MIDDLESEX-LONDON
EMERGENCY MEDICAL
SERVICES FACILITY
MIDDLESEX-LONDON
EMERGENCY MEDICAL
SERVICES FACILITY
EMERGENCY MEDICAL
SERVICES FACILITY
CLIENT
Middlesex County
LOCATION
London, Ontario
DESIGN TEAM
Architects Tillmann Ruth Robinson
Arthur Lierman Landscape Architecture
AWARD
2019 City of London Urban Design Award of Excellence
The Middlesex-London Emergency Medical Services Facility is located within a light industrial area at the southern end of Adelaide Street that borders Highway 401. The facility’s context and wide-open scale called for dramatic design interventions that would positively contribute to the public realm and instill civic pride.
The vision for the landscape was to be visible and deliberate by amplifying the building’s geometries, smooth angular forms and high-quality finishes. Bold drifts of textural and colourful plants sweep across and anchor the building’s front façade.
Centrally positioned between the building’s two public entrances, an intricate wellness garden, partially enclosed by glazed walls, offers a welcoming vestibule but more importantly provides an outdoor space to assist staff with managing decompression and resilience following traumatic calls. Dappled shadow patterns cast by lacy River Birch trees envelop the garden with seating nestled amidst a variety of understory plants that are calming and fragrant. An expansive naturalized rain garden with indigenous plants anchors the east side landscape near the ambulance garage and station entrance.