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Waterloo Region is one of the fastest-growing communities in Canada. Team members, doctors, and volunteers at Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN) provide excellent patient care, but the community has outgrown our aging buildings.
Over the next two decades:
Building a new hospital will create opportunities for stronger research, education, innovation, and technology in local healthcare. We are also:
By working with communities, health system partners, and Ontario Health Teams, we will be empowered to provide care in ways we could not do alone. This includes partnering with WRHN Foundation to make our shared vision a reality. We will design facilities for future generations of community members, healthcare workers, and researchers right here in Kitchener-Waterloo.
WRHN awards contract for Stage 2.1 Design Consulting Services
WRHN’s Redevelopment Team is pleased to announce that the architectural firm HDR, in partnership with KPMB Architects, have been awarded the contract to support the next phase of planning and design for Waterloo Region’s New Hospital, WRHN @ The University.
Waterloo Region’s new hospital building project and redeveloping our current Midtown and Chicopee sites is an important part of a new chapter for health and prosperity in our region as we plan for the future. This next stage builds on the work the Redevelopment Team completed in the Stage 1.3 Functional Program, and, when complete, our Stage 2.1 submission will define the number of floors, building footprint, and overall layout of the new hospital site.
HDR is a globally awarded leader in acute healthcare design, known for delivering large-scale hospital developments and complex, multi-phased projects across Canada and internationally. KPMB is a nationally celebrated design firm with deep expertise in ambulatory care, primary health, and community buildings.
Together, HDR and KPMB have designed and delivered healthcare projects across the world, Canada, and here in Ontario. HDR has been the prime architect of other Ontario hospitals including Humber River Hospital, Etobicoke General Hospital, and, currently, The Ottawa Hospital, among others.
During Stage 2.1 work, HDR and KPMB, guided by the Redevelopment Team, our leaders and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), will use the functional program from Stage 1.3 to further develop block diagrams that outline how all rooms, departments, and services, can be organized in the hospital – both vertically and horizontally.
As a reminder, WRHN submitted our Stage 1.3 Functional Program to the Ministry of Health in June 2025. The Ministry is in the process of reviewing our submission and we have begun responding to their review, which will move the project forward. This Stage 2.1 work will complement our Stage 1.3, as WRHN works through the formal Ministry of Health Capital Planning and Approval process.
Our vision for this project is a Waterloo Region where everyone has access to the highest quality of care, technology, and hospital infrastructure needed to be healthy — now and in the future.
Based on initial conversations with team members, doctors, and community and health system partners, including Cambridge Memorial Hospital and the KW4 Ontario Health Team, we have created a joint vision and submitted it to the government. The vision includes four main parts:
Build a new, state-of-the-art hospital located at David Johnston Research + Technology Park (R&T Park) at the University of Waterloo.
Renovate WRHN @ Midtown as a centre for same-day (ambulatory) and urgent care.
Expand WRHN @ Chicopee to improve and grow rehabilitation services.
Maintain WRHN @ Queen’s Blvd. until 2035, when the programs will be moved to the new hospital.
A detailed road map for this work, called a Master Plan, has been developed to help us:
In April 2022, WRHN’s two former hospitals received a $5 million planning grant from the Government of Ontario. In April 2025, the provincial government invested another $10 million to continue this work. The grants support WRHN as it maps out how to build a new acute care hospital and update and expand its current sites. They will help us find out which services are needed, the best places for them based on changing community needs, and how to complete the project as quickly as possible.
As this project comes together, WRHN will continue to provide high-quality care across all sites.
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joint Submission for Planning Grant | Determining What We Need | Identifying Location, Size and Space | Planning the Building | Construction Begins | Operating New Facilities |
WRHN will engage health system partners, governments, and the local communities at all stages of the planning process. We need government approval to move through the planning stages.
A new acute hospital is a key part of our plan to care for people in Waterloo Region and beyond, now and in the future.
In July 2024, WRHN announced that the David Johnston Research + Technology Park at the University of Waterloo will be the location of Waterloo Region’s new acute hospital. This site will allow us to deepen our partnership with the University of Waterloo to bring education, research, and innovation together with healthcare delivery.
During the site selection process, more than 12,000 community members shared their ideas about what the site should have to meet the communities’ needs. Besides the requirements from the Ontario government, we also heard that the new site should:
The University of Waterloo’s David Johnston Research + Technology Park meets and exceeds these requirements.
After the site was chosen in July, planning for the new hospital facilities began in September 2024.
As part of the site planning due diligence process, architects did a “test-fit” to ensure the building of the new hospital could be accommodated on the site in different phases.
It is important to note that we will engage internal and external partners to decide the final layout of the new hospital. This is a conceptual layout, or first draft, and many elements may change during planning.
Functional programming looks at every program, service, and activity that will be delivered in the new hospital and the resources and space required to deliver those services. This stage helps us understand how the new hospital will work and what spaces it will need.
To do this, 39 WRHN program teams and user groups with over 250 participants met to discuss details such as:
Representatives and subject matter experts also met with healthcare facility planning consultants over three sessions.
The functional program document will provide architects and designers with a clear guide for how the new hospital needs to be designed and built. It was reviewed by each group to make sure it was as detailed and accurate as possible before it was finalized.
The Redevelopment Team began the block designs stage in late January 2025. The goal of this stage is to make sure the hospital building’s layout can hold all the spaces needed to work properly while meeting space standards and rules. It also must fit the budget for building and running the hospital.
This work included three or more user group meetings over a four-month period to help determine:
a proposed project schedule that overviews the anticipated submissions approvals and awards of the various project stages as determined upon with the Ministry of Health and Infrastructure Ontario
The Redevelopment Team submitted the functional program to the Health Capital Investment Branch (HCIB) of the Ministry of Health in June 2025. WRHN is now working with the Ministry for approval to move to the next step called Detailed Planning, which you can learn about at the link below.
Planning a new hospital is about creating the best healing environment possible. One that is person-centred, becomes a part of its surroundings, respects the natural environment, and makes innovation a way of being.
WRHN connected with more than 1,000 community members to create the New Hospital Building Visioning Study. This study will help guide how the hospital is built and shape future planning and guiding documents.
By providing a nurturing environment, we are also creating a place where patients get the best possible care, loved ones and visitors find comfort, and teams continue to learn and grow.
One of the outcomes of our visioning study is the development of a Design Vision, Principles, and Guidelines which provide the basis for how the new hospital should feel and look, ensuring the design of the physical space and the elements within not only meet the objectives of the planning principles above, but also create the best possible environment and experience for patients, teams, and our community
Creating an environment that is welcoming and inclusive, where everyone can access the best health care and innovation is a way of being. It will be a place where patients receive care, their loved ones/visitors find comfort and care and service teams excel. Rooted in our history, designed for today’s needs, and prepared for tomorrow’s challenges, the hospital will promote community well-being and champion environmental sustainability.
We will achieve our design vision by using the following design themes to guide the new hospital’s planning and design.
Waterloo Region is one of the fastest-growing communities in Canada and the community has outgrown our aging buildings.
Over the next two decades:
Building a new hospital will create opportunities for stronger research, education, innovation, and technology in local healthcare. We are also renovating WRHN @ Midtown, expanding WRHN @ Chicopee, and maintaining WRHN @ Queen’s Blvd. until approximately 2035, when programs and services will move to the new hospital.
We are currently in the early planning stages. Below is an overview of key milestones we have reached so far:
These projects have multiple stages of planning and can take 10 years or longer to complete on average. We will continue to provide high-quality care across our sites as we put plans in place to update and expand our hospital buildings and services for the growing community.
Based on our growing population, we expect to add more patient beds and expand our acute (urgent) care, complex continuing care, and rehabilitation programs. Our planning grant helps us figure out:
This project is about creating a regional system of care for Waterloo Region and beyond. Our goal is to make sure patients can get the best, most advanced care when they need it and close to where they live.
Input from the communities we serve is very important as we plan new hospital infrastructure. When choosing the location for the new hospital, we connected with more than 12,000 community members to help decide what the site should have.
In the summer and fall of 2024, we carried out a plan to hear from community members and gather their ideas to help shape the New Hospital Building Vision.
In the fall of 2024, we also reached out to local communities to help us decide on a new name for the merged hospital organization, Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN).
We will continue to offer many opportunities for the community to take part in the planning process and share their input.
In July 2024, our former Hospitals, now WRHN, announced the new hospital will be built on land that is part of the David Johnston Research + Technology Park at the University of Waterloo. Currently, WRHN and the University of Waterloo are working together to plan how to use the land west of Bearinger Road and Hagey Boulevard in Waterloo for the new hospital.
The site was chosen as the preferred location for the new hospital after a 10-month property review process. An independent site selection panel led this process and gathered feedback from over 12,000 community members.
Through this partnership, WRHN and the University of Waterloo will continue to build on years of working together to bring education, innovation, and healthcare delivery closer together than ever before.
A site selection panel was assembled by the boards of our former Hospitals. The panel led an independent and transparent process which evaluated land options and determined a preferred site for the new hospital. The panel’s work was supported by the necessary technical and subject matter expertise and an independent fairness advisor to make the best decision for the community.
The site selection panel made a recommendation on a preferred site for the new hospital to the Building the Future of Care Committee and the boards of our former hospitals, which were responsible for overseeing the project.
On July 22, 2024, our former Hospitals, now WRHN, announced the new hospital will be built on land that is part of the David Johnston Research + Technology Park at the University of Waterloo. This site was chosen because it met and went beyond the site selection requirements. Learn more about the requirements used to identify and evaluate the sites.
Our current hospital sites, WRHN @ Midtown, WRHN @ Queen’s Blvd., and WRHN @ Chicopee, provide excellent patient care, but we have significantly outgrown our aging and outdated buildings.
The current proposal to the Ministry of Health includes plans for an urgent care centre and for ambulatory care services — care that you get without staying overnight in the hospital. This includes an outpatient surgical centre at WRHN @ Midtown and expanded rehabilitation and mental health services at WRHN @ Chicopee.
When current services move to the new hospital and Midtown sites in about 10 years, the future of the WRHN @ Queen’s Blvd. site will be determined through community engagement led by St. Joseph’s Health System.
While we plan for these new and updated hospital facilities, we are also investing in our current sites so we can continue to offer high-quality care.
WRHN provides excellent patient care, but we have outgrown our aging and outdated buildings. WRHN @ Queen’s Blvd. is 100 years old. Due to the building’s age and setup, it is challenging for this site to keep up with growing demand, and it will not be able to meet future needs.
WRHN @ Queen’s Blvd. will continue to provide vital hospital services as WRHN builds the new hospital and updates the Midtown and Chicopee sites to expand capacity and services.
Decisions about the future of the WRHN @ Queen’s Blvd. hospital building will be made through community engagement with WRHN, health system partners, the communities, and the government, led by St. Joseph’s Health System.
Currently, we do not have an estimated cost for the full project. This will be decided later in the capital planning process, as we figure out the size and services of the new hospital and the upgrades needed to improve our existing hospital buildings.
Our former hospitals, now WRHN, began working together in 2020 to plan for the future of hospital-based services in Kitchener-Waterloo as part of the broader healthcare system in Waterloo Region and beyond.
WRHN continues to make the construction of a new hospital in north Waterloo a priority. The new hospital is part of our goal to build a regional system of care that provides services and resources when and where they are needed most, in ways that focus on patients and use resources well.
This includes making sure that our healthcare system, services, and buildings can keep up with the region’s growing population. The population is expected to grow from 600,000 to 923,000 by 2051. This is an increase of 45 per cent, making Waterloo Region one of the fastest growing regions in Ontario.
The hospitals made the decision to work together, along with the communities, health system partners, and Cambridge Memorial Hospital to plan and build healthcare infrastructure for the future.
Before merging to form WRHN, our former hospitals had a long history of partnership, including:
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