Institutions
Eden Gardens
With the help of R.W. (Bob) Wall Ltd, the Nanaimo Travellers Lodge Society managed to acquire and re-zone five acres of land, on which to construct the beautiful 128,000 square foot “Eden Gardens”. This being quite possibly the most progressive purpose built dementia care facility in British Columbia. The design reflects the underlying Eden Alternative Philosophy, for both dementia and complex care. The intent being to make it as “home-like” as possible for the 130 residents, their families, and the community to share.
R.W. (Bob) Wall Ltd’s design team came up with evidence-based design principles gathered from available research in the residential health care field. This included lessons learned from Nanaimo Travellers Lodge operations over several decades.
These plans represented a significant departure from the original “institutional” model. This essentially puts the residents in charge of their own lives without compromising their health and safety, allowing them to “age in place”. The wide range of services and facilities include a “daycare” and a “community bathing” program, to help insure those with dementia who are still living at home, and classrooms to train new staff. Obviously the R.W. (Bob) Wall Ltd design team hit another home run with Eden Gardens.
New Hope Centre
The Salvation Army arrived in Nanaimo in 1888. Meetings were held in the City Hall. In 1892 a lot was purchased at the corner of Winfield Crescent, now Nicol Street, the present site of the Salvation Army Citadel. By 2010 Nanaimo’s homeless problem was taking root, and the “Army” decided to do something about it! The adjacent property, accessed from the top of the bluff on Haliburton Street, was the original Nanaimo City Dump. The “Army” hired R.W. (Bob) Wall Ltd to build the New Hope Centre addition. Cleaning up the old dump site wasn’t the hardest part of the job.
The original 1800’s Citadel building was built on “flagstone” foundations (not concrete), a common practice in the 1800’s. This meant special reinforced masonry shear walls were built, and reinforced 8” concrete floors. Thus giving this four storey concrete addition the structural integrity the original building never had.