Cooksville Medical Building

Location:               250 Dundas, Mississauga

Program:               Medical Building

The Cooksville Medical Arts Centre is a 4 storey 42,000 sq.ft. retail and medical building. The adjacent 2 storey attached parking garage manages the parking for the tight urban site. The retail is centered on the ground floor opening up to the high traffic of Dundas Street.

The punch windows are used throughout to limit energy loss and maintain privacy for the medical suites. The goal was to achieve no more than 40% of the exterior wall as glazed. Areas of curtain wall flow down from above to allow natural light to flood the office areas. The connected parking garage offers a separate access for the employees at the 2nd floor. Composite panels clad the building, and cover the highly insulated exterior walls.

Equipment within the suites in medical office buildings such as this typically release much more heat than an average building. Because of this, cooling becomes a more important concept than heating. Thus, more glazing is located on the North side of the building, than the South. To minimize infiltration and energy loss, sprayfoam was used to insulate the building and reflective windows steer the sunlight away.

The design uses slick metal panels and exposed structure more akin to the disassembly of an aircraft, than a medical building. The attached 2 level parking garage allows access at several levels, while maintaining the parking spots required for a busy medical site.