MGA

RONALD MCDONALD
HOUSE BC + YUKON
PRESS KIT
 RONALD MCDONALD
HOUSE BC + YUKON

PRESS KIT

3 Key Features

4 Project Description

5 Project Quotes

6 Building Details

7 Project Team

8 Sustainability

9 Research Material

13 Project Credits

16 Photographs

23 Render/Diagrams

23 Drawings

23 About MGA

23 Media Contact

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 2

 Ronald McDonald House BC (RMHBC) provides a home for BC and Yukon
INTRODUCTION families with children receiving primarily cancer treatment at BC Childrens
Hospital. From the outset, the design team sought to create a solution
that would feel like a home and not a hotel. The architects ambition was
to preserve the nurturing, closely-bonded social connection found in the
former RMHBC 12-family house with the design of this new 73-family facility.
The design focused on inclusiveness and community building spatial
design.

The site, located on the edge of the Hospital, borders a suburban-scale

residential neighbourhood. The architecture bridges the relationship
between the quiet residential fabric and the institutional architecture of
the Hospital. The building forms are intentionally accessible and driven
by modesty, endurance and a warm aesthetic. The architect designed the
facility in iron-spot brick to durably protect a highly innovative structure of
mass timber walls and light wood floor construction. The LEED Gold +
performance of the building is enhanced by a carbon-neutral embodied
footprint.

The design layers space to help families find both solace and community
as they go through one of the most significant and challenging moments
of life with their severely sick child. The design breaks down into four
Houses stitched together with common areas; dining rooms, living rooms
and courtyards to help families adjust to the scale of their new community
of families. Each house provides its own identity, with interior color and
wayfinding devices suitable to the diverse ages and backgrounds of
sick kids from toddlers to teens. An internal ground level house loop
connects all communal areas, from inside to outside to inside again. Space
is arranged to enhance shared-parenting opportunities with courtyards
wrapped with living and dining rooms to contain toddlers and increasingly
independent play space for increasingly older children further from the
heart of the building.

RMH
CONTEXT WITH LINES NO LINES

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 3

PROJECT INFORMATION SIZE

Total: 74,000m2, serving 73 families at a time (2500 families every year)

The fifth largest Ronald McDonald House in the world.

PROGRAM

The massing on the site has been organized to the scale and massing of
the residential neighbourhood by breaking down the overall House into
4 groupings of smaller houses organized around a central courtyard. The
central courtyard is designed as a park within the building and is used as an
outdoor living room for gatherings with all the families and for fundraisers.

SCHEDULE

Construction 2009
Completed July 18, 2014

CONSTRUCTION

The structural system for Ronald McDonald House uses CrossLaminated

Timber (CLT) wall panels with wood I-joists supporting plywood flooring.
Using CLT panels as wall elements provides the gravity and lateral stability
systems in one. As a solid panel product, they have abundant strength
available to accommodate unusual load requirements for most building
types. Although CLT wall panels have been used in Europe for a number of
years in platform construction, this building may be the first to use CLT walls
in a tilt-up, balloon-frame application.

The construction methodology is to lay a series of panels flat on the ground,

attaching beam ledgers as necessary, before tilting the entire assembly up
into position. As solid wood panels are relatively lightweight, wall lengths
of over 10 meters can be erected at once.

Foundation Concrete raft slab

Superstructure Cross Laminated Timber panels

(Douglas Fir) used for exposed
structural roof and wall panels

Floors Engineered Oak Flooring

Curtain Wall Douglas fir glulam

Windows Yellow Cedar wood

Millwork Douglas fir veneer

Furniture Douglas Fir LVL dining tables + benches

Solid Douglas fire coffee tables + tables

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 4


ALPENGLOW
As an underpinning of the design,
the architect wrote and illustrated
a childrens book titled Alpenglow
which metaphorically describes both
the purpose of RMH charities as well
as the organizational principles of
the house architecture. The books
graphics are integrated into the
interiors and the story lives on as
both a gift for fundraising for house
and a poetic guide to RMHBC for
volunteers working for the charity.
MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE
Down in the valley was beautiful meadow
As the spring winds blew the seeds of the meadow
lifted into the sky and drifted off to new homes.
One small adventurous seed drifted a little further and a
little higher than the rest
A warm wind along the mountain side pulled the
little seed ever higher until she finally settled onto
a rocky ridge next to a bird named Luna.
Luna loved the mountains. Each morning she would
fly up to the ridge from the valley below to enjoy the
sunrise.
Each evening she would return to the ridge to see
the sunset and watch the beauty of Alpenglow; that
magic golden light that forms when the sun kisses the
mountain tops good night as the valleys drift into the
moonlight.
Luna named the small seed Alpenglow for that beautiful
light and watched her happily grow on the sunny ridge.
But soon the mountain winds arrived and both Luna and
Alpenglow began to struggle. Alpenglow was cold
and lonely as she struggled to stand. Luna was worried
for the young flower.
Luna thought and thought. What could she do to help
Alpenglow? She descended to a river valley to think.
Dipping her beak in the water a ring of ripples formed
And in that instant Luna had an idea
Returning to the meadow Luna talke`d with Alpenglows
family; the flowers that she came from. They gladly gave
Luna some seeds and off she flew.
Luna planted the seeds in a circle around Alpenglow
And a new family grew around Alpenglow to brace her
from the mountain winds.
But the winds were too ferocious and even her family
were struggling
Luna remembered the rings of water
Luna returned over and over again to the valley until ring
after ring was planted
And the mountaintop slowly transformed
Until the new meadow was finally complete
And in the middle of it all was Alpenglow
With the cold and wind sheltered by so many other
flowers
She was finally safe.
She was warm.
She was strong.
And she grew..
5
 The rings of flowers in Alpenglow are reflected in the conceptual concentric
CONCEPTS rings of the architecture. The rings begin with the sick child and family and
grow spatially; from the individual suites, to the ring of 6 families sharing
each floor of each house, to the ring of 18 families sharing the kitchen and
living room of each house, to the ring of 36 families that bring together
two houses in a shared dining room and finally to the ring of all 73 families
brought together in the central living room and courtyards. Places to retreat
and find quiet family time are complimented by ever larger gathering areas
that ultimately help build community and shared support.

The architect managed a large list of donated materials and services and
designed the building to work with what was offered. Some of these
donations including furniture from Lazy-Boy posed unique challenges to
the cohesiveness of the overall design but were of a value that could not be
ignored.

The architect introduced significant innovations in mass timber architecture

by developing a hybrid CLT wall and TJI floor structure, which is the global
first example of tilt up CLT/ light wood frame creating century plus durability
to keep costs down for the charity. The wood innovations in the project are
important milestones for institutional construction while naturally remaining
a subtext to the profoundly important nature of the service RMH provides
our province.

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 6

 Several parameters in particular led to the development of this new
CONSTRUCTION construction methodology:
METHODOLOGY
1. Durability The project called for a min.100-year building which
requires a structure and cladding that would be built to last. This
demands a high-quality material in construction and informed the
choice of brick veneer for the envelope. A CLT structure has the
strength, dimensional stability and stiffness to carry 4 stories of brick
for a long term solution.

2. Clear Spans - Internally, the layout of shared spaces at main level

required large clear spans. Solid timber panel construction can transfer
loads across open plan areas to facilitate clear spaces at lower levels.

3. Speed of Erection Prefabricated CLT panels and connections were

manufactured off-site and assembled quickly on site which led to a
reduced amount of construction time in comparison to other methods
of construction.

It is hoped that the benefits of this building method speed of erection,

competitive cost and adaptability of use will see it adopted and applied
by the construction sector on an equal footing with existing methods such
as tilt-up precast concrete, steel frame and masonry.

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 7

 PROJECT CREDITS

OFFICIAL CREDIT

MGA | Michael Green Architecture

(project started at mcfarlane green biggar ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN)

Lead Design Architect Michael Green

Architectural Project Team Associates

Justin Bennet, Architect AIBC
Natalie Telewiak, Architect AIBC
Asher DeGroot, Architect AIBC
Mingyuk Chen
Jordan VanDijk, AT AIBC

Design Team
Kristen Jamieson
Nick Foster
Adam Jennings
Seng Tsoi
Jing Xu
c. Susan Scott

Owner Representative Andrew Wade

Structural Engineer Equilibrium Consulting Inc.

Code Consultant GHL Consultants Ltd.

General Contractor ITC Construction Group

Mechanical Engineer AME Consulting Group Ltd.

Electrical Engineer Applied Engineering Solutions

Mechanical Engineer AME Consulting Group Ltd.

Building Envelope RDH Building Engineering Ltd.

Civil Engineer Aplin & Martin Consultants Ltd.

Geotechnical Consultant EXP Services Inc.

Landscape Consultant PWL Partnership Landscape Architects Inc.

Acoustic Consultant BKL Consultants Ltd.

Sustainability Consultant Kane Consulting Partnership

Construction Management ITC Construction Group

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 8

AWARDS

2016 GOVERNOR GENERALS

AWARD IN ARCHITECTURE

2015 AIBC LIEUTENANT

GOVERNORS AWARD IN
ARCHITECTURE MERIT

2015 WOOD DESIGN AWARDS

INSTITUTIONAL WOOD DESIGN
LARGE

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 9

EXTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS

01 MGA_RMH_Ext2_edwhite.jpg 02 MGA_RMH_Ext3_edwhite.jpg

03 MGA_RMH_Ext9_emapeters.jpg 04 MGA_RMH_emapeters_Ext10.jpg

05 MGA_RMH_Ext19_emapeters.jpg 06 MGA_RMH_Ext17_emapeters.jpg

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 10

EXTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS

07 MGA_RMH_Ext4_edwhite.jpg 08 MGA_RMH_Ext1_edwhite.jpg

09 MGA_RMH_Ext8_emapeters.jpg 10 MGA_RMH_Ext6_emapeters.jpg

11 MGA_RMH_Ext5_emapeters.jpg 12 MGA_RMH_Ext16_emapeters.jpg

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 11

INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS

14 MGA_RMH_In2_emapeters.jpg

13 MGA_RMH_In6_emapeters.jpg

15 MGA_RMH_In3_emapeters.jpg

16 MGA_RMH_In10_emapeters.jpg 17 MGA_RMH_In14_emapeters.jpg

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 12

INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS

18 MGA_RMH_In1_emapeters.jpg 19 MGA_RMH_In15_emapeters.jpg

20 MGA_RMH_In18_emapeters.jpg 21 MGA_RMH_In11_emapeters.jpg

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 13

INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS

22 MGA_RMH_emapeters_In30.jpg 23 MGA_RMH_In7_emapeters.jpg

24 MGA_RMH_In9_emapeters.jpg 25 MGA_RMH_In19_emapeters.jpg

26 MGA_RMH_In22_emapeters.jpg 27 MGA_RMH_In23_emapeters.jpg

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 14

DETAIL PHOTOGRAPHS

28 MGA_RMH_Detail1_emapeter.jpg 29 Brick Corner IMG_7559.JPG

30 MGA_RMH_Detail3_emapeter.jpg 31 MGA_RMH_edwhite_Ext5 EDIT.psd 32 MGA_RMH_Detail4_emapeter.jpg

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 15

DRAWINGS

AD
RO
G
RIN

13 1 2

HEATHER STREET
3 3

2 4 2 5 2 4 2

6
3 3
1

8
6 9 10

11
12

12 11

12 11
11 12

11

1 ENTRY
11 2 COURTYARDS
3 KITCHEN
4 DINING
5 LIVING ROOM
6 GAMES ROOM
7 TEEN LOUNGE
11 8 ARTS AND CRAFTS
9 FITNESS
10 MULTI-PURPOSE
11 SUITE
11
12 HOUSE LOUNGE
13 MAGIC ROOM

33 RMH PLAN-PRESENTATION.pdf

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 16

DRAWINGS

34 MGA_RMH_Section Render.tif

35 ALPENGLOW_Story White.jpg

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 17

DIAGRAMS

36 MGA-RMH-diagram-struct.jpg

37 RMH axo - 4 houses.jpg

38 MGA-RMH-section.jpg 39 RMHBC - Massing Diagram Lines.jpg

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 18

DIAGRAMS

40 Ringsof Support - Gibson Light Font.jpg

41 RMH-AXO-EXPLODED-01.ai

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 19

ABOUT MGA

MGA is a mid-sized architecture and interior design firm founded
to pursue unique projects around the globe that spark our
curiosity and fuel our passions for meaning in architecture.
Our projects engage their community with elegance and
simplicity with a singular purpose to meet our clients goals and
shape a positive, healthy experience for our projects inhabitants.
We believe in infusing design projects with rich stories, and
extending that narrative from the interior to the landscape.
We are a multi- discipline practice with a strong interiors team,
landscape designers, graphics and wayfinding designers and
of course architects.
Our goal is to deliver inviting buildings that are a pleasure to
learn, work, live or play in. We aim to contribute to community
through excellence in design and innovation.
Michael Greens advocacy work on Tall Wood Buildings
has included groundbreaking publications and international
lectures. For more information:
Michaels presentation at TED2013:
Why We Should Build Wooden Skyscrapers
The Case for Tall Wood Buildings (2012)
Technical Guide for the Design and Construction
of Tall Wood Buildings in Canada (2014)
MGA is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
604-336-4770

Michael Green and the MGA team have won national and
international design awards for their work in a range of scales --
from tiny retail interiors to multi-phase airport complexes.
Our team members are exceptionally talented, passionate and
as diverse as our projects. Our collective experience shows we
are capable of delivering practical yet unique design solutions
for complex building types that integrate seamlessly with existing
buildings, urban settings and landscapes.

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE 20

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE
63 E CORDOVA ST, VANCOUVER, BC
CANADA,V6A 1K3

TEL +1 (604) 336 4770

EMAIL PRESS@MG-ARCHITECTURE.CA

MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE