Urban Strategies was retained by Advent Health Care Corporation to develop a Master Plan for a retirement community on a former Hospital site in Toronto. Though responsibility for the governance, management and operation of the facility had been transferred to North York General Hospital in the early 1990’s, Advent Health Care and The Ontario Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists had committed to continue providing community and health related services on site. The intent of the master plan was to develop a framework for the transformation of the underutilized property into a mix of independent and assisted living units. Care was taken to retain the operating portion of the hospital and an existing long-term care facility on site.

Working within the programmatic constraints of a continuing care facility and on a site with limited access, the master plan included the introduction of a new street to provide an address for development and strengthen connections to the local community. The plan consists of an urban ensemble of buildings focused around a central, generously landscaped open space. Buildings include a mix of independent and assisted living units and are connected by a continuous enclosed walkway that links community oriented uses at grade. As a subset of the approvals process, Urban Strategies worked closely with City Staff on the development of a series of design guidelines for the site. These aimed to both assist in the evaluation of proposals and cater to the long-term flexible development of the property.