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Viridian-installed feature glazing
produces lightly framed views into
and beyond the new garden setting.
Is the original tower building sitting in front
of the hotel a burden or asset?
We wanted to try to maintain this building for
sustainability reasons. We decided to integrate
and use it for extra clinical space. The whole RCH
campus uses several facade systems to allow,
over time, other buildings to be added as opposed
to behaving as one larger, singular building. We
overclad one of the existing buildings because we
didn’t want to have an incongruent relationship
between the new and the old, so we did try and
harmonize those existing buildings into the new.
The front entry building also became important
where we were able to neaten up the front. The
building has got a feeling of a being a much higher
quality drop-off or porte cochere now suitable for
the Larwill Hotel.
How important is the landscape?
You’ll notice a lot of views into the landscape.
We removed side-walls from the rear of the front
entry building to create views into the gardens.
We installed very large glazed panels to again
reinforce visibility beyond the building. The result
opens out, compresses down as a sequence of
spaces. By the time you arrive into the internal
‘street’, there is a whole new connection into the
park anchored by a new large scale child-care center
at that north-east end. The whole entry sequence
is about spatial continuity, simplicity and views
into landscape.