The District of Muskoka has revealed its designs for the redeveloped Fairvern Nursing Home.
At a community information session Thursday night, District officials informed residents of the design process and draft plans for the project.
The new 135,210 square-foot, 160-bed building will be located on Centre Street at Hanes Road in Huntsville. The current designs focus on the “small home” concept, which would prioritize social interaction and have everything a resident needs on a given day within easy walking distance.
Residents would live in units of 13 to 14 people, broken up into rooms for one or two people, with a common washroom, lounge, outside terrace, and dining area in each unit. Two units would form a “neighbourhood” of 27 residents, with two neighbourhoods on each floor.
According to Norm Barrette, Muskoka’s Commissioner of Health Services, the goal is for the new building to feel less clinical than a typical nursing home.
“We wanted the new Fairvern to feel like it was as home-like as possible, where the relationships and how people engage with their home and others was at the centre of the design,” says Barrette. “We wanted not only to have large-scale spaces but numerous smaller spaces that could be used for different functions. We definitely don’t want Fairvern to feel institutional in any way.”
Jeff Yeo, Muskoka’s Director of Facilities and Support Services, says the design would cut travel distances for residents and staff to less than half that of a conventional nursing home, with the furthest resident being no more than 68 metres from the centre of their floor. Yeo adds that the design is more efficient and is expected to save on construction costs.
According to Yeo, the design and approval phase is expected to last until 2022, with a contractor chosen late that year and construction beginning in 2023. The first occupants, he says, will hopefully arrive in 2025. After that time, the old building and the land it sits on will go back to the Ontario government.
An engagement page for updates, questions, volunteer opportunities, and public input on the project has gone live: https://www.engagemuskoka.ca/fairvern