of symmetry in the entrance hall.
Initially, a partition blocked the view from the hall towards the superior level. Its demolition, as well as the demolition of ceilings and all other partitions, opened the entire volume. Besides creating an impressive view from the entrance door toward the ground floor’s grand volume, this also revealed a row of windows on the north wall which until then had been illuminating an isolated corridor.
From the entrance, the visual result is an ascending tridimensional composition that conveys harmony thanks to the volumetric proportions offered by the building and the sculptural objects that occupy space.
Finally, let’s underline the important custom-built staircase, split in the center by the main column and anchored to the reception desk on one side and to the basement railing on the other, both of these elements being covered by mirror surfaces.
3. Circulations
Originally, the lobby was connected to the ground floor and the basement through short flights of steps that lead directly to partition walls. The two staircases were inserted in an irregular polygonal volume that generated an unpleasant as well as inefficient circulation.
The medical clinic’s activities required optimized circulations on the ground floor as well as in the basement to harmonize the overall experience and induce a soothing and meditative state.
3.1 Ground floor
AA Architectural promenade
The layout of the new ground floor was based on the existing one. Responding to preliminary sketches proposing to entirely open the space of the ground floor as a main volume, the owners expressed that their patients needed privacy at the main entrance and when coming out of the consultation offices. From there, the central island of the initial configuration (see demolition plan) was truncated in two parts, generating two triangles. These two prisms correspond to the owners first name letters, Ali and Arash (Izadpanah).
The first triangle is the mezzanine volume. It hosts three injection rooms on the ground floor and is crowned on the upper level by a VIP lounge as well as three administrative offices.
The second triangle is the administrative center. Positioned to reproduce the original plan, its partitions stop at a height of 8 ‘8”. Ceilingless, it offers the staff an opening to the stunning ground floor volume.
The interstitial space between these triangular volumes creates a comfortable waiting room. Sitting on a 40 feet long bench, the patients wait for their appointment while watching a video projection on the 650 square feet mezzanine partition.
The mezzanine is open and welcomes visitors in a quietly elegant lounge. A triangular bench and a 54 feet long counter, positioned on the longest mezzanine’s side, offers relaxing and resting options with a view on the main volume and hall activities.
The main volume, 16 ‘5’’ height from floor to ceiling, is outlined by immaculate and uninterrupted surface partitions that are delicately perforated with frameless doors.
3.2. Basement
Relationship to the lobby and circulation blocks
To avoid giving visitors a ‘going down in a basement’ feeling, we had to lead them to the lower level in a welcoming and elegant way. The new entrance hall’s symmetry allowed the positioning of the staircase leading downstairs along a high wall. From the lobby, the visitor accesses the steps leading to the basement while grazing a 31 foot-high partition. This monumental surface extends down to the lowest level to become one of the central offices’ partition.
After the descent, the patient finds himself under the open counter-steps. To his left, there is the universal access ramp as well as a 3 steps staircase going to the elevator and the kitchen. After a few steps, they can sit in the waiting room. This room is surrounded by three medical offices, an operating room on the south side, and three other consultation offices on the north side.
The layout on this level is structured by two blocks: the doctors’ offices previously described, and another block consisting of the lockers, WC and showers rooms.
It is around this peripheral circulation’s first block that we can walk west to reach the staff’s locker rooms. The corridor that leads to it progressively narrows to create a dynamic architectural effect. Once in front of the locker rooms’ doors, we can see the second block that responds to the first one. It includes men’s showers and WC and women’s WC. This ‘precious’ object, covered with white ceramic, is attached to the adjacent partitions and walls with glass skins pierced with secured access doors.
The men and women locker rooms have counters that are 15 feet long. The twenty or so lockers and the compact electromechanical assemblage, electrical lines and HVAC ducts, on the ceiling overlook the counter and are reflected by a full width and height mirror panes. Lighting strips provide indirect light. Women have the privilege of having generous showers placed inside a concrete alcove.
A step down unit can also be found further on this floor, it includes six beds and their intimacy curtains.
4. Lighting design
Lighting is a fundamental part of the project’s concept and the architect designed it himself. The alcoves created by the 1910 building’s concrete beams are illuminated by hidden LED strips to create the ambient architectural lighting. Ceilings then become vast luminous surfaces that crown each level. Punctual sources have also been added to every beam intersection as well as to the top of columns to produce functional lighting.
5 . Triangles
Before the demolition, the triangular reinforcement brackets that were found in the ceiling were not perceptible. The custom-made furniture was not part of the original project. These brackets, combined with the two triangular rooms in the main volume, the main triangular lobby custom built staircase, of which the extremities are also triangular to allow the column to be fully exposed and the triangular bench on the mezzanine make the triangle a recurrent formal treatment overall the 3 storeys.
6. Minimalism and history
To establish a strong and coherent dialogue with this centennial old building irregularities, the treatments of wall surfaces had to follow the typical museum-space minimalistic vocabulary. It was imperative that all vertical panes be immaculate, painted in white and deprived from any decorative hanging. No baseboards or other moldings were used, the walls appear to be floating. Same for the door frames: they are hidden, leaving only a joint and door handle apparent. Same too for the ventilation grilles: their frames are recessed into the wall. These new monumental surfaces that vary in height from 10 to 31 feet offer moments of visual calm for the visitors.
Traces of the building’s history are showcased to express the building’s numerous past lives and enrich the architectural experience.
7. Complex structural geometry between floors
Since the mezzanine structure required structural slabs in the basement, the supporting columns had to pass through the ground floor and run through the subterranean level’s partitions. Only a limited area could be used for the column to pass from one level to the other. To increase accuracy, the architect proposed a ground floor slab drilling technique using plumb bob strings running all the way to the basement floor. The proposed technique worked perfectly and allowed to avoid the hazardous calculations and inevitable mistakes (especially in this irregular context) that would have resulted from extrapolating measures from the plans.
8. Each room a project in itself
While architects will sometimes provide plans that give only a minimum treatment for each room, here each of them is treated with meticulous attention and considered as a project in itself . The building’s structure being now exposed, imposing columns or beams pass through medium-sized office partitions, becoming, at the scale of these rooms, concrete sculptures, showcased by architectural lighting.
As for the custom furniture, the architect applied the same principle he used in previous projects, namely that one construction element is repurposed for various needs. Here, it is the mezzanine floor planks that have been used for the clinic’s custom-built furniture; for the long office shelves as well as the waiting room benches.
9. Surgical electromechanical integration
Electromechanical components are systematically too big and unnecessarily distracting. If on the ground floor, high ceilings didn’t have any major impact on rooms, it was different in the basement. The challenge, here, was substantial given the irregular existing concrete structure and floor plans.
Usually, in a commercial context, one or two versions of electromechanical plans are produced. In this project we reviewed them many more times to be able to reach the level of accuracy required for precise positioning.
In this matter, the cooperation of the different subcontractors was unequal. The heating, ventilation and air condition subcontractors were generous and professional. With the fire hazard and electricity, it was another story.
Finally, we should mention that in every doctor’s office, the sinks required important plumbing work underneath the basement concrete slab.
