March 9, 2007

Merger of interior design and health care architects a win-win

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd. is poised to become an active player in the design and delivery of health care facilities in Ontario following its recent acquisition of the 18-person firm of Health Strategy Architects Ltd. (HSA).

"It marks a major milestone in our plan to grow our firm globally."

Don Kasian

President

The move marks a key step in Kasian’s entry into the eastern Canadian market.

“Having HSA join our firm is a very important move for us,” says Kasian president Don Kasian, who founded his namesake architecture and design firm in 1986. The company’s first office was in Edmonton.

“It marks a major milestone in our plan to grow our firm globally. This also provides us the opportunity to offer our range of services to the Ontario market.”

Toronto-based HSA provides a full range of architectural services to the health care sector in the province. The firm has particular expertise in complex-care and rehabilitation facilities for longer-stay patients with multiple health care needs.

HSA principal Patsy Poulin, who co-founded the firm 12 years ago, said she felt the time was ripe to join forces with a larger, growing firm. Kasian is one of the largest firms of its ilk in Canada.

“The Ontario market is changing,” says the Edinburgh-trained Poulin. “With the advent of private financing initiatives and the volume of current and proposed health care construction, there is a limit to the ability of a smaller firm to be an active player.

“By allying ourselves with Kasian’s resources in designing new and large-scale hospitals, we will have far greater potential in targeting the emerging Ontario markets. Kasian has tremendous experience from their recent projects in B.C. and Alberta, which we will be able to tap into.”

Poulin is referring to such projects as the $253 million Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, which opened this past September. Kasian was lead architect and prime consultant.

Other recent Kasian health care projects include the $166 million Royal Jubilee Hospital Diagnostic & Treatment Centre in Victoria and the $25 million, 80-bed Powell River Hospital in B.C.

Poulin, who worked at Toronto’s Govan Kaminker and NORR prior to co-founding HSA, said the demographic shift of baby boomers entering their sixties is generating increased requirements for new health care projects in Ontario.

“At the same time, there has been a decline in the provincial infrastructure and an increase in societal expectations for better health care. This has led to increased construction volume, which has fostered several recent consolidations in the health care design field.”

Kasian has a staff of more than 300 in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Dubai and Shanghai. The firm is a leader in the design of education, recreational, public and health care facilities, transportation infrastructure, urban development and interior design.

"We are looking forward to growing the Kasian presence in Ontario."

Patsy Poulin

Principal

Poulin was educated at Edinburgh University and took a year off to work in an architect’s office in Timmins before completing her studies. She cited the way Kasian is structured as a “plus” factor in influencing her decision to join the firm.

“Kasian operates as a single firm across the country. We can access Kasian’s people and experience in their various offices and bring that knowledge to the work we do for our Ontario clients.

“Much of that expertise is not available in the Ontario market, even within the larger design firms.”

The entire HSA team has been retained and is now operating under the Kasian banner.

“We are very enthusiastic about the opportunities this change brings, individually and collectively,” Poulin said. “We are looking forward to growing the Kasian presence in Ontario.”

HSA staff will remain in their existing office on Adelaide Street West until Kasian’s new consolidated Toronto office opens this summer.

Recent HSA projects include:

•The $60-million Complex Care, Rehabilitation and Intensive Care Unit expansion for Quinte Healthcare’s Belleville site. The project is the first of Infrastructure Ontario’s build-finance model of alternative finance. It will be followed by subsequent phases to move the Emergency Department into a new wing and to expand the peri-operative program.

• The $2-million Gamma Knife Centre at Toronto Western Hospital, the first Gamma Knife installation in Ontario. The state-of-the-art centre will treat radiosurgery patients with non-invasive radiation therapy to targeted areas of the brain.

• The $27-million Brockville General Hospital, the centre for acute hospital services for the City of Brockville and the surrounding Ontario communities in Leeds-Grenville Counties.

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