McCaig Tower
 

Was at the Foothills on the weekend to visit one of my fiances friends whose husband is battling brain cancer, and we went for a bit of a walk to explore the new McCaig Tower while we were there. So far its mostly day surgery units that have been moved over, 4 of 7 floors are at least accessible from the elevators, but its pretty empty still.

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Central Corridor on Main Floor by Jason R. Reid, on Flickr

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West Corridoor on Main Floor by Jason R. Reid, on Flickr

More seating, some future retail type bays and at the far north end a glass elevator that goes down into the parkade below.

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Family Room on 3rd Floor by Jason R. Reid, on Flickr

A fairly large family room was built on the 3rd floor. This shows only half the room, the other half contains more chairs, and a childrens play structure. There is also a private family room beside this room with couches, a TV and even a computer workstation.

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Corridoor on 3rd Floor by Jason R. Reid, on Flickr

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Main entrance & Admitting on Main Floor by Jason R. Reid, on Flickr

The main entrance and admitting area. This was originally intended to be the main admitting area for the entire Foothills Campus, but they decided to leave that in the old main tower after this was mostly constructed. Yes, that is a huge fireplace, and theres a baby grand piano tucked in the corner as well.

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Main floor fireplace by Jason R. Reid, on Flickr

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Health Sciences Centre renovations by Jason R. Reid, on Flickr

That’s the first hospital I’ve seen with a fireplace. Shame that most of the space is underused... and hardly anyone knows that it exists.

Yep. The only people we saw over there were staff for the most part, theres a number of other areas where there are chairs looking out towards the river valley and quite a few staff were taking their breaks in that area on the 3rd floor (which is what connects to the old tower). The lone nurse at the admitting desk in the McCaig Tower looked pretty bored. They're also doing some renovations to the front entrance to the main tower, new stone facade and also renos inside (Good Earth was moved into a corner while the area they were in is redone). The thing they really need to redo though is the elevators, the wife of the guy we went to see said that the elevators seem to break down at least once a week, and considering he's up on the 11th floor in Nuerology its quite a trek to get anywhere else.

That looks like a very warm and pleasant place, makes dealing with the reason you are there a little easier. I spent a lot of time two years back in the old tower visiting my dad as he was dying of brain cancer and I can say the experience would have been slightly better in a place that looked like that.

The Foothills entry foyer is actually being expanded, adding square footage between the emergency entry and the main entry. Looks like the additional space will have a lot of glass and follows a curving line. It eats up a little patch of grass and bush (and one overgrown tree that I recall) - it was dead space.

The Good Earth has actually not moved but been closed - the coffee stand is being run by the same company that does the other cafeterias at Foothills (IE the garden deli (main floor at the base of the special services building) and the timberline (ground floor)).

Not sure what the plan is for a coffee shop at the entry of Foothills after the construction. I'm thinking that it may actually reside in the expanded space - but not sure if it will be Good Earth, the FMC cafeteria folks, or someone else. Whoever it is, they'll be raking it in. That Good Earth used to have a continuous line for their entire hours of operation!

When done, the entry spaces will still be very small for a complex of this size, but will certainly be better than what has been there. As an aside, it wasn't always quite so tight between emergency and the main foyer. Some years ago, there was a need for more spaces, and so the wide hallway (which used to extend all the way to the front windows) was cannibalized - the new width being not much more than just a regular hallway.

Regarding McCaig, much of the building remains shelled space. I do believe more things are planned to move this year, however, much of it will remain for future expansion.

With respect to spaces and design, my observations of the expansion at Peter Lougheed were similar - nice larger and brighter spaces!

Sorry to hear about your father. Foothills does provide exceptional care, but spaces can also make a difference. It was a celebrated design at one point in history (first board formed in 1959 I believe, with it opening in 1966).

thanks for the sentiment. They did provide excellent care, it was a big part of why he came back from over seas to have his treatment. Fortunately he was able to spend his last few months at home.

I've only seen the new Foothills expansion at a glance driving by, but everytime I have I've noticed an amazing looking atrium with tree-like arches in it. Did you get a chance to see it? Does anyone know anything about it?

I think thats the atrium between the Teaching Research and Wellness (TRW) and Health Research Innovation Centre (HRIC) buildings, which are home to the UofC's Faculties of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, but I'm not 100% sure.

Mersar is somewhat correct. What you are seeing is the atrium between the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) / Heritage Medical Research Building (HMRB) to the East and the Health Research Innovation Centre (HRIC) to the West. The Foothills Campus (also sometimes referred to as the Health Sciences Campus and sometimes as South Campus) is partially AHS and partially UCalgary. In fact, even some of the AHS parking and parkades are on UCalgary Land. The Foothills (which is actually a set of buildings where the largest is the Foothills Medical Centre) could easily have been termed a University Hospital, however, it opened three years before the Medical School had its first intake. Then came buildings such as the North Tower, South Tower, Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Special Services Building, and recently McCaig Tower. On the university front, at one point in history (after an expansion to the main Foothills building's West facing arm) the medical school was located on the 12th floor. Later the Health Sciences Centre was constructed - opened about 1972. Then in 1986 the Heritage Medical Research Building was build - the atrium between the two containing real trees as opposed to metal ones. Later HRIC and TRW were added, another atrium being integrated (the one you usually notice). The medical portions are also integrated to an extent between the UCalgary buildings and AHS buildings. As an example, many of the outpatient clinics, known as the UCMC, are in the Health Sciences Centre. The TRW building (Teaching Research and Wellness) also has some medical spaces, such as the Forzani Colon Cancer Screening Centre and other spaces including for clinical (human) trials. Additionally, many of the specialist docs who also have university rank and conduct clinical or basic research, have offices on the UCalgary side. On the medical research front, Calgary has a leadership position in several areas, including brain, cardiovascular as well as infection/immunity. Care is very good overall, but research strengths often translate into particularly strong care delivery and education strengths also.

Hope that is helpful. If you have specific questions, let me know.

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Personally, I'm glad it's underused and actually wish that it didn't need to exist.

Thanks suburb and Mersar! That's the one I always see.