Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre
Hamilton Health Sciences
~$70 Million
Stantec
PCL
2015
The Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre (RJCHC), part of Hamilton Health Sciences and affiliated with McMaster Children’s Hospital, is a state of the art outpatient facility dedicated to pediatric developmental, behavioural, rehabilitation and mental-health services.
Opened in November 2015 and completed on time and on budget, it consolidated four key programs—autism spectrum disorder, child & youth mental health, developmental pediatrics and prosthetics & orthotics— into a purpose-built, family focused environment.
The four-storey centre features a spacious atrium, abundant natural light, vibrant design and accessible outdoor amenities: a therapeutic playground themed to Hamilton’s industrial heritage, and a 180 m wheeling track for mobility training. It earned LEED Gold status for energy efficiency, waste reduction, low-flow water fixtures and use of recycled/local materials. With over 70,000 annual visits and Canada’s largest prosthetics & orthotics program, the centre boosts both clinical capacity and patient wellbeing.
The structural system of the Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre features a conventional cast-in-place concrete frame with reinforced slabs and columns, ensuring strength and acoustic separation across its four storeys. A major challenge involved designing large, column-free clinical and rehabilitation areas, which required long-span transfer beams and careful load path coordination. The building’s cantilevered elements and central atrium added complexity to the lateral and gravity systems. Additionally, the site’s subsurface conditions necessitated soil improvement beneath the slab-on-grade to avoid the costly and environmentally sensitive removal of large volumes of contaminated soil.
* B van Bussel led the project and was the structural EOR while working with another firm.
